Overview:
Black Girls Stay Lit is a literacy movement empowering Black adolescent girls through literature, guided discussions, and writing practice. Dr. Tiffany Noelle leads the program with a focus on culturally relevant texts and leadership opportunities.
By Dr. Tiffany Noelle, PhD
Founder, Director & Chief Facilitator
Black Girls Stay Lit (BGSL), a Cincinnati-based in-person and virtual after-school/summer program, is a literacy movement to affirm, support and empower Black adolescent girls and gender-expansive youth.
Following in the Black literary tradition of using story in service of anti-racist education, social justice and Black joy, Black Girls Stay Lit is a literacy movement that uses critical explorations of select African American women’s literature/multimodal texts to interrupt systemic racism and systems that have historically marginalized Black girls. BGSL’s exclusive Liberatory Literacy model combines an evidence-based culturally/gender-specific approach to Black girls’ positive development with a focus on quality literacy instruction and practice that bolsters girls’ cognitive and social-emotional competencies.
Black Girls Stay Lit supports Black girls in connecting with themselves, each other, and caring adults through meaningful conversations around personally relevant, culturally-specific texts and topics that are not traditionally explored in high school classes. In weekly one-hour-long meetings, the program takes a deep dive into select African American women’s literature and texts—print, images, video, social media posts, lyrics, music, and other online media—and create some of our own.
Dr. Tiffany Noelle (nee, Hinton) is the founder, director and lead facilitator of Black Girls Stay Lit. Dr. T., as her students affectionately refer to her, is a trailblazing educator, consultant, and scholar of Black women’s literature and culture(s). With a Ph.D. in English, specializing in Africana Women’s Literary and Cultural Studies, Dr. T. has 20+ years’ experience designing, facilitating and administering educational programs, including 12+ years as a professor of literature, film and writing and two years as director of a college-based writing center.
BGSL is Dr. T’s passion project, which she lovingly designed to immerse Black girls in the transformative power of Black women’s literature as a vehicle for women-centered cultural transmission and sustenance, guidance and uplift. Study after study has shown that Black students are likely to be more engaged and perform better in school when their identities and histories are affirmed—and in ways that go beyond fetishizing Black trauma. Yet, anti-Black and gender bias means many schools fail to provide Black girls with curricula and policies that affirm their intersecting identities and lived-experiences. Dr. T believes “uncompromising educational programming, like Black Girls Stay Lit™, is especially needed by Black girls now, as they confront right-wing fear tactics, distortions and anti-woke propaganda, progressive books banning and the shameless outlawing of classroom instruction about truthful accounts of Black American history, systemic racism, and gender bias.”
Black Girls Stay Lit™ teaches truth, unapologetically. Rooted in Black Women’s history and culture, BGSL defies dominator culture and engenders excellence. Not only can our students see themselves in the stories that they read and give voice to their own experiences in the stories they write, but they also develop the ‘qualities of mind’—oral and written communication skills, critical analysis, empathy, creative problem-solving, and collaboration—which enable them to become commanding speakers, critical readers, innovative writers, shrewd navigators of today’s perilous information environment, and empowered agents of communal development and progress. More than a youth development program, Black Girls Stay Lit™ is a transformative journey of collective self-discovery, empowerment and excellence.
BGSL is currently registering Black adolescent girls and gender-expansive youth, in grades 9-12, for our Spring 2024 program, beginning the week of March 4, 2024 (but may be extended to ensure enrollment minimums are met), as well as for yearly subscriptions (that’s three 10 week-long sessions of Black Girls Stay Lit, one each in spring, summer, and fall 2024).
BGSL offers:
- Weekly One Hour-Long Deep Dives Into Culturally/Gender Relevant Texts and Guided Writing Practice both virtually and at a central Greater Cincinnati location
- Healthy Snacks in Each In-Person BGSL Meeting
- Official Black Girls Stay Lit Swag, Valued at More Than $50
- Curated Culturally/Gender Relevant Books and Reading Materials to Add to Personal Libraries, Valued at More Than $30
- Black Girls Stay Lit Leadership Opportunities
To register or to learn more about BLACK GIRLS STAY LIT, visit blackgirlsstaylit.org.
