School does what it can to prepare students for college and career, but it was never designed to meet everyone’s emotional needs. One researcher discovered how easily afterschool programs tailor-made for Black girls can fill some of the gap.
“The Black Girl Magic Crew benefits participants by offering a space wherein Black girls’ perspectives, desires and interests are honored and taken seriously,” says Misha Inniss-Thompson, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. “This is essential as they develop a sense of who they are and how they show up in the world.”
"It is very important that young people have a venue to feel safe in discussing their dreams, fears and aspirations."
Inspired by Monique Couvson, an award-winning author and social justice scholar, Inniss-Thompson created the Black Girl Magic Crew (BGM) afterschool program in Tennessee in 2018 as a field work requirement for her doctoral degree. She recorded the program’s impact on attendees and confirmed that it did indeed provide young Black girls a much-needed dose of psychological safety. She published her peer-reviewed findings (behind a paywall) this year in the Journal of Black Psychology.
Inniss-Thompson says the program fosters mental health and well-being by providing a safe place for Black girls to “show their authentic selves.” The girls in her program, all from an urban middle-class high school with non-white students comprising 42 percent of enrollment, chose the “Black Girl Magic Crew” name. Students also set certain rules for operation, which emphasized the elimination of judgment or cliques. This, said Inniss-Thompson, helped encouraged them to “develop communal bonds, explore their creativity, and develop the language/skills needed to navigate a society where Black girls’ perspectives are often missing from the conversation.”
The program focused on four distinct areas of interest: mental health/wellness, college/career, literacy and art. Students made a point to watch and discuss culturally relevant movies that ask questions of society, including “The Hate U Give,” an adaptation of Angie Thomas’ award-winning exploration of violence targeting the Black community. Participants also investigated literary works such as “Grown” by Tiffany D. Jackson, and “Pet” by Awaeke Emezi.
“These are books with Black girls and Black trans girls in stories and fiction. Books like these allowed us to broach conversations that in everyday context might be challenging to discuss such as, are we experiencing violence and if so, who do we feel is in our corner?” said Inniss-Thompson.
Students also invited professionals to discuss issues such as whether to attend a historically Black college or university in the South or go elsewhere, and how to navigate college once they got there. The group began with bi-weekly meetings but had to convert to weekly Zoom sessions during the Covid pandemic.
Marsy A. Haber, who has worked as a teacher and school-based therapist, and run programs for girls in California, says safe places like this can help girls grow and flourish.
“It is very important that young people have a venue to feel safe in discussing their dreams, fears and aspirations within a supportive environment," said Haber, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California. It is a place where they are not judged or criticized but rather where they can be encouraged to be all they can and want to be."
Inniss-Thompson grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. She says she attended high school with “some of the wealthiest people in the nation,” and was the only Black girl in her graduating class.
Inniss-Thompson has not personally involved herself in the program since 2021, but it continues to operate in her absence. She said she is considering launching similar programs near her new home in central New York.
“Future work will focus on understanding the long-term impact of BGM on Black girls and young women’s sense of self and identity development,” she said in an email.
Programs like this are designed to be duplicated, and Inniss-Thompson offers some suggestions to girls interested in creating a similar program at their own school:
1. Find your people— Connect with Black girls who are looking for a space, and if desired, seek out adults who can help to support its co-creation. When it comes to identifying supportive adults, consider who has served as a consistent ally and someone who honors your ways of knowing and being in the world.
2. Identify your individual and collective goals— As a group, take time to discuss what kind of space you’d like to build and what values, feelings, and desires you’d like to front and center. Consider topics you’d like to discuss in your space, and what guests (e.g., mental health practitioners and career professionals) you want to invite.
3. Remember you are inherently knowledgeable—the prime motivation for the program is to make space to highlight and celebrate Black girl brilliance, complexities and dreams.
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