Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to further theorize BlackCrit to include a deeper focus on the framing idea of Black liberatory fantasy via Afrofuturism. Design/methodology/approach: To develop the theoretical connections, the author revisits their previous scholarship on Black girls' Afrofuturist storytelling practices to elucidate how the…

Though critics have debated the gendered ideologies at work in the ballet book genre, discussion so far has overlooked how race shapes the meanings of such stories and the ways that stereotypes about black females have caused them to be excluded from representation in both the world of classical dance and ballet stories. This essay provides a…

Scholars, educators, writers, and librarians have been calling for richer literary depictions of Black culture since the 1930s. Using a critical content analysis framework with the books "Ada Twist, "Scientist" and "Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut," I discuss how the concepts of fugitivity, fantasy, futurity, and freedom…

Coupling Royster's (2000) conceptual framework of "zamani" with Rosenblatt's (1978) reader response theory, the researcher explores the ways African American women's writings supported, nurtured, and "mentored" the writings of adolescent girls. Findings show that the mentor texts helped in generating ideas for writing, thinking…

The migration of blacks in North America through slavery became united. The population of blacks passed down a tradition of artist through art to native born citizens. The art tradition involved telling stories to each generation in black families. The black culture elevated by tradition created hope to determine their personal freedom to escape…

This review analyzes three new texts about the history and meaning of children's literature: Leonard Marcus's "Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature"; Perry Nodelman's "The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature"; and Rudine Sims Bishop's "Free Within Ourselves: The Development…

In his frequently anthologized short story "The Sky Is Gray," Ernest J. Gaines presents a fictionalized account of a series of events that occurred in 1940s Louisiana when he was a mere boy suffering with a bad toothache. This physical ailment serves as a narrative catalyst, both driving the action and pulling the readers into a world…

This issue of "Classroom Notes Plus" contains descriptions of original, unpublished teaching practices, and of adapted ideas. Under the "Ideas from the Classroom" section, the August 2003 issue (v21 n1) contains the following materials: Reading Poetry with Wright's "Black Boy" (David Fuder); Finding Poetry Lost in Translation (James Penha); "Lord…