updraftplus domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home2/wrdblogo/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114The WRD Department<\/a> welcomed Dr. Elaine Richardson<\/a>, Professor of Literacy Studies from The Ohio State University,<\/a> as part of our ongoing quarterly speakers series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders. Dr. Richardson’s talk was co-sponsored by the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies<\/a> as well as the Department of Women and Gender Studies<\/a> and the Black Cultural Center.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Her talk titled \u201cOur Literacies Matter: Reading the World with Black Girls\u201d was both a preview of her upcoming book under the same name, and an engaging multidimensional presentation that brought together her identities as a performer and scholar in order to have a critical discussion on what it means to have a voice as a young black woman in America.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During her talk, Dr. Richardson opened with a song. She expressed how her research is about herself, her identify, and not knowing who she was. She shares how she internalized a negative image of herself and her language while growing up impoverished in Cleveland, Ohio. Despite her hardship, or even because of it, Dr. Richardson now works as a Professor with the intention of providing young instructors who intend to work in urban environments with the sociopolitical context they need in order to help students succeed. Her highly acclaimed and award-winning book, “PHD to Ph.D: How Education Saved My Life”<\/a> as well as her more scholarly works such as “Hip Hop Literacies”<\/a> have helped her share her story and promote knowledge about the African-American community and their literacy practices. Her latest book, “Our Literacies Matter,” will focus specifically on young black women, centralizing their stories and uplifting their voices.<\/p>\n Dr. Richardson’s talk included a reading of the first chapter of “Our Literacies Matter.” The book centers around her 5 years running The SistahFriends Afterschool Program, a program for black middle school girls which promoted education and granted them a much needed space to discuss what it is like to navigate the world as black women. During her years leading the program, she explains that she learned as much from the girls as she taught. As the girls learned to question the world around them so did she learn from their conversations and time together. The book also included interviews with the mothers, called “Motherludes.” The interview Dr. Richardson read was a powerful account of hardship and perseverance, she concluded her talk with this interview and a statement about the true purpose of her book: to honor black women, their lives, and their literacies.<\/p>\n Dr. Richardson’s talk was dynamic and thought-provoking, leaving many members of the audience touched and inspired. At the end, the Q and A session lasted quite awhile as students and faculty thanked her and shared their own stories about education, life, and language. More information can be found on Elaine Richardson’s website<\/a>, including where to find her books and music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The WRD Department welcomed Dr. Elaine Richardson, Professor of Literacy Studies from The Ohio State University, as part of our ongoing quarterly speakers series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders. Dr. Richardson’s talk was co-sponsored by the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies as well as the Department of Women and Gender Studies and the Black Cultural Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-department-news-events","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Introduction<\/h3>\n
Reading from “Our Literacies Matter”<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h3>\n