What Does Literacy Mean To Me?

Let’s talk about literacy today. Maybe you’re here because you may have seen that I’m a part of the global 30 under 30 list. Maybe you’re here because you’ve searched the internet and found this post. Whatever it is, as a writer and in the wake of this exciting announcement, I’ll share my thoughts around LITERACY!

I try to keep my professional identity and writing identity separate, which after this I’ll continue to do, but out of all the things/awards I’ve won in my short life — 2019 MLK Humanitarian Award, 2019 Early Career Educator Award, and many others — this one takes the cake. Why? Because literacy is what brought me to the field of education, and it has helped me transform the lives of others. It’s what led me to LOVE writing beyond simply teaching reading and writing.

There’s nothing that quite compares to the vastness of what literacy can be. And that’s a good thing. Actually, it’s a great thing. Yet, many tend to put literacy in a tight box. Especially in education. For years, and according to many, literacy has to be measured. It must be tested via writing and multiple choice in standardized tests. Literacy has come to mean that you’ve read a certain amount of books or a certain type of book in the literary book canon. But most of all? Literacy has been dominated by what WHITENESS tells us literacy should be. The dictionary even defines literacy as “the ability to read and write.”

I’m here to challenge all of that.

My Blackness in and of itself is a challenge to the standards of what literacy can and should be. The way I speak and my oration, Black English, comes from the very foundations of literacy. Being literate is how I learned AAVE, which makes me bilingual. My understanding of other literary forms such as movies, TV, and music coupled with my own experiences IS literacy. Beyond simply myself?

Non verbal communication and body language is literacy.

Family stories passed down from generations is literacy.

Literacy is the celebration of multilingualism and languages that aren’t just standard American English in American schools.

Literacy is film. Plays. Movies. Music. Television. And analyzing the experiences and mood within them.

Literacy is critical thinking across literary mediums and moving beyond expectations and norms of dominant groups to come to sociopolitical consciousness.

Literacy is how we bridge the gaps between our communities and our schools via multiple methods of communication.

Literacy is wielding and leveraging your own cultural capital to mobilize your communities.

Literacy is truth and the truth in how we convey our stories and information.

Literacy is how we validate one’s authentic experiences whether told orally, in writing, sign language, Braille, or other forms of communication.

These ideas of literacy is what made me switch from being pre-med student to becoming an educator when I was twenty years old. It was why I maintained the blunt writing style of my debut novel. We have to continuously challenge our ideas of what literacy is “supposed” to be while adding in and celebrating new forms of it. If we constantly impose our narrow, personal expectations of what literacy or great literature should be, how do we expect diversity across literary mediums to flourish?

It’s why I don’t give a damn about negative reviews for my own work and I rarely leave negative reviews on other people’s art. Everyone has their own version/style of what literacy and great storytelling can be. There’s no one right way. And we should seek to celebrate that rather than critique it, while also encouraging/fostering growth and give tips for improvement. THAT’S what literacy is about.