Street Fiction and the English/Language Arts

Classroom

Tamika RobinsonDr. DonovanTeaching Young Adult LiteratureMay 2, 2011

What is Street Fiction?o Also called urban

fiction, hip novels, black pulp fiction, ghetto lit, and gangsta lit.

o Literature that reflects urban life and its harsh realities such as drugs, sex, violence.

o Target audience: African Americans from teens to forty-year-olds.

o Readership: working class that live in urban areas similar to those depicted in the books.

What is Street Fiction? The genre began with

The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1966) and Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown (1965)

Street Fiction authors of the 1970s like Iceberg Slim and Donald Giones set the tone for this genre.

Street Fiction reemerged in the 1990s with Omar Tyree’s Flyy Girl (1996) and Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever (1999).

Some novels make connections to the hip- hop culture.

Street Fiction Controversies

Glorifies the negative aspects of urban life Belittles black women and demeans black men Pornographic jacket covers Lacks positive morals Poorly edited

Using Street Fiction in the English Classroom (How)

o Editing texts for grammar, syntax, style, and factual consistency.

o Bridging canonical and contemporary literature.

o Writing different creative forms of the text.

o Publish through new media outlets, book reviews, traditional and street fiction publishing houses.

o Exploring problematic themes and connecting them to society.

Using Street Fiction in the English Classroom (Why)

o Relevancy to urban students.

o Culturally Responsive Teaching: using diversity as an asset.

o Tales act as a caution to young readers.

o There is street fiction geared toward teen audiences with age-appropriate content and messages as well.

o Ultimately, the same critical eye used to assess other literary genres should be used with street fiction.

Street Fiction for Teens

To be a man by Anne SchraffLike a broken doll by Anne SchraffOutrunning the darkness by Anne SchraffStep to this by Nikki CarterRetaliation by Yasmina ShirazThe Bully by Paul LanganJaded by Monica McKayhanThe trouble with a half moon by Danette VigilanteFirst Semester by Cecil R. CrossFast Forward by Celest NorfleetSpin it like that by Chandra R. Taylorand many more...

Sources Agosto, Denise E.; Cottman, Darren T.; Hughes-Hassell, Sandra;

Morris, Vanessa J. . "Street Lit: Flying Off Teen Fiction Bookshelves in Philadelphia Public Libraries. (cover story)." Young Adult Library Services 5.1 (2006): 16-23. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. Web.

Fialkoff, Francine. "Street Lit Takes a Hit." Library Journal Feb. 2006: 8. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. Web.

Hill, M., B. Pérez, and D. Irby. "Street Fiction: What Is It and What Does It Mean for English Teachers? " English Journal  97.3 (2008): 76-81. 

Honig, Megan. "Takin' it to the Street: TEENS AND STREET LIT." Voice of Youth Advocates 31.3 (2008): 207-211. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. Web.

Sources

Johnson, Angela. Sweet, Hereafter. New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2010. Print.

Marcou, Daniel. "Urban Teen | Street Fiction: Urban Fiction Author Interviews, Urban Fiction News, and Urban Fiction Book Reviews." Street Fiction: Urban Fiction Author Interviews, Urban Fiction News and Urban Fiction Book Reviews. Apr. 2007. Web. <http://www.streetfiction.org/category/genres/urban-teen/>.

Marshall, Elizabeth, Staples, Jeanine, and Gibson, Simone. "Ghetto Fabulous: Reading Black Adolescent Femininity in Contemporary Urban Street Fiction." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 53.1 (2009): 28-36. Education Research Complete. EBSCO.

Stairs, Andrea J. "Culturally Responsive Teaching: The Harlem Renaissance in an Urban English Class." English Journal 96.6 (2007): 37-42. Print.