Ward

Exploring urban youth identity: A poem in one or more parts

Maranda Ward, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

Abstract

This symposium featured the textual analysis of a poem. The poem represents the scholarly conversations that inform the theoretical labor supporting my arts-based participatory action research (PAR) dissertation study. The proposed study invites ten urban youth from my arts-based peer education program to reflect on how they negotiate the performance (Conquergood, 1991) of their identities. Reviewing the PAR and youth identity work of other scholars contributes to a deep personal reflection on potential ethical dilemmas surrounding voice, power, and representation. These deep thoughts, ideas, questions, and insights are integrated alongside scholarly work in a poetic format. This reflection borrows Lyon’s (2008) four voices poetic format to illustrate the overlaps and distinctions within and between existing youth identity and PAR scholarship with that of the proposed work.

Read horizontally, the poem performs as a broad conceptualization of youth identity that necessitates further inquiry. Read vertically, the poem interrogates specific tensions confronting youth identities in liminal research and theoretical spaces. A poetic reflection of this sort is significant for aiding in research methodological and analytical decisions. Overlapping voices within the horizontal poem centers my insider-outsider status in youth lives for what it means as I work with, care and write about, learn from, and listen to them. Differing voices between three vertical poems elucidate subjectivities that render distinct conceptualizations of youth identity and their research roles. Reflection—whether poetic or not—is a constructive aide in making sense of the subjectivities that never escape the research process.

Keywords:

poetry, participatory action research, identity