Columbus group Black Girl Rising empowers girls with 'love letters'

Tifani Kendrick stood at the podium inside the East High school auditorium Friday morning, her long locs flowing down her shoulders, and started humming.

"Anybody recognize that?" she asked the dozens teenage girls in the audience. A few raised their hands.

Kendrick, the founder of Columbus-based personal development organization D'Light House Family Center, then started to sing the lyrics of "I Am Not My Hair" by singer India.Arie Simpson.

"I am not my hair, I am not my skin. I am the soul that lives within," she sang as the girls clapped along.

Kendrick's brief singing solo was part of a program called "Love Letters for Black Girls," organized by Columbus-based advocacy and social change organization Black Girl Rising.

Founder fran frazier (who prefers that her name be lowercased) asked about 100 women she knew in Columbus to write love letters to Black girls in the city last year following the death of Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old who was shot and killed by a Columbus police officer as she swung a knife to stab a young woman during an altercation outside a foster home where she lived on the city's Southeast Side. Some of those letters have since been compiled into a small book, "Love Letters to Black Girls."

While last year's letter-reading event was held at the Huntington Empowerment Center in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood, frazier decided to expand and host multiple readings this year inside Columbus City Schools buildings, the Kelton House Museum and Garden and three branches of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The series started Thursday and will continue until Sunday.

One of the stops was the Near East Side high school, where eight Black women — including former Columbus City Council member Priscilla Tyson; NACCP Columbus president Nana Watson; and Urban Strings Columbus founder Catherine Willis — read love letters to about 40 girls, the majority of them Black.

Tyson said she got involved with the project because she wants to support Black girls and make sure they know they are loved and cared about.

"These love letters are so important because our girls need to see that they are loved by not only their families, but by Black women in this community," she said.

Letters of affirmation

Beginning Friday's program was East's assistant principal Ivory Hister, who read from one of the letters in the book.

She discussed the violence happening in Columbus and how she is saddened by the response of law enforcement in the city. Hister then went on to say that the community needs to find ways to resolve conflicts without violence and that the death of Black girls like Ma'Khia Bryant should be a wake-up call for the community to unite.

"One way we can triumph with good is for you to share how you feel and let others know about the pain or confusion you are experiencing, especially right now," she said. "The voices of your village want you to know that we are surrounding you with love and support. What having this village means is that Black women in this community have your back."

Fraizer spoke later in the program, saying all girls in the city have gone through a tough time in the past two years due to the killing of Bryant, COVID-19 and struggling with mental health issues. That was why she and the other women involved with Black Girl Rising decided to write the love letters.

"You may think that this is kind of a hokey thing we're doing ... but we are trying to figure out what we can do and say to you to let you know you are not in this by yourself," frazier said. "You don't have to struggle by yourself. You don't even have to succeed by yourself. We are here for you because we care about you, whether you know us or not.

"We just want you to know that there are women, hundreds of women — white, Black, Latinx, Asian, Indian — who care about you, who pray for you every day, send you love every day ... even when you roll your eyes back at us. We are here for you because we see you."

Eleventh grader Kimberly Avila, 16, said the program was inspiring and that she will remember the affirmations said by host LC Johnson, the founder of coworking space Zora's House.

Meanwhile, 10th graders and friends Brelonna Harris and Jordan Dixon enjoyed Kendrick's poetry.

"You can't let other people tear you down," Harris said. "You need to have confidence."

mwalker@dispatch.com

@micah_walker701

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus group Black Girl Rising empowers girls with 'love letters'