Picture this: It’s the weekend right before Valentine’s Day. You’re at Ithaca College’s Klingenstein Lounge, surrounded by people of all ages, shapes, colors, and sizes. It’s a warm and welcoming environment. You hear laughs, see happy tears, lots of smiles, and hugs all around. You began to realize that this is Ithaca College’s 2021 alumna, Eden Strachan, and her ongoing project titled Black Girls Don’t Get Love Book Launch event.
Strachan’s motto, message, and goal for Black Girls Don’t Get Love is: “Using media to turn silence into language and change the way Black women and girls are perceived in society.” When discussing the book and the story that came along with it, Strachan said: “[Black Girls Don’t Get Love] […] a coming-of-age story about a Black high school girl who is struggling with feelings of insecurities due to Eurocentric beauty standards.”
Official Black Girls Don’t Get Love Poster (Photo by Eden Strachan)
Strachan said that as she created this multimedia project, as a Black woman herself, she experienced what her main character, Zoe, was going through, growing up.
“I wanted to create a multimedia project because it was largely based on personal events growing up and kind of feeling like a misfit just because of the way I looked… I wanted to create a story that was accessible to other Black females who have experienced something similar.”
Through the eyes of the main character Zoe, Strachan insisted on making sure to include the famous and self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde, as some of Lorde’s collection of essays/stories inspired Strachan during college.
“Turning silence into language comes from Audre Lorde, who really put into words the things that I at least was experiencing growing up and feeling out of place. I really found comfort in her work, and I took ’turning silence into language’ as a call to action to really bring together a community based on shared experiences and tried to inspire and challenge narratives.”
When bringing Black Girls Don’t Get Love to Ithaca, as Strachan is an IC alumna, Class of 2021, it all started with a promotion shoot in which Strachan and her team reached out to female-identifying students of all colors, shapes, and sizes, including myself, to Ithaca College’s historic African-Latino Society (ALS) Room.
At the promotion shoot, we also had the opportunity to recite a poem by Ashanti Shakespeare, titled “Black Girls Don’t Get Love”, which has such a large impact and is inspirational to the main character, Zoe, and within the book itself. It empowered us, women of color as we felt a connection with the poem and the overall project itself.
Through the assistance of Ithaca College’s UBSU (Ujima Black Student Union), they were able to invite Southside Community Center’s Black Girl Alchemist Group as well as Daraisi Marte, who is the Program Director and Junior Coordinator for Black Girl Alchemist Group, as a whole.
The Black Girl Alchemist Group as well as Marte herself, felt the whole book launch event as inspirational, empowering, and liberating as they are Black women and girls, themselves.
“[…] I was just really happy to see, specifically, we had students or young ladies from Southside Community Center join us and to see them just feel appreciated and celebrated, honored with roses and tiaras when they came to the event, it was just really special to see a community coming together and celebrating Black women and girls.”
Southside Community Center’s Black Girl Alchemist Group. From Left to Right: Ary, Carliee, Avi, TT, Corinna, & Talia (Photo by Daraisi Marte)
Towards the end of our interview, Strachan expressed that even though she and her team have done a promotion shoot, a short film, a website, and a book launch, she excitedly stated how they’re in the process of creating a television series and feature film.
“[…] I’m working on developing a television series and feature film based on the project so I’m very excited about it, very excited to continue to build around this initiative and continue to tell important stories.”
If you would like to learn more about Eden Strachan and her story, her team, the Black Girls Don’t Get Love project, and how to get involved, here’s the website, Instagram, and Strachan’s Instagram.
Check out the interview that was conducted with Eden Strachan above for a more visual aspect of both Black Girls Don’t Get Love, the book launch, and more.
