This week I was invited to an event that made me grateful for my recent moves and made me hopeful for my community.
It was a public pitch event hosted by Black Girls Don't Get Love. Black Girls Don't Get Love is an organization with a brilliant mission: to turn silence into language and to change the way Black women and girls are perceived in the media and in society.
The event was fashioned akin to a Hollywood party. Think of the vibrant red carpet, the dazzling of bright lights and pictures being taken. The talented girls would walk in on a vibrant carpet that was just for them, surrounded by a flurry of colorful balloons just for them. I saw lots of proud parents taking photos of their kids, lost in the moment of an experience that wasn't for professionals or the Hollywood elite. It was for a cohort of young black women who created art they were proud to share.
This pitch event was part of the Black Girls Don't Get Love Film Training Program, a wonderful opportunity for girls of color ages 13-25 to partake in the film production process. These twenty-two participants, coming from around the country, traveled to Syracuse, New York and they received hands-on experience in pre-production, production, and post-production. And now, during this event, they would be standing in front of a panel of judges and an audience of community members to pitch their ideas.
My immediate thought: these girls are brave. I attempted to put myself in their shoes. Can I imagine myself, when I was their age, empowered to pitch my own creative ideas to an auditorium full of strangers? It is no simple feat, and each of these young women did it beautifully.
And this brings me to hope. I had just turned twenty-eight when I realized that I needed to pursue my passions, and that I was at a point in my life that needed a shakeup. But seeing these young ladies from early teens to just finishing college-- creating their own art and having an opportunity to present those ideas-- to say I was impressed would be an understatement.
When we're young, it's easy to hope for these types of events. To wish that older generations would shower and empower us with the opportunities and resources we need to grow. During my master's program at Syracuse University, I couldn't stop thinking about how I didn't have many opportunities to feel creative when I was younger and to flex my passions. I couldn't stop thinking about how programs like the one I was in would be wonderful not just in a university setting, but for those in high school and younger.
Art is beautiful, and we need to encourage younger people to express themselves in their art-- to thrive in it.