Harvard-Westlake (HW) hosts their third Annual Black Girl Magic Retreat on Apr. 24th at a local home.
The event brought together attendees in a setting designed to encourage interaction and shared experiences. The retreat provided a range of activities stemming from book-mark making, to friendship bracelets, to workshops designed to build trust and confidence throughout one another. There were scheduled sessions for each activity allowing for over 40 girls, grades 9 through 12 to really immerse themselves in the workshops provided.
“HW is a school set on creating a space where students feel appreciated, in doing so they create events like the Black Girl Magic Retreat, to enforce that,” Malia Martin ’29.
“I feel very empowered seeing girls that look just like me, even though we don’t really have that experience in everyday life,” Naomi Rush ’29 said “Having a day where we can come together and embrace our melanin, embrace our blackness, embrace our curly hair, it brings a lot of joy to my heart,” .
Beyond the laughter and activities, students and faculty emphasized the retreat’s importance as a supportive space for Black girls on campus.
“I feel like the importance of this event is just the feeling that our black girls are able to have when we are gathered and able to just be ourselves…Like when ya’ll are walking around here and ya’ll are able to bounce the ball around or just be out in this beautiful fresh air and make bookmarks together and just not have the weight of the world on your shoulders, but when you come here you are able to just be,” Janine Jones, Assistant Head of School for Community and Belonging, said. “It is really important within our broader, more diverse community that you are also simultaneously able to be, the magic that we know black girls are.”
“This space allows me to open up because I am around people that are just like me and are experiencing the same struggles and successes that I am,” Carter Perry ’29 said. The school has thrown events like this every year, continuing to provide spaces for students to participate in activities, connect with peers, and engage in community-building experiences.
