Afro Love: counter-literacies in Brazilian natural hair communities

ABSTRACT This study explores afro hair as a central component of transnational anti-Black and Black-empowering literacy construction. It argues that Black women in São Paulo City, Brazil, constructed Afro Love Counter-Literacies that were Black-empowering by embracing afro hair. Scholarship on Black feminism, racial literacies, and critical literacies guided the narrative analysis. The findings highlight two interworking mechanisms of Afro-Love Counter-Literacies: (1) alfabetização afro, which refers to languaging, caring for, and styling afro hair; and (2) letramento afro, which describes the development of affirmative beliefs about afro hair. Participants drew upon these literacies to (re)read and (re)write the world through an afro-affirming Black feminist lens.