Abstracts
Abstract
The Big Kids Book Club brings together our perspectives and experiences as Black women and gender nonconforming people engaged in youth work, advocacy, and research; Black feminist cultural production; and Black queer parenting. In this article we center Black queer (and) feminist approaches with interest in how Black queer children’s narratives take us beyond representation and into realms of resignifying and worldmaking. Our roundtable discussions explore what it means to encounter children’s books written with Black queer life in mind and demonstrate a relational reading practice that reads and gathers in Black queer spaces while expanding possibilities for Black life.
Keywords:
- children's literature,
- Black studies,
- gender studies,
- relational readings
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Shaunasea Brown (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Communication Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her current research operates at the intersections of Black women’s arts practices and worldmaking in ways that offer insights into constructions of gender, sexuality, and citizenship. Brown is also the cofounder of the Black Researchers of Southwestern Ontario (BRSO), a network by and for Black research/ers. Email: shbrown@wlu.ca
Mila Mendez (they/them) is a cultural worker, parent, and doctoral candidate in gender, feminist and women’s studies at York University. They were an inaugural research fellow with Ingenium Centre’s Black and African Scientific and Technological Innovations Fellowship and a recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Award. Their current research explores the grounds from which Black feminist queer trans artists in so-called Canada creatively, discursively, and communally respond to contemporary formations of racial capitalism and cisheteropatriarchy. Mila finds joy and grounding in the capaciousness of Black feminisms to show us expansive forms of radical care. Email: milamendez@gmail.com
Juanita Stephen is an assistant professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Critical Studies at the University of Windsor. Her integrated research/creative/community practice is informed by multiple Black feminist traditions and more than seventeen years of direct service and teaching in the field of child and youth care. Her current projects explore and (re)imagine frameworks for teaching and archiving modes of noncarceral care, with particular attention to Black life and methods. She holds a PhD in gender, feminist, and women’s studies from York University and is the founder of The Black CARE Network. Email: juanita.stephen@uwindsor.ca
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