Description

Authors

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz(a) and Shamari Reid(b)
(a) Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; (b) University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

Abstract

Evoking the spirit of Toni Morrison, we were moved to view the work of the scholars in this special issue through the lens we used to frame a class we taught last spring— Black Lives Matter: A Multimodal Journey. The course was centered around Morrison’s notion of the Black Gaze and was designed to specifically ask the question: What becomes possible with regard to Black liberation when we center the Black Gaze? Our approach to the course purposely centered the beauty and brilliance of the Black experience through the work of Black artists, scholars, writers, entrepreneurs, and media producers. Furthermore, we organized our course by what one of our students, Sharina Gordon, called the “pillars” of Blackness (Gordon, 2021): Black Gaze, Black Genius, Black Joy, Black Healing, and Black Love. We found the Pillars of Blackness to be a useful construct as we read the articles in this special issue. In doing so, we highlight how the authors featured in such a timely issue center these pillars and offer them as a guide as we think about where we go next in our collective journey toward Black liberation.