The First Black Girl Festival Is Happening, Get Excited

Paula Akpan and Nicole Crenstil have organised a day to celebrate black girl magic.

When friends Paula Akpan and Nicole Crenstil left the Southbank Centre having just watched Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Angela Davies talk at the WOW festival, they were inspired. Having never seen the location so full of beautiful black women, they decided to create the country’s first ever Black Girl festival.

With Black History Month in full swing and a palpable appetite for change, Akpan (who co-founded the I’m Tired project and is (online magazine) gal-dem’s social media editor) and Crenstil (creator of Umasked Women) have created a day-long event celebrating black women past and present.

The best bit? It’s totally free.

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Been nominated (tenk u @livslittle) as one of @the_dots_uk's 100 black creatives making industry history this #blackhistorymonth! You can find the full list in The Dots' bio ? // ? by @yvarne

A post shared by Paula Akpan (@paulaakpan) on Oct 4, 2017 at 8:53am PDT

Akpan told ELLE, ‘This event is important for black British girls because we are so often erased and not considered in wider conversations about sexism and racism when we are affected by both. It’s often left to us to support one another and create spaces to celebrate black womanhood and girlhood.’

Currently full to the brim, complete with waiting list, the event in Shoreditch on the 29th October, will consist of workshops, panels, a marketplace, food stalls and more, and is welcome to black, British women, as well as self-identifying (black) women.

‘We have had responses such as ‘how would you like it if there was a ‘white man festival’?’ The world is a white man festival so miss me with that one,’ explains…

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