The fourth annual Black Girl Magic Conference, intended for Black girls in fourth through eighth grade in Madison, will take place Friday, May 28. It will be held on a virtual platform, but the message and motive of honoring and celebrating young Black girls still stands.
“It’s a celebration of them,” said Rosa Thompson, Founder of the Black Girl Magic Conference. “We had breakout sessions, there was stepping (last year). We talked about the African Diaspora, we talked about mental health. We did collages looking at Black girls in the media and Black women in the media. We had different Black women from the community be our guest speakers.”
Black women from the Madison community will come and speak to Black girls about mental and physical health. This year the focus of the event is providing Black girls the resources and guidance to find their voices.
“This year our conference is the Magic of Youth Activism,” said Thompson. “We really wanted to focus on what could youth do, and what have youth in our broader community already been doing and really connecting them with people.”
The keynote speaker of the conference is Tatiana Washington, Executive Director of 50 Miles More. The event will consist of breakout sessions, a dance class, and a yoga session for participants to engage in. The goal is for Black girls to have fun in a space that will allow them to think about their values and passions.
“We want to show you how to use your voice, how to stand up to stereotypes and defy those stereotypes,” said Thompson. “Madison is not like in Atlanta or New York where you might just see Black women running and being the mayor. You may not have a Black woman teacher at all in your K-12 experience. But we are here and there are so many women in the community who just want to support our girls.”
The conference will be held on a virtual conference platform so participants can engage with each other at tables and in different groups. This space is intended to make Black girls in Madison feel safe and celebrated. The main goal of the event is for Black girls and women in Madison to be in community with one another and have fun.
“We have a conference platform, so the girls will feel like they’re going to a conference and be able to sit at tables with different girls,” said Thompson. “They’ll be able to interact with each other and we’ve made it fun. We recognize that being online is not all that fun all day. So, there’s breaks.”
This event will provide Black girls a space to come, find mentorship, find community with girls their age and have a good time. This space is important because it provides Black girls with space to be themselves and explore positive aspects about their identity. One of the most valuable parts of the conference is the photos from the event that capture cherished memories.
“We also have a virtual photo booth because some of the best things to come out of this is (that) the pictures afterwards capture the joy of the girls,” Thompson said. “We are also giving each one of our MMSD girls t-shirts for the conference. We’ve ordered enough t-shirts for everybody to have one and we just really want them to wear those t-shirts with a sense of pride.”
Black girls in Madison will spend time with each other and older Black women and talk about ways to amplify their voices and support their community. The conference will also have a scavenger hunt and other fun activities throughout the day.
Registration for this year’s conference is open until Friday, May 28, 10 a.m. To find out more information about The Black Girl Magic Conference in Madison, click here.
