Cutting Like a Razor: Female Children Address Sexism and Sexuality Through Poetry

Abstract

This article examines data from a qualitative study of hip‐hop literacies in an after‐school community center program. Using a critical literacies theoretical framework, the article analyzes poems by two young Black and Latina females writing about sexuality and sexism. The findings illustrate the power of children’s poetry to disrupt sanctioned classroom writing, name inequities, and encourage social justice. Implications include bridging educational contexts through children’s critical literacies practices, questioning how children are discursively constructed, and reconsidering the topics conventionally silenced and marginalized in classrooms.