Charis welcomes Tamara Winfrey Harris in conversation with Hannah Eko for a celebration of Winfrey Harris' empowering, affirming love letter, Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters on Stepping Into Your Power.

"Dear Dope Black Girl, You don't know me, but I know you. I know you because I am you! We are magic, light, and stars in the universe." So begins a letter that Tamara Winfrey Harris received as part of her Letters to Black Girls project, where she asked Black women to write honest, open, and inspiring letters of support to young Black girls aged thirteen to twenty-one. Her call went viral, resulting in a hundred personal letters from Black women around the globe that cover topics such as identity, self-love, parents, violence, grief, mental health, sex, and sexuality.  

In Dear Black Girl, Winfrey Harris organizes a selection of these letters, providing "a balm for the wounds of anti-Black-girlness" and modeling how Black women can nurture future generations. Each chapter ends with a prompt encouraging girls to write a letter to themselves, teaching the art of self-love and self-nurturing. Winfrey Harris' first book, The Sisters Are Alright, explored how Black women must often fight and stumble their way into alrightness after adulthood. Dear Black Girl continues this work by delivering pro-Black, feminist, LGBTQ+ positive, and body positive messages for Black women-to-be--and for the girl who still lives inside every Black woman who still needs reminding sometimes that she is alright.

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage

We will be archiving this event and adding closed captioning as soon as possible after airing so that it will be accessible to deaf and HOH people. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we begin this new way of connecting across distances.

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

Tamara Winfrey Harris' writing on race and gender has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Bitch, and other media. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, and Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power.

HANNAH EKO is a Black-Nigerian writer, teaching artist, and creator of honeyknife, llc. Born in London, she grew up in Southern California and has lived on both sides of the ocean and some rivers in between. Her work has been featured in Buzzfeed, Bust, b*tch, make/shift, and Aster(ix) magazines. She is a 2019 recipient of the Advancing Black Arts Grant, a Peter R. Taylor Kenyon Fellow, Tin House Scholar, and VONA (Voices Of Our Nations) alum.  She believes honey is the knife.

Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters on Stepping Into Your Power--Tamara Winfrey Harris in conversation with Hannah Eko