Books & Books presents…

An Evening with Tamara Winfrey Harris

In conversation with Patrice Grell Yursik

Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters on Stepping Into Your Power

Friday, March 19, 6pm EST

On INSTAGRAM LIVE

TUNE IN HERE

“Dear Black Girl is the empowering, affirming love letter our girls need in order to thrive in a world that does not always protect, nurture, or celebrate us. This collection of Black women’s voices… is a must-read, not only for Black girls, but for everyone who cares about Black girls, and for Black women whose inner-Black girl could use some healing.” – Tarana Burke, Founder of the ‘Me Too’ Movement

“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’s The Sisters Are Alright explores 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.

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About the Author:

Tamara Winfrey Harris is the author of The Sisters Are Alright, which won several awards, including the Harlem Book Fair’s Phillis Wheatley Award. Her work also appears in the books The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery and The Lemonade Reader: Beyoncé, Black Feminism and Spirituality, as well as in publications such as the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, Ebony, the American Prospect, and Ms. magazine. She is also vice president of community leadership and effective philanthropy at the Central Indiana Community Foundation.

About the Moderator:

Founder of Afrobella®. One of WWD’s 50 Most Influential People in the Multicultural Beauty Market. Some call her the Godmother of Brown Beauty Blogging.

Trinidadian-born writer Patrice Grell Yursik created Afrobella.com to fill a void and to celebrate the inner and outer beauty of women all shades of beautiful. Her award-winning blog shines a loving light on natural hair and the wonderfully wide range of skin tones and sizes women come in.

Patrice has been featured in Essence, Ebony, Glamour, Trinidad Guardian, WWD and Fast Company. She has covered red carpets at the BET Awards, New York Fashion Week, Essence Black Women in Hollywood, and the Academy Awards. She has been featured in advertising campaigns for haircare brands like My Black is Beautiful and Cream of Nature, and cosmetics brands like MAC Cosmetics, Urban Decay and Lancôme. She has hosted well-attended events for brands including Microsoft, P&G, SheaMoisture, and Carol’s Daughter.

In 2011 Afrobella partnered with MAC Cosmetics to create her own custom lipglass called “All Of My Purple Life,” part of the Bloggers’ Obsession collection (which debuted on June 21, 2011; and then sold out in a week). This collection would prove to be a pioneering one in the world of influencer partnerships.

She was one of the first writers for Vogue Italia’s Vogue Black online, and created the popular Natural Hair Diary feature on Essence.com.

In 2015, Patrice was named one of one of WWD’s 50 Most Influential In Multicultural Beauty.

In addition to her work with Afrobella.com, Patrice offers robust, informed copywriting services to mainstream and independent brands in the beauty, hair, fashion, and food industries.

She also contributes writing to a variety of notable publications including Essence, Bust, Reader’s Digest, Food and Wine, Zora, and O Magazine.