Black Girl Times - The Lighthouse|Black Girl Projects

Our blog, Black Girl Times, offers Black creatives a platform to discuss their experiences and those of southern Black girls, women (in particular but not exclusively) and gender non-conforming people on The Lighthouse’s website. Through this project, creatives use writing, photography and other mediums to underscore the organization’s mission, further elevating those voices on matters ranging from reproductive justice to music, economic justice to pop culture. Additionally, we share information important to our community and those, likewise, disenfranchised. We proudly say our aim is not to break news–there are people doing that. We want to ensure people in our communities know how the news in traditional media impacts their everyday lives.

Web BGX Zine Summer 2022 spreads

Editorial Team

Natalie A. Collier

Editor in Chief

LaTanya Lane

Managing Editor

Adam Lynch

News Editor

Perdita Patrice

Culture Editor

Sirita Render

Creative Director

Joecephus Martin

Photographer/Videographer

Sarah Jené

Design Assistant

Haile Cole

Contributing Editor

Madison Meeks

Sports Writer

Sykina Butts

Danielle Buckingham

Jammie Garrett

Jessiree Jenkins

Jaylin Jones

Ashlee Kelly

Tysianna Marino

Jeanette Miller

Ste’Aira Thomas

Lighthouse Staff

Contributors

Kia Sullivan

Editorial Assistant

February 2, 2023

How The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Finance Keeps People of Color Poor

Despite its failings, Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs are quickly becoming an essential part of many industries, especially financial services like lending, where large amounts of data need to be processed quickly and fairness is crucial. Yet AI often amplifies and perpetuates human racial biases. In 2018, MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini proved facial recognition programs are...

Aishwarya JaganiFeatured, Tech

February 1, 2023

House Bill Imposes Unelected Judges on Majority-Black City

Hinds County Judicial officers and members of Mississippi’s largest Black metropolitan area are accusing white legislators of circumventing democratically elected judges with state-appointed bureaucrats. The group, which included the Jackson-Branch NAACP, the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Black Women Vote Coalition, among others, announced their opposition this week to House Bill 1020, which expands...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Politics

February 1, 2023

Welcome to February!

Have you noticed your eyes bulging in disbelief as a reaction to grocery store prices lately? 😳 Have you noticed the purchase of eggs becoming a symbol of whether a potential mate is financially abundant enough for you? Have you noticed yourself typing rageful status updates on social media, searching for like-minded friends who are...

The LighthouseWelcome to the New Month

January 27, 2023

How Climate Change Harms Women of Color Across the Globe

The past year saw some of the most devastating climate catastrophes across the globe, from floods in Pakistan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Brazil to droughts in Somalia, Spain, Kenya, China, Ethiopia, Europe and the United States. While climate change affects the entire world, the impact is borne disproportionately along the lines of gender, race,...

Mashael ShahCivil and Human Rights, Featured, Health

January 27, 2023

Black Voices in Miss. Legislature Go Silent Again, 60 Years After the Voting Rights Act

Until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Mississippi government was a race-based totalitarian regime that excluded roughly half its population from democracy. Almost 60 years later, the state remains a democracy in name only, comparable to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also shares traits with Afghanistan, Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and other nations...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Politics

January 26, 2023

Georgia Continues Vicious Race Based Weed Convictions, While “Legalizing” Medicinal Marijuana

Last September, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission (“GAMCC”) unanimously approved medical marijuana licenses for Botanical Sciences and Trulieve Georgia. Georgia is now on its way to profiting off marijuana, despite a deeply entrenched history of criminalizing and penalizing marijuana use, to the detriment of brown and Black communities. In Georgia, possession of one...

C. DreamsCivil and Human Rights, Featured, Law and Order

January 21, 2023

Stubborn Legislators Unlikely to Deliver More than Band-aids to Failing Hospitals

Mississippi legislators, under current Republican leadership, will likely fail to enact lasting solutions for a rash of hospital closures across the state, despite a whopping $3.9 billion revenue surplus. State health officer Dr. Daniel Edney warned senators last November that more than half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals—38—could close, aggravating already poor health conditions in the...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Dollars and Sense, Health, Politics

January 19, 2023

Mississippi’s Parole Board is Singlehandedly Swamping State Prisons

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves’ appointment of Jeffery Belk as chairman of the State Parole Board is costing the state dearly. Belk adopted the role in January, replacing Steven Pickett, who retired late last year. Pickett had worked with the parole board to adhere to legislative intent to reduce the state’s prison population, which was sucking...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Dollars and Sense, Politics, Prison Reform

January 14, 2023

Biden Administration Invests in Jackson Water After Decades of MS Legislative Neglect

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba announced in a Jan. 6 statement that the city of Jackson has managed to nab about $800 million in grants and loans exclusively for upgrades and repairs to its failing water system. “Today, we can finally say after decades of kicking the can of crumbling infrastructure down the road, the stars...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Dollars and Sense, Politics

January 10, 2023

Dept. of Justice installs Powerful Third-Party Manager over Jackson’s Water System

The U.S. Dept. of Justice recently filed an interim proposal for overseeing the City of Jackson’s problematic water system. If approved by a federal court, that proposal appoints an Interim Third-Party Manager (ITPM) with more power than the city’s mayor and council, in some respects. The DOJ proposes U.S. Water Alliance Senior Fellow Edward “Ted”...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Dollars and Sense, Politics

January 1, 2023

Welcome to January!

New Navigation This year we’re going in a direction we haven’t been before. But New Year, New Us isn’t quite the way to describe the changes you’re about to see. Black Girl Times isn’t switching up on y’all. We will continue to provide quality content focused on issues that matter to Black women, femmes, and...

The LighthouseWelcome to the New Month

December 21, 2022

Get into the Holiday Season with These Unique Films

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas movies. On one hand, they are nostalgic time capsules made for reminiscing over holiday seasons past. On the other, they sell heavily saturated cinematic themes featuring a ton of forgettable titles that for years focused on white folks. Thankfully, we’ve seen a recent surplus of holiday films featuring...

Perdita PatriceKeep Watching, Lists, Lists and More Lists, Winter Holidays

December 16, 2022

Farmacy’s Prescription: Sustainable Food Options

As we close in on the holidays, The Lighthouse caught up with Marquitrice Mangham, a woman who recently opened a grocery store, Farmacy Marketplace, in the underserved town of Webb, Miss. Grocery stores are rare in the Delta, which leaves residents in a vast “food desert,” with no access to fresh vegetables and produce. This,...

Adam LynchDollars and Sense, Health, Philanthropy

December 9, 2022

An abolitionist critique of Brittney Griner’s incarceration

The Biden administration orchestrated a swap for 32-year-old American basketball player Brittney Griner this week. Griner got her freedom, and the world got back infamous Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was convicted for exporting anti-aircraft missiles and providing material support to international terrorists. Griner’s crime of carrying vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram...

Nicole FroioCivil and Human Rights, Prison Reform

December 1, 2022

EPA Investigates if Mississippi Withheld Critical Water Infrastructure Funds to State’s Majority-Black Capital

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves fought back against claims the state of Mississippi discriminated against the majority-Black city of Jackson by refusing to spend federal funds on the city’s aging water system. The NAACP recently asked the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate allegations of state deprivation after critical water failures and flooding left thousands of Jackson...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Dollars and Sense, Politics

December 1, 2022

Welcome to December!

Looking for the Good Life will never be as carefree and easy as it used to be. We often allow ourselves to focus too heavily on the things that went wrong throughout the year. Lack of progress. Illnesses. Deaths. Inflation. Recession. The constant longing to return to our old selves and the things we used...

Kamaria SwanWelcome to the New Month

November 30, 2022

Realizing the Impact of the Women in my Life, on My Life

As I grow older and the mist clouding my future begins to evaporate, I get glimpses of my life, and it seems I’m torn between two paths. One is domesticity and traditional womanhood. These are the ideas drilled into my head since I was a child. It has the hallmarks of life with a partner...

Madison MeeksAll in The Family, Black Girls, Care Work, House Matters, Lists, Lists and More Lists

November 25, 2022

Classic White Food for Black People, pt. II

If you missed the holiday cooking of outdated white aggression last week, check out part I here. Now we’re back for the second and final installment with, as I promised last week, Christmas Candle Salad. And, man, is it a doozy. Again, this new holiday horror comes to you from the talented scribes behind vintagerecipecards.com,...

Adam LynchStaff Musings, Whiteness

November 22, 2022

New Report Confirms Police Targeting Black, Latino Kids for Juvenile Arrests

A new report out of Massachusetts reveals the obvious: Black and Latino teens are more likely to be arrested than white teens, and their higher arrest rate is filling the state’s juvenile justice system with a lopsided racial makeup. The report, arising from a 2018 Massachusetts criminal justice reform bill, shows that Black teens are...

Adam LynchCivil and Human Rights, Prison Reform

November 18, 2022

Classic White Food for Black People

Being married to a Black woman and working in an office almost exclusively made up of Black women gives me a unique opportunity. This holiday season, I’m giving the wonderful women of my life a taste of “true America.” I’m not talking about any of this melty-potty, mishmash of gastronomic what-the-hell from every heathen corner...

Adam LynchStaff Musings, Whiteness

November 17, 2022

Book Review: “The Sex Lives of African Women”

About halfway through Jenelle Monae’s song “Screwed,” she begins to chant, “See, if everything is sex, except sex, which is power, you know power is just sex, you screw me and I’ll screw you too.” I thought about this song a lot while I read, “The Sex Lives of African Women” by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah....

Perdita Patrice(Re)Review, Beyond The Cover, Book Reviews, Sex