Made in Community: Black Counterspaces, Critical Consciousness, and the Cultivation of Progressive Masculinities

Abstract

Drawing on narrative inquiry to amplify participants’ voices, this study examines how progressive Black masculinities are cultivated among Black undergraduate men at a predominantly White institution. Drawing on year-long fieldwork at a large Midwestern university, biweekly interviews, participant observation, and artifact analysis with five Black men in a scholarship arts program, the study identifies three interlocking processes. Maternal and communal relationships with Black womxn established early commitments to authenticity and emotional openness. The arts program functioned as a counterspace and community of practice in which progressive masculinities were collectively cultivated. Participants explicitly critiqued patriarchy and affirmed Black womxn’s leadership in campus activism. The findings reconceptualize progressive Black masculinities as communal achievements with implications for counterspace design and student affairs practice.