Black Girl Magic, Community and Celebration in Contemporary American Culture
This article is adapted from the keynote presentation given at BAAS Postgraduate Symposium, 4th December 2021. The ‘Black Girl Magic’ movement is an opportunity both to celebrate what is means to be a Black woman and also challenge the oppressional practices and contemporary issues that affect them and their community. In her 2016 speech at Essence Festival, American filmmaker Ava DuVernay stated that “Black Girl Magic is a rallying call of recognition” and suggested that “embedded in the everyday is a magnificence that is so easy to miss because we’re so mired in the struggle and what society says we are”.[i] Black Girl Magic has created the opportunity to celebrate the heritage and achievements of Black women that are often ignored or rendered invisible within wider Western society. The movement first began on social media in 2013 when Twitter user CaShawn Thompson tweeted that “black girls are magic”. […]