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E-book
Author Sears, Stephanie D., 1964-

Title Imagining Black womanhood : the negotiation of power and identity within the Girls Empowerment Project / Stephanie D. Sears
Published Albany : State University of New York Press, ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 189 pages)
Contents Girls Empowerment Project -- Controlling "the urban girl" -- GEP's culture of empowerment -- GEP's organizational structure and power matrix -- Africentric womanism meets decent girl femininity -- Dance lessons -- Conclusion : imagining Black womanhood, imagining social change
Summary Imagining Black Womanhood illuminates the experiences of the women and girls of the Girls Empowerment Project, an Africentric, womanist, sigle-sex, after-school program located in one of the Bay Area's largest and most impoverished housing developments. Stephanie D. Sears carefully examines the stakes of the complex negotiations of Black womanhood for both the girls served by the project and for the women who staffed it. Rather than a multigenerational alliance committed to women's and girls' empowerment, the women and girls often appeared to struggle against each other, with the girls' "politics of respect" often in conflict with the staff's "politics of respectability," a conflict especially highlighted in the public contexts of dance performances. This groundbreaking case study offers significant insights into practices of resistance, identity work, youth empowerment, cultural politics, and organizational power
"This book makes an important contribution by focusing on girls of color and an organization devoted to girls of color, exposing the complexities and contradictions that mark the way power, race, and gender become operationalized in practice. Well written and with rich quotes, it's a wonderful read."--Mary P. Sheridan, author of Girls, Feminism, and Grassroots Literacies: Activism in the GirlZone --Book Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Womanism -- United States
African American girls.
Women, Black -- United States
Identity (Philosophical concept)
identity.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Children's Studies.
African American girls
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Womanism
Women, Black
United States
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781441674166
1441674160
143843328X
9781438433288