Our Mission
The #SmartBrownGirl book club is widening space for the public to engage with research, theory, and history across a wide-range of backgrounds and knowledge bases.
By pairing texts with historiographical components via reading guides/syllabi and hosting live online group discussions, we allow the public to participate in the type of dialogical reading typically confined within the gates of elite institutions.
Located Online, Focused on the Black Girls in the Forgotten Spaces…
We push to move the conversation outside of meeting Black women in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington DC. We never want our access to say, you must live in or near the most expensive cities in this country to have the full experience with us. We meet them in Natchez, Birmingham, Florence and Grove City.
Without community, there is no liberation...but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist."
Audre Lorde
We offer two reading tracks curated by a group of graduate-level Black women researchers to this end:
Both tracks engage the public in an immersive experience that inspires critical thought via an online class model, and provide the scaffolding necessary to critically engage with academic texts. Our members participate in mid-read discussions via Facebook Group, and have access to a bi-monthly syllabus/reading guide that contains notes on major motifs/themes, questions to facilitate comprehension, links to outside sources journal/news stories relating to reading, dictionary, etc.
JOUELZY
FOUNDER
Jouelzy is a historian, content creator & founder of #SmartBrownGirl, where she curates discussions centered around pop culture trends with a political history lense.
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WHITNEY WEST
COMMUNITY DIRECTOR
Whitney is a speaker and success coach who helps women get unstuck when they feel they have settled in life. She is originally from Arkansas but resides in New Orleans, LA.
Catch her as the host of the podcast, When Whit Happens.
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ASHLEY NICKENS
GRANT RESEARCH LEAD
Ashley is a storysharer and the founder of SISTORIES, an interactive Black Feminist literary magazine and writing workshop. She enjoys fostering community around the historical and contemporary narratives of southern Black femmes. Check out the digital publication to read more of her work..
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KRISTINA MUCKER
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Kristina is the founder of Black Girl Introverted. Originally from West Louisville, KY but currently residing in Portland, OR, she is passionate about reading, uplifting Black women/femmes, utilizing a social justice within an intersectional framework, community organizing and self-care. Catch her creating more content on her bookstagram account, Black Girl Introverted.
Syllabi Cohort
The cohort is a collective of post-graduate Black women who assist with reading selection, organization, and producing syllabi ensuring there is a historiographical component that opens access to all reading tracks to a wide range of knowledge bases.