About Jameka
Who Am I?
I am an interdisciplinary Black feminist poet and scholar. I am my mother's daughter and my daughters' mother. I am a storyteller and a poet. I describe myself as a storyteller because "stories are the way humans makes sense of their worlds" (Ellis, 2004, p. 32) and I use them in my work to help people better understand the lived experience of Black womanhood.
I am a Black woman who centers Black women and girls in my work.
My work focuses on issues of Black motherhood, popular cultural representations of Black women, child to adult outcomes and stigma. As a former social worker, I am passionate about telling stories that address common misrepresentations about Black women and girls within the US. I was a social worker in a previous time. That clinical experience influences how I view the world and it impacts my scholarly work and undergirds my commitment to social justice. More of my work can be seen in the forthcoming (2022) anthology, Maternal Connections (Demeter Press).
What brought me to this work?
In short, my mother.
In long, I did not see myself or anyone like my mother represented in the research literature when it came to single Black mothers and their children. I couldn't find a black girl quite like me...one who was raised by their mother on the Southern East Coast. I know and recognize that "Blackgirls are not a monolith although we share the twoness and oneness of a raced and gendered identity that carries with it the specific meanings and microaggressions blackgirls live with every day" (Boylorn, 2016, p.49). I wanted to see more black girl stories; more stories of women of color overall. So I'm writing them.
I am an interdisciplinary Black feminist poet and scholar. I am my mother's daughter and my daughters' mother. I am a storyteller and a poet. I describe myself as a storyteller because "stories are the way humans makes sense of their worlds" (Ellis, 2004, p. 32) and I use them in my work to help people better understand the lived experience of Black womanhood.
I am a Black woman who centers Black women and girls in my work.
My work focuses on issues of Black motherhood, popular cultural representations of Black women, child to adult outcomes and stigma. As a former social worker, I am passionate about telling stories that address common misrepresentations about Black women and girls within the US. I was a social worker in a previous time. That clinical experience influences how I view the world and it impacts my scholarly work and undergirds my commitment to social justice. More of my work can be seen in the forthcoming (2022) anthology, Maternal Connections (Demeter Press).
What brought me to this work?
In short, my mother.
In long, I did not see myself or anyone like my mother represented in the research literature when it came to single Black mothers and their children. I couldn't find a black girl quite like me...one who was raised by their mother on the Southern East Coast. I know and recognize that "Blackgirls are not a monolith although we share the twoness and oneness of a raced and gendered identity that carries with it the specific meanings and microaggressions blackgirls live with every day" (Boylorn, 2016, p.49). I wanted to see more black girl stories; more stories of women of color overall. So I'm writing them.
References:
Boylorn, R. M. (2016). On Being at Home with Myself: Blackgirl Autoethnography as Research Praxis. International Review of Qualitative Research 9(1): 44-58.
Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press
Boylorn, R. M. (2016). On Being at Home with Myself: Blackgirl Autoethnography as Research Praxis. International Review of Qualitative Research 9(1): 44-58.
Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press
© Jameka Hartley 2021. All Rights Reserved. | Proudly powered by Weebly