Centering Black Girls and Families' Digital Engagement, Reading (Literacies), Writing, and Interpretation of Multimodal Texts

ABSTRACT In exploring critical practices that center Black girls, families, youth, and communities, along with emancipatory literacies and perspectives, we argue for an intentional focus on understanding the pivotal role of the digital in these spaces. Specifically, in this article, we examine how Black youth (specifically Black girls) engage in, read, write, and interpret various forms of multimodal texts, and how these engagements impact their participation in their homes, schools, and communities. As Black women educators and digital literacy researchers, we emphasize Black girls' brilliance, empowerment, liberation, and joy in creative digital spaces—often overlooked or misunderstood by teachers. These case studies, grounded in multimodal literacies, are crucial when considering how educators can incorporate these insights into their teaching practices in meaningful and emancipatory ways.