Abstract
Black girls live at the nexus of anti-Black racism, heteronormative patriarchy, and capitalism. They are placed in binaries of silent/loud, obedient/disruptive, and sexual/asexual. This research intends to nuance these binaries by integrating creative technologies to capture how affect and tactile motion can describe the full complexities of Black girlhood lived reality. This study explores how Black girl youth ages 18-21 in the southeastern United States affectively interpret their sexuality using tactile braiding of plastic lanyard string to remember their girlhood. It is necessary to locate the ways sexual agency and affirmation manifest when examining the aspects that encroach upon Black girls’ understanding of their bodies, personhood, and sexuality. Stretching how research understands and articulates the everyday lives and sexual embodiments of Black girls, this experimental study seeks to affirm and nuance conversation of sexuality through creative methodology to feel, remember, and explore the dimensions of Black girlhood through the sense of touch.
