ABSTRACT
Tracing a genealogy of critical literacy that pre-dates the mid-20th century, this chapter places the Black literate tradition in conversation with Freirean critical pedagogy, recognizes the pressure critical Indigenous literacies applies to New Literacy Studies, and gestures toward other traditions of criticality that might be brought to bear on considerations of literacy and power. Restorying critical literacy, itself, foregrounds the human agency underlying each literate act, as well as spotlighting the potential for returning future critical literacy practices to those best poised to harness their power – that is young people, whose use of participatory media demands that literacy instruction hold relevance for their lives as readers, as writers, and as activists living through the perils of a 21st century world. The chapter concludes by emphasizing critical literacy’s vast potential, particularly when exercised through the hopes and hashtags of young people, digital organizers whose demands for emancipation echoe Freire’s beautifully crafted word and world, yet resounds with the desires for liberation that have existed, always, in the hearts of the oppressed.
