volume 4 number 1 summer 2017 Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships james c. wadley, phd, editor Lincoln University jeanine staples, edd, guest editor Penn State University Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley Th e Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships (JBSR) is a refereed, interdisciplinary, scholarly inquiry devoted to addressing the epistemological, ontological, and social con- struction of sexual expression and relationships of persons within the African diaspora. Th e journal will be used as a medium to capture the functionality and dysfunctionality of individuals, couples, and families as well as the effi cacy in which relationships are nego- tiated. Th e journal seeks to take into account the transhistorical substrates that subsume behavioral, aff ective, and cognitive functioning of persons of African descent as well as those who educate or clinically serve this important population. For additional informa- tion about the JBSR, you can visit Th eJBSR .com, follow us on twitter @Th eJBSR, like our Facebook page, or review current JBSR trends on LinkedIn. Subscriptions Th e Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships (ISSN 2334- 2668) is published quarterly by the University of Nebraska Press. For current subscription rates please see our website: www .nebraskapress .unl .edu. If ordering by mail, please make checks payable to the University of Nebraska Press and send to Th e University of Nebraska Press 1111 Lincoln Mall Lincoln, NE 68588- 0630 Telephone: 402- 472- 8536 submissions Manuscripts should be prepared in 12- point Times New Roman with 1- inch margins. Notes and apparatus must conform to the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Submissions, saved as Word fi les with a .doc extension, should be sent directly to James C. Wadley at both jwadley @lincoln .edu and ABSC1041 @gmail .com along with an abstract no longer than 100 words. Quantitative, qualitative, and conceptual submissions, as well as book reviews and let- ters to the editor, may address various cultural substrates (e.g., age, race, gender, sexual orientation/identities, ability, spirituality) that intersect or weave themselves in and out of sexual expression, romantic relationships, or friendships. Quantitative manuscripts should not exceed 30 pages total; qualitative manuscripts should not exceed 40 pages. Authors must provide rationale in their cover letter to justify submissions that exceed these ranges. For more specifi c guidelines please see our submission page online under the Journals menu heading on our website: www .nebraskapress .unl .edu. All inquiries on subscription, change of address, advertising, and other business commu- nications should be sent to the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America If you would like to reprint material from JBSR, please query for permission using our on- line form, located under the Journals menu heading on our website: www .nebraskapress .unl .edu. Journal cover and interior design by Shirley Th ornton. Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley editor James C. Wadley, Lincoln University associate editors Twinet Parmer, Central Michigan University Bridgette Peteet, University of Cincinnati editorial board Sheila V. Baldwin, Columbia College Chicago Juan Battle, Graduate Center, City University of New York Fred A. Bonner II, Prairie View A&M University Shanna Broussard, Texas Southern University Crystal Rae Coel, Murray State University Andrea Davis, York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Zupenda Davis- Shine, La Salle University Karen Flynn, University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign Beverly Guy- Sheft all, Spelman College Anita Hawkins, Morgan State University Leah P. Hollis, Morgan State University Larry D. Icard, Temple University George James, Th omas Jeff erson University/Council for Relationships Doreen Loury, Arcadia University Aretha Faye Marbley, Texas Tech University Kenneth Monteiro, San Francisco State University Wilfridah Mucherah, Ball State University Valerie Newsome, National Development & Research Institutes Leon Rouson, Norfolk State University Gregory Seaton, Th e College of New Jersey Jeanine Staples, Penn State University Dionne Stephens, Florida International University Terrell L. Strayhorn, Th e Ohio State University Marlene F. Watson, Drexel University Herukhuti Williams, Goddard College Joseph Youngblood II, Th omas Edison State College ad hoc reviewers Felicia Fisher, University of Houston Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley Contents vii Editor’s Note: Toward Critical and Creative Explorations of the t/Terror Narratives of Black and Brown Girls and Women to Inform Social Justice for Emotional Justice through New Literacies Studies jeanine m. staples 1 First- Person Prayer for Reclaiming the Body martina powell 3 From Invisible, to Ho, to Magic: A Narrative Examination of the Ways Th at Literacies Disenfranchise and Empower Black Girls stephanie anne shelton 25 Black Feminist Literacies: Ungendering, Flesh, and Post- Spillers Epistemologies of Embodied and Emotional Justice samantha pinto 47 Damn, I Love the Strippers!: A Black Feminist Analysis of Rihanna’s “Pour It Up” heidi r. lewis 61 Beyond the Side Eye: Black Women’s Ancestral Anger as a Liberatory Practice julia s. jordan- zachery 83 Beyond Blurred Lines: Black Girls, Urban Teacher Education, and anti- Rape Pedagogy ashley n. woodson and dorinda j. carter andrews 105 Walking through the Dark Forest: Embodied Literacies for Shadow Work in Higher Education and beyond kakali bhattacharya Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley If you are looking for a new publishing partner for an existing journal or if you need a publisher to help you launch a new one, find out why these journals recently chose the University of Nebraska Press. Visit www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/pages/Journals_WhyPublish.aspx to start the conversation. Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley Editor’s Note Toward Critical and Creative Explorations of the t/Terror Narratives of Black and Brown Girls and Women to Inform Social Justice for Emotional Justice through New Literacies Studies t is my pleasure to introduce this special issue of the journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, entitled “Love and Literacies: Criti- Ical Explorations of Black Women’s Race, Gender, and Sexuality Th rough New Literacy Studies.” My idea for this special issue sparked soon aft er the questionable death of Sandra Bland on July 13, 2015. During that time, I felt myself searching for accounts of how Black girls and women experience re- lational and social t/Terrors in schools and society (Staples, 2011, 2012, 2015). My own work had shown me how microaggressive terrors accumulate over time in the lives of girls and women of color as meta- level crises— Terrors— that garner the attention of local and national public discourse (Staples, 2016). As a result, I felt a deep desire to map our lived experiences onto the terrain of violences being accounted for in the historical and contemporary contexts of the United States. I initially attempted to do so through the in- stances of violence highlighted through #BlackLivesMatter movement. Th e #BlackLivesMatter movement, founded by straight and queer Black women, had, by July 2015, garnered international acclaim for drawing broad- based attention to the maltreatment of Black boys and men in various contexts. Th e movement was particularly successful in highlighting state sanctioned violence in schools and society. Prior to Ms. Bland’s suspicious death, however, there were few stories of the pain of Black girls and wom- en. Th e #SayHerName1 movement followed #BlackLivesMatter and was also founded by a group of Black women. Yet, #SayHerName focuses on drawing attention to the equally (and oft en more) heinous experiences of Black girls and women in the same contexts (Savali, 2014). Despite the important role that women of color are playing in initiating Copyright © 2018 James C. Wadley social change, girls and women who are Black and Brown are still, ironical- ly, rendered less visible and less relevant in the fi ght for social justice and equity. Such marginalization and erasures compound the sociocultural and socioemotional consequences of prior and existent experiences with gen- dered and racial aggressions. Understanding the impact that marginaliza- tions, abuses, and erasures have on the abilities of Black and Brown girls and women to develop and construct affi rming, actualizing, emotional, psycho- logical, and physical states of well- being is of dire importance. Th erefore, it is imperative that the voices and experiences of Black and Brown girls and women be further illuminated. While the lives and voices of Black and Brown girls and women are con- currently powerful (Jones- DeWeever, 2009) and vulnerable (Staples, 2016), it is precisely this tension that necessitates understanding deeply how they articulate voice and stories of t/Terror in love and life. Th is can happen through social, cultural, emotional, sexual, and spiritual multimodal inter- actions and expressions. Th ese interactions, expressions, and subsequent artifacts, act as a means of negotiating and managing the complexities of interior life and adverse exterior circumstances. In other words, we might ask, How do Black and Brown girls manage emotional duress, stress, anx- iety, depression, and other destabilizing emotional states in their interior lives through everyday literacy- based engagements? How do their