California State University, Monterey Bay welcomed guest speaker Aja Reynolds in a Zoom event titled Who will sing a Black Girl Song on April 7. Reynolds aimed to showcase what she has learned about Black girls throughout her career as a healer, activist, artist and educator.
Reynolds has been an educator for over 15 years, and is now living in Detroit.
She started the event off with a question: “What do you think of when you hear someone say they went to a wake after someone passed away?” She used this to help dive into her presentation.
Through her work as an educator, Reynolds saw how little Black girls are showcased and instead noticed Black men are usually the ones who are typically more successful and have careers.
Reynolds went on to share a poem with attendees, focusing on how Black girls are seen to be invisible. There were some great takeaways from the poem, but one standout line was “Black girls are born stars, already dead when everyone sees them.”
This line in the poem was probably the hardest one to hear because it is sad to say, but the truth lies in another question asked by Reynolds: “What are ways Black girls have been invisible?”
Fourth-year Nyah Edington said “a way Black girls have been invisible to me is the silence of our need for protection and to be valid in our emotions and sensitivity.”
This event was hopefully an eye-opener to see the many difficulties Black girls go through to just be seen as actual human beings. With the help of activists like Reynolds, more can be done to ensure that no one feels invisible.