Black Girl Times

Our blog offers Black creatives a platform to discuss their experiences and those of southern Black girls and young women (in particular but not exclusively) 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.

Editorial Team

Natalie A. Collier

Editor in chief

Mabel Neal

Deputy Editor

Joecephus Martin

Creative Director

Rose Parkman Marshall

Copy Editor

Jelisa Harvey

Editorial Assistant

Margaree Jackson

Social Media Specialist

Ashlee Kelly

Contributor

Perdita Patrice

Contributor

September 22, 2020

Immigrant Women, Forced Sterilization | Same Song?

A nurse at a private immigration detention center in Georgia blew the whistle on something that sounds right out of a nightmare. Whistleblower Dawn Wooten claims the Irwin County Detention Center she worked at performed an unethical number of hysterectomies on immigrant women in custody. Her claims confirm accounts by detained immigrants at the facility...
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September 18, 2020

‘Winner Take All’ Takes Away Democracy and Hurts the Black Vote

American politics has proven time and again that a presidential candidate has to win more than just the most votes in order to be president. Hillary Clinton lost the presidency in 2016, despite getting more votes than GOP candidate Donald Trump; she beat Trump by nearly 3 million votes that year, winning 48 percent to...
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September 18, 2020

Experiencing the Pandemic Away from Home

for a Spanish translation of this story, see below A few months ago, the whole world practically stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While this pandemic has caused an economic slowdown and generated negative effects all around the world—GDP fall, massive layoffs, rising unemployment rate, drop in consumption, public health crisis, and so on—people have...
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September 9, 2020

Traitors in Ranks: I Am Vanessa Guillén Too

On April 22, 20-year-old Army Spec. Vanessa Guillén disappeared from the Fort Hood Army base, in Killeen, Texas, where she’d been assigned. Photos of Guillén accompanied the news reports, as her mother pleaded for information leading to her daughter’s return. As pictures of Guillén’s last movements were discovered, it was revealed she reported the sexual...
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September 7, 2020

Bondage … in Black

Deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta rests a historical milieu slicing through the lurid white canvas of King Cotton that stretches on for miles. At Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Greenwood, two enormous pecan trees guard the grave of blues legend Robert Johnson. Reputed southern folklore claims Johnson once sold his soul...
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September 5, 2020

#SayHerName and Hers and Hers

According to the Washington Post, which began tracking police shootings in 2015, the cops have killed more than 5,600 people nationwide. Of those, 24 percent were Black Americans (about 1,300) and 247 were women.  Forty-eight of those were Black women. This may sound small, but consider what Marissa Iati, Jennifer Jenkins and Sommer Brugal write...
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September 4, 2020

Sneaky ‘Trigger Event’ Could Boot Mississippi Voters

Whenever commissioners or the secretary of state sends out a piece of mail to a voter’s household, that mail runs the risk of returning, for whatever reason. That return could spell trouble for a legitimate voter ... This amounts to more than one triggering event, and multiple events can put a voter on inactive status...
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August 8, 2020

To School and Home Again: Learning in a World of Covid

Local school districts throughout the south are determined to pull kids back into schools this fall amid a national pandemic, and some parents and teachers are understandably nervous. They have good reason to be anxious. Schools that tentatively pushed their doors open and welcomed students back in late July were already getting hit with Covid...
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July 13, 2020

Casting Lines for Blackfish

As of 2020, there are 3.8 billion social media users worldwide. Of those users,90.4% are millennials, 77.5% are Gen-X, and 48.2% are Boomers. With the vast amount of diverse groups, there is an ever rampant issue of over racism on social media. In a 2019 study, 52% of teenagers said they came across racist hate...
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July 3, 2020

New Policies Needed to Protect Vulnerable Black Population from COVID-19

The news on COVID-19 keeps coming in, and it does not look good for many Southern states. Even low-population Mississippi logged more than 1,000 coronavirus infections in one day in late June, up from a daily average of about 400, which sent state officials into a panic. This bodes badly for Black Americans in these...
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July 1, 2020

Power and Liberation in Creativity

What if we gave ourselves permission to be creative? To dream big and find innovative ways to deliver on those dreams in support of young Black women and girls in the Deep South?In an effort to provide time and space to young Black women and girls in ways that empower them to grow into their...
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June 30, 2020

Five Year Anniversary of Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”

On those silent nights I’ve spent vamping until 2 a.m. during the frightening times of COVID-19, there’s a certain 90s classic by acclaimed southern rap duo OutKast titled “Spottieottiedopalicious” that remains in my Youtube search history for a quick and satisfying calm. Its ornamented production switching between subtle horn lines to psychedelic guitars delivers a...
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June 27, 2020

Pa’ la cultura: Cuban Cultural Promoter Creates Cuban Rap Festival

Havana, Cuba: June 27, 1995 – Rodolfo Rensoli, hip-hop artist, and cultural promoter, nervously prepared for the first–ever Cuban Rap Festival. There had never been a collective space for Cuban hip-hop artists to share their messages to the masses due to earlier government restrictions on the genre. Once the event began, Rensoli was filled with hope. The turnout exceeded his expectations.  Hailing from a family of educators, Rensoli is a firm believer that every human being...
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June 23, 2020

DC Statehood Finally Looking More Likely, Creating up to 300,000 New Black Voters

After untold years of stalling, the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives has finally set a vote for the District of Columbia to have statehood. The move sets the stage for at least 320,000 African-Americans to have democratic representation. “Statehood is the only thing that will put the 700,000 residents of the district of Columbia on equal...
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June 18, 2020

Georgia Democracy Buckles, but Likely Stronger Than Ever 

Democracy was underway in the few states that held primaries this month. In one state, however, it nearly sputtered to a halt.   “We are deeply disturbed by widespread reports of malfunctioning machines, long lines, polling sites that opened late and insufficient numbers of back up paper ballots in Georgia,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director...
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