DIY Pedagogy

“DIY” as a creative process comes out of the 1980s Black feminist publishing world, notably Kitchen Table Press, and later in the 1990s queer-feminist punk scene. The work of DIY is characterized by dis-alienation, political intervention, and alternative media through self-publishing (zines, distributed information pamphlets, and independent presses) and collaborative communication (lyrics, art installations, etc.). As a literary scholar I am fascinated by and indebted to this underground textual moment.

Reading:

Gabby Bess, "Alternatives to Alternatives: the Black Grrrls Riot Ignored," Vice (2015)
Ashawnta Jackson, "How Kitchen Table Press Changed Publishing," JStor Daily (2021)
Barbara Smith, "A Press of Our Own Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press," Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies 10.3 (1989): 11-13.

What is DIY Pedagogy?

Creation

My teaching is built on the belief that students are creators who learn not just how to create but the ethics of creation in their projects and engagements. I encourage my students in their work toward creating a more equitable world. My ambition as an instructor is to encourage my students to believe that their thoughts are worth composing and sharing as active members of a conversation: they are the architects, assemblers, designers, makers, and creators of information and ideas.

Versatility

I always tell my students that “DIY” does not mean “Do It Yourself” in the sense of isolated work but rather it means to self-equip the tools needed to enact a creative vision. It is the practice of creating without the aid of professionals and with limited or differently sourced resources.

Collaboration

I equip my students with the tools and confidence to effect positive change in the communities they inhabit. To be in a classroom of individual creators crucially reroutes my position as an instructor; I present myself as a collaborator to my students’ creative process, not an authority meant to evaluate a final product.

DIY is a ... “revolutionary tool because it is one means of empowering society’s most dispossessed people […] we have not been afraid to defy white male logic, which will always tell us ‘no,’ when our hearts and spirit tell us ‘YES!’”

Barbara Smith, Co-Founder of Kitchen Table Press

“It was important that we could do it on our own. It was very important to us that we publish it ourselves. That people of color had done it on our own. It was important to us that women did it.”

Ntozake Shange, Third World Communications

“The whole point of what we were doing was D.I.Y., create it yourself, taking over the means of production for ourselves, and creating something ourselves.”

Allison Wolfe, Bratmobile