Black Magnolias with Voices

A Forum for Black Girls and Women in the Magnolia State

What does it mean to be a Black girl or woman in Mississippi? According to Mississippi Today, “Every single day, Black women are recreating the narrative of what it means to be a Black woman as they fight against the preconceived notions, unwarranted judgment and degrading labels society has given them”. Jesmyn Ward, a DeLisle, Mississippi native and Professor of English at Tulane University, says, “Black girls are silenced, misunderstood, and underestimated”. Ward is the first woman to win the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction twice. She and other scholars encourage greater classroom and community focus on Black girls’ multiple identities and literacies in a culture that has historically and systemically excluded them from spaces of empowerment. The Magnolia Literacy Project established Black Magnolias with Voices to give Black girls and women in Mississippi an opportunity to address issues important to them and capture life as they experience it.