inner city teens do read
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"Inner City Teens Do Read: Their Lives Represented in Street Lit" is a presentation that gives a basic introduction to the literary genre called Street Lit.TRANSCRIPT
Inner City Teens Do Read:Their Lives Represented
in Street Lit
Vanessa Irvin Morris, Assistant ProfessorThe iSchool at Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Portions of this work originally presented at the Beyond the Book Conference, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, 2007.
Inner City Teens Do Read by Vanessa Irvin Morris is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.slideshare.net.
Somewhere in a collection near you:
- critical anthologies
- history, timelines
- reference encyclopedias
- poetry
- biography/memoir
- movies
- music
But its biggest impact has been with its fiction…
… as in URBAN FICTION, as in STREET LIT
Hip Hop in Libraries
http://alphabetiks.com/images/misc/hip-hop-4-elements-sm.jpg)
A Connective Lens
“[L]iterary work is to be considered not asdocumentary record of something that exists
or has existed, but as a reformulation of analready formulated reality, which brings into
the world something that did not exist before.” - Lavenne, Renard & Tollett, 2005.
Features of Street Lit
Urban setting inner-city backdrops = “in the da hood”
Fast paced action, events occur in one or two days, typically no more than a few months
Dramatic interpersonal relationships
Underground economy exhibited (street hustling, drug dealing, etc.)
Frequently a story about ‘a day in the life of’
Violence and sex part of story, not focus of story
Female protagonists often focused on acquiring wealth Male protagonists often focused on providing wealth
Stories are “keepin’ it real,” blending of fiction and autobiography; moral undertones or overtones; often genre blends
Ways in which low-income city dwellerschase the “American Dream”
Sister Souljah Omar Tyree Teri Woods
“The Contemporary CLASSICS of STREET LIT”
Renaissance Genre for the Hip Hop Generation
RECURRING THEMES
Protagonist usually young adult Realistic fiction as bildungsromans Signifying serializations Surviving street culture Exposure to cultural history as a source of pride
FORMATS/PACKAGING Genreblending (poetry, lyrics, letters interspersed with prose) Double entendre titles Moral inclinations: dedications, notes, and excerpts
LINGUISTIC PATTERNS African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Latino “Spanglish” Regional dialect Standard English
Textual Features of Street Fiction
Teen Voices (2005-2008):
• age 16: “The stories in all these books are reality and what really happens in the streets.”
• age 16: “They let me know that I’m not the only one in a situation. It’s comforting.”
• age 14: “Because it’s based on how we live, that there are a lot of things going on in the world and we need to be involved.”
• age 18: “It teaches you about life on the streets and the hardships young adults face nowadays.”
• age 16: “They help you realise (sic) you’re not alone in things you go through.”
• age 17: “I like reading it because the stories are realistic and they reflect the things I see in my neighborhood. A lot of the stories show the other path I could have taken and make me appreciative of my life.”
Why are Inner city Teens Reading “Street Lit”?
Library System
Coldest Winter
Ever
True to the Game
Flyy Girl
South
Durham (NC) County Library
22 copies
7 available
12 copies
1 available
19 copies
5 available
Northeast NY Public Library
(Bronx)
30 copies
0 available
17 copies
0 available
11 copies
1 available
West Los Angeles
Public Library
58 copies
0 available
16 copies
2 available
29 copies
8 available
Midwest Chicago Public
Library
124 copies 0 available
42 copies
0 available
80 copies
2 available
Table 1. Circulation cross-section of large public libraries on 12/06/2007.
Circulation Outcomes of The Classics
But it’s not all they read …. they do move on …. up …. And out of Street Lit … eventually.
VJM: Did you read Wifey by Kiki Swinson?
Sandra*: I was reading that! But then … it interfered with my Jane Eyre.
Nadja: Yeah gurl! Did you finish Jane Eyre?
Sandra: Yeah! I really liked that book!
Nadja: Me too!
Both: [begin garbling excitedly about Jane Eyre].
*pseudonym
Teen-Friendly Street Fiction
KaShamba Williamsfor 16 and up
KaShamba Williamsfor 12 - 15
For Ages 13 and up
Teen-Friendly Street Fiction
Angela Johnson
Nicole Bailey-
WilliamsPiri
Thomas
DanaDavidso
nNew!
Walter Dean MyersFor ages 10 and up
Teen-Friendly Street Fiction
Teen-Friendly Urban Fiction Series
KIMANI TRU DRAMA HIGH CHRISTIAN SERIES
Teen-Friendly Urban Fiction Series
Ni Ni SIMONE DENIM DIARIESBABYGIRL DANIELS
Drama High’s website: http://www.dramahigh.com/
Janet McDonald’s website: www.janetmcdonald.com
Kimani Tru’s website: www.kimanitru.com
Learning About Walter Dean Myers: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/myers.html
Street Literature (blog): http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6530172.html
Reading in Color: http://blackteensread2.blogspot.com/
ReShonda Tate Billingsley’s Website: http://www.reshondatatebillingsley.com/book.htm
TeenReads: www.teenreads.com
Urban Fiction Booklist (annotated) for School & Public Libraries: http://vanirvinmorris.com
Miss Domino (blog): http://missdomino.blogspot.com/
Wikipedia Article on Urban Fiction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fiction
Online Resources