News/Research

Lashon Daley's Coming of (R)Age

25 Jun, 2021

Lashon Daley's Coming of (R)Age

BCNM's Lashon Daley published her article on Black girl rage in film and literature journal UChicago Journal of Women and Culture in Society. The article delves into how rage fits into the coming of age experience for Black girlds transitioning into womenhood. Lashon Daley is a PhD in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies with a Designated Emphasis in New Media. She now serves as an Assistant Professor of English and Comparitive Literature at San Diego State University. As a scholar, dancer, storyteller, choreographer, and published author, Lashon thrives on bridging communities together through movement and storytelling.

From the abstract:

The Fits (2015), The Hate U Give (2018), Girlhood (2014), and See You Yesterday (2019) mark a five-year span of contemporary on-screen performances of Black girlhood in the independent, major, international, and small-screen film scenes. In this article, I discuss these films alongside movie posters, a book cover, and casting and music choices in order to pinpoint how Black girls become raged upon by their communities, experience emotional rage as an affective response to violence and trauma, and are promoted as all-the-rage icons. I assert that Black girls do not come of age but rather come of (r)age. As evidence, I define four articulations of rage: to become raged upon, to rage against, to become all the rage, and to become enraged. By identifying coming of (r)age as a new genre for contemporary films about Black girlhood, I trouble existing notions about the mediated representations of Black girls by highlighting rage as an integral part of their survival as they transition into Black women.

Read the full article here!