"Ujima" is a Kiswahili word that means collective work and responsibility. "Brothers of Ujima" presents a unique cultural enrichment program designed to reinforce and bring out the strengths of African American preadolescent and adolescent males. This group counseling program helps young men plan and achieve their future goals…

In African American culture competing value systems shape the definition and value of smartness. This article will explore African American "sayins" as a tool to transmit the counter-hegemonic cultural value of smartness. "Sayins," a facet of the African American oral tradition, are drawn from the deep structures of African…

The first workshop in this series of institutes exploring the legacies of slavery in Virginia sponsored by the Virginia Geographic Alliance took place in Richmond, Virginia, and explored Africanist aesthetic legacies in contemporary culture and performance. In this workshop, the authors were specifically interested in pursuing the intersecting…

African American English has a rich oral tradition, with identifiable features across all 5 systems of language--phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. This is an investigation of the extent to which pragmatic features of African American oral storytelling traditions are apparent in the written stories of African American…

This article explored the role of hair in Sylviane Diouf's "Bintou's Braids" and focused on the impact of hair as a cultural signifier on girls and the curriculum. The article examined the ability of this children's text to address female beauty standards and suggests the use of literary techniques, such as reader's theatre, to recognize…

This book explores a profoundly negative narrative about legally segregated schools in the United States being "inherently inferior" compared to their white counterparts. However, there are overwhelmingly positive counter-memories of these schools as "good and valued" among former students, teachers, and community members.…

In this article, I document a series of pedagogical responses in my high school instrumental music classroom following the events of Eric Garner's murder in New York City. Foregrounding traditions of black radical politics and aesthetics originating with the Black Power Movement in the 1960s, I explore their implications for classroom practice in…

An effective teacher recognizes that their students may have different learning styles, which might call for the teacher to differentiate the lesson. A large reason why hip-hop culture is so attractive is that it appeals to the auditory, visual, and the kinesthetic (movement). It is our assertion that educators must do a better job at learning…

Cultural factors such as health care access and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptom interpretations have been proposed as impacting delayed diagnosis and treatment for African American children with ASD. A qualitative study of urban African American families caring for their child with autism was conducted with 24 family members and 28 ASD…

Starting from the premise that Paulo Freire's capacity for hope in the face of personal struggle and exile issued from his spirituality, this paper examines Freire's spirituality through the lens of Michael Dantley's concept of critical spirituality. The concept of spirituality as discussed in the literature is explored, followed by an explication…

Hip-Hop-Based Education (HHBE) has resulted in many positive educational outcomes, ranging from teaching academic skills to teaching critical reflection at secondary levels. Given what HHBE initiatives have accomplished, it is troubling that there is an absence of attention to these methods in education programs for elementary and early childhood…

Over time, research has suggested there are sometimes tensions arising from differences in the way African Americans and Black Caribbean immigrants in the United States perceive each other as part of the African diaspora. In this autoethnographic study, I explore personal experiences with cross-cultural misperceptions between Black female students…

This study explores how race influenced African American men's interpersonal relationships with other men at a predominantly White institution. The use of both semi-structured and photo-elicitation interview formats provided participants an opportunity to reflect on their precollege experiences, identity, and relationships. Two categories emerged…

In this article, the social imagination of community-based sites of urban resistance enable out-of-school literacy practices in Black popular culture to foreground the contemporary context in which youth empowerment is nurtured in out-of-school learning settings. Second, the author chronicles how youth advocates in hip-hop--based community…

Using a critical race lens, this narrative study employs a focus group design to explore the intersections between black males, hip hop culture and schooling experiences. To provide a sociocultural grounding, this study first reviews the research literature around hip hop culture.s sociocultural development and its impact as a culture force that…