Reading and Writing Womanist Poetic Prose

Abstract

Poetic prose—a creative, novel, qualitative technique developed by the author—is used to present in a multivocal, interactive, and interwoven style the findings of in-depth, thematic interviews with 12 African American mothers with deaf daughters. This style of interweaving the voices of participants in a creative prose is indicative of African American cultural and oral tradition. It permits and deepens the reader’s ability to emotionally and spiritually connect with experiences and emotions of African American mothers with deaf daughters. Womanism/Black feminism offers a powerful conceptual framework for organizing and evoking these experiences of women as mothers and girls as daughters.