Welcome Holy Black Girls!

Dear Daddy, Today you would have been 60. What a milestone year and how unfortunate it is that you are not here to celebrate. I still have difficulty grasping that life can end so soon. A few days ago randomly I remembered your hands. I pulled from my memory their exact look, sound, and feel. It’s amazing how holding your hand through memory felt so real. Maybe this was life’s way of telling me you are still right here beside me guiding me and helping me make the best decisions. This year has been pretty rough without you. Lavette’s right this year you would have crowned me your biggest come up yet (lmao) or maybe you would be confused by my “all that schooling, but not a millionaire” status. Despite it all I know you are extremely proud of me. This is a big milestone year for us both with you turning 60 and me 30, so I’ll have to do it big in your honor. But of course I was going to do that anyway. I miss your laughter and your ability to make us all laugh with ...

"Don't nobody got no holy, everybody got an iPhone" Noname, Prayer Song  My dissertation allowed me to spend a lot of time with the word holy particularly as it relates to Black girls. Holy and holiness was not a foreign topic to me as I grew up in Christianity and holiness is the ultimate goal because as the old folks would say "holiness is right." The bible instructs us to be holy just as the Savior is. I even grew up in a Holiness Baptist church, which further pointed to the  significance of holy/ being holy. In my research I thought about what holiness means for the Black girls I organized and still organize with in SOLHOT. An untrained person might believe that my connection of holy/holiness and Black girls is an odd comparison to make. Sacred and secular are disparate. But, for me it's never been more true and pure to think through Black girlhood subjectivity using a sacred lens.Thinking of Black girls and Black girlhood as holy means that we reorie...