Title of Document: CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE POETRY: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENT GIRL POETS.

In this phenomenological study, I explore the lived experience of African American adolescent girl poets in an organized poetry group in their school. My research question unfolds, “What is the lived experience of writing poetry to uncover the power for African American adolescent girls to name who they really are? ” My exploration calls upon the works of such phenomenologists as Edward Casey, John O’Donohue, Michael D. Levin and Martin Heidegger. My study is further augmented by Black feminists scholars and writers such as Patricia Hill Collins, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston. Furthermore, Max van Manen provides a research guide pedagogically on this journey, alongside culturally responsive educators such as Gloria Ladson Billings and Jacqueline Jordan Irvine. The paths, thoughts, and meanings of phenomenology and poetry danced through, between and alongside one another. Poetic Eight is what the African American adolescent poets of my study have named themselves. The eight poets ’ names are brought forth by their external identities, lived experiences and cultural collective as African American adolescen