Little Divas Girls Program - November 30th & December 7th

The Little Divas girls program continued on with the songwriting process through the end of November, culminating with the girls performing and recording their own original hip-hop song, "Girls Like Us"! On November 30th, the girls came back together and practiced their own separate parts of the song that they had written with their partner or on their own. After a few practice rounds to make sure they had all the lyrics, rhythm, and tempo worked out and they felt comfortable with their parts, the girls took turns going down to the music recording studio at Regent Park Focus and recording their parts with the musical backing track. Each pair or individual was given the opportunity to record a few different takes of their part of the song, either to fix any mistakes they made or to try different styles or tempos or emphasis in their part. The girls did a really great job with the recording process, and also learned a bit about what it is like to record a song in a professional environment like a recording studio. The process also seemed to be exciting for them, and when they got to hear the final product of their song all edited together the next week on December 7th, it made them feel special and empowered to hear their own lyrics and voices in an actual song we could all listen to together! It was a wonderful culmination of the hard work and creativity the girls had put into the creation of the song for the last few weeks.

Alongside the songwriting and recording process, while the other girls were waiting to record their parts, they were learning about a new concept in the Little Divas group - Black girl magic! As always, we started talking about the general concept of Black girl magic, and asked the girls if any of them had heard of this phrase, what they thought it might mean, and how this related to the experience of being a Black girl, as well as other people's perceptions or stereotypes of what a Black girl is "supposed to" be or do.

After thinking about some things that the girls felt make Black girls magical and beautiful, they applied these ideas to themselves and their lives and experiences!

The girls then took these ideas and made them into an art project by bedazzling and decorating shooting stars with their Black girl magic ideas, and polaroids of themselves!

The girls also wrote letters to Black women they looked up to and thought embodied the concept of Black girl magic. Some of the girls wrote to celebrities like Cardi B, and some wrote to members of their families like their beloved grandmother. Learning about Black girl magic while also writing and recording an original song about why "Girls Like Us" embody Black girl magic, was fun, exciting, and empowering for the girls, and I think was a great process that raised their self-esteem and creativity!