H.Y.P.E. (Homewood Youth-Powered and Engaged) Media: Empower Youth to Change Their Community’s Narrative

Abstract

This paper evaluates how disruption impacts community-building and the learning process within the context of black girlhood. While delving into the complexities of black girls utilizing digital literacies in order to cultivate a community system that affirms their place of being in the world, I seek to understand how black girls can adapt to their surroundings when attempting to maintain their existence while they are faced with constant opposing forces. Through traditional means of ethnographic research such as conducting interviews, taking note of observations, keeping documentation as well as utilizing teacher-research methodologies and receiving direct data from the participants themselves, this paper highlights how one group of Black girls communicate their thoughts and ideas about their experiences in order to facilitate change.