Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag

Twenty-First-Century Acts of Self-Definition

Julia S. Jordan-Zachery, Duchess Harris

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780816539536
• eBook ISBN: 9780816540464
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Hashtag or trademark, personal or collective expression, #BlackGirlMagic is an articulation of the resolve of Black women and girls to triumph in the face of structural oppressions. The online life of #BlackGirlMagic insists on the visibility of Black women and girls as aspirational figures. But while the notion of Black girl magic spreads in cyberspace, the question remains: how is Black girl magic experienced offline?

The essays in this volume move us beyond social media. They offer critical analyses and representations of the multiplicities of Black femmes', girls', and women's lived experiences. Together the chapters demonstrate how Black girl magic is embodied by four elements enacted both on- and offline: building community, challenging dehumanizing representations, increasing visibility, and offering restorative justice for violence.

Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag shows how Black girls and women foster community, counter invisibility, engage in restorative acts, and create spaces for freedom. Intersectional and interdisciplinary, the contributions in this volume bridge generations and collectively push the boundaries of Black feminist thought.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction. We Are Magic AND We Are Real: Exploring the Politics of Black Femmes, Girls, and Women’s Self-Articulation
• 1. Movement Makers: A Historical Analysis of Black Women’s Magic in Social Movement Formation
• 2. “I Can Only Do Me”: African American, Caribbean American, and West African Girls’ Transnational Nature of Self-Articulation
• 3. Identity in Formation: Black Girl Critical Literacies in Independent Schools
• 4. What We Know and How We Know It? Defining Black Girlhood Spirituality
• 5. Conjuring Ghosts: Black Girlhood Hauntings and Speculative Performances of Reappearances
• 6. What Does #BlackGirlMagic Look Like? The Aesthetics of Black Women’s Afropunk Citizenship
• 7. Daughter ⇄ Mother: An Intergenerational Conversation on the Meaning of #BlackGirlMagic
• Afterword: BlackGirlMagic Is Real
• Contributors
• Index