When the idea for Black Girls Gather (A Book Club) first came to us, it wasn’t much more than a thought. Between a few words that quickly formed into sentences, we imagined the possibility of having a space where young women, just like us, could sit together, exchange with one another and pond over the stories so eloquently laid out by the black women that came before them.
Women like Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Ibi Zoboi and Renée Watson whom without even entering the realm of our classrooms were able to give a space to our blackness: allow it to stretch itself beyond societal boundaries, grasp the individuality of all our experiences and embrace the culture of our people. These authors gifted us with a voice, a narrative, a world where black girls grew into black women and learned to express all the joys, pains, loves and losses attached to their existence.
We created this book club to share this gift with all the black girls who within their own world feel misunderstood. Whether it be growing up in white spaces or within our own communities, our identity is more often than not reduced to our blackness and as so, we feel erased. Through Black Girls Gather (A Book Club), we hope to celebrate black girls, recognize their perspective and empower them so they can realize, without a shadow of doubt, that they are more than enough.
To our black girls,
We welcome you, celebrate you and hope you experience all the black girl joy this world has to offer.
Love always,
WIBCA’s Black Girls Gather Team