Resilience in Selected Poems by Aja Monet
A Black Feminist Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26750/5hjsnh12Keywords:
Aja Monet, Black Feminist Theory, Grow, Refuge, Resilience.Abstract
This study delves into the resilience of Black women through an analysis of Aja Monet’s poetry, focusing on her poems “Refuge” and “Grow” from the collection The Black Unicorn Sings (2010). Grounded in Black Feminist Theory, the research explores how Monet portrays Black women’s experiences, struggles, and triumphs, highlighting their resilience in the face of intersecting systems of oppression. Through vivid imagery and metaphor, Monet’s poetry illuminates the internal battles and external pressures Black women face, emphasizing their unwavering spirit and forms of resistance. Drawing on resilience concepts within Black Feminist Thought, the study showcases how Black women navigate and challenge oppressive structures, reclaiming agency for their identities and narratives. By focusing on the voices of Black women authors like Monet, the research enriches the literary canon with diverse voices and catalyzes critical discourse on literature, feminism, social justice, and cultural diversity while advocating for equitable representation across all facets of literary expression. This is accomplished through an analysis of two poems by Aja Monet through the lens of Black Feminist Theory, with a focus on resilience.
References
ALINIA, M. 2015. On Black feminist thought: Thinking oppression and resistance through intersectional paradigm. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38, 2334-2340.
ANBURAJ, G. & MANGAYARKARASI, T. 2021. Black Feminist Thought–The Importance of Self Definition. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology, 6365-6371.
APA. 2014. Resilience [Online]. American Psychological Association. Available: https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience [Accessed 18/3/ 2024].
AUBREY, J. S. 2006. Exposure to sexually objectifying media and body self-perceptions among college women: An examination of the selective exposure hypothesis and the role of moderating variables. Sex Roles, 55, 159-172.
BONANNO, G. A., GALEA, S., BUCCIARELLI, A. & VLAHOV, D. 2006. Psychological resilience after disaster: New York City in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attack. Psychological science, 17, 181-186.
BREWER, R. M. 2020. Black feminism and womanism. Companion to feminist studies, 91-104.
BUZZANELL, P. M. 2021. Designing feminist resilience. Reflections on feminist communication and media scholarship. Routledge.
CALHOUN, L. G. & TEDESCHI, R. G. 2014. The foundations of posttraumatic growth: An expanded framework. Handbook of posttraumatic growth. Routledge.
CHANCE, N. L. 2022. Resilient leadership: A phenomenological exploration into how Black women in higher education leadership navigate cultural adversity. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 62, 44-78.
COLLINS, P. 1993. Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination. Ch. Lemert (Ed.), Social Theory. The Multicultural and Classic Readings, Boulder etc.(Westview Press) 1993, pp. 615-625.
COLLINS, P. H. 2019. The difference that power makes: Intersectionality and participatory democracy. The Palgrave handbook of intersectionality in public policy, 167-192.
COLLINS, P. H. 2022. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, routledge.
CRENSHAW, K. 2013. Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. Feminist legal theories. Routledge.
FEAGIN, J. R. & DUCEY, K. 2018. Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations, Routledge.
FOX, T. 2001. Race and collective resistance. Insurrections: Approaches to resistance in composition studies, 71-86.
FREDRICKSON, B. L. & ROBERTS, T.-A. 1997. Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women's Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206.
GOODKIND, S., BRINKMAN, B. G. & ELLIOTT, K. 2020. Redefining resilience and reframing resistance: Empowerment programming with Black girls to address societal inequities. Behavioral Medicine, 46, 317-329.
HAIRSTON, K. R. 2008. Dehumanization of the black American female: An American/Hawaiian experience. Spaces for Difference: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1.
HEGDE, R. S. 1996. Narratives of silence: Rethinking gender, agency, and power from the communication experiences of battered women in South India. Communication Studies, 47, 303-317.
JENKINS, A. 2005. Creativity and resilience in the African American experience. The Humanistic Psychologist, 33, 25-32.
LARSON, G. E., HIGHFILL-MCROY, R. M. & BOOTH-KEWLEY, S. 2008. Psychiatric Diagnoses in Historic and Contemporary Military Cohorts: Combat Deployment and the Healthy Warrior Effect. American Journal of Epidemiology, 167, 1269-1276.
MAKAMA, R., HELMAN, R., TITI, N. & DAY, S. 2019. The danger of a single feminist narrative: African-centred decolonial feminism for Black men. Agenda, 33, 61-69.
MASTEN, A. S. 2011. Resilience in children threatened by extreme adversity: Frameworks for research, practice, and translational synergy. Development and psychopathology, 23, 493-506.
MATANDELA, M. 2017. Redefining Black Consciousness and resistance: The intersection of Black Consciousness and Black feminist thought. Agenda, 31, 10-28.
MCKINLEY, N. M. & HYDE, J. S. 1996. The objectified body consciousness scale: Development and validation. Psychology of women quarterly, 20, 181-215.
MEIER, E. P. & GRAY, J. 2014. Facebook photo activity associated with body image disturbance in adolescent girls. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 17, 199-206.
MELONAS, D. R. 2021. “Hey Mama;”“Dear Sister;”“Sister Love”: Black women’s healing and radical self-care through epistolary work. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 42, 38-57.
MONET, A. 2010. The Black Unicorn Sings, New York, Penmanship Books.
OCRAN, K. K. 2021. Aloof: Black Divas of Refusal.
ORTEGA-WILLIAMS, A. & HARDEN, T. 2022. Anti-Black racism and historical trauma: Pushing the positive youth development paradigm. Youth & Society, 54, 662-684.
SOTERO, M. 2006. A conceptual model of historical trauma: Implications for public health practice and research. Journal of health disparities research and practice, 1, 93-108.
SOUTHWICK, S. M., BONANNO, G. A., MASTEN, A. S., PANTER-BRICK, C. & YEHUDA, R. 2014. Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: interdisciplinary perspectives. European journal of psychotraumatology, 5, 25338.
TATE, C. & OLSEN, T. 2023. Black women writers at work, Chicago, IL, Haymarket Books Chicago, IL.
TAYLOR, U. 1998. The historical evolution of Black Feminist Theory and praxis. Journal of Black Studies, 29, 234-253.
ZONICLE, A. E. 2022. The Invisibility of Vulnerability: A Phenomenological Investigation of Black women’s Experiences of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Howard University.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of University of Raparin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
