Feature Article
“You Don't Have to Claim Her”
Reconstructing Black Femininity Through Critical Hip-Hop Literacy
Lauren Leigh Kelly,
Lauren Leigh Kelly
Search for more papers by this authorLauren Leigh Kelly,
Lauren Leigh Kelly
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This article explores the ways in which females who identify with hip-hop often develop and construct their identities in relation to media representations of blackness and femininity in hip-hop music and culture. In order for educators to support female students in constructing identities of empowerment and agency, they should be willing and able to engage with hip-hop texts in the classroom. The use of critical hip-hop literacies can create spaces for discussions of power and identity that provide young people with culturally relevant tools for disrupting a system that maintains the silence and marginalization of young black girls.
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