Charleston, WV

MEDIA ADVISORY — Charleston, WV
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Candice M. Dixon, Communications Manager
Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium
candice@southernblackgirls.org | (334) 394-3236

Joy & Justice Tour Coming To Charleston, WV with Free Festival Celebrating Black Girls and Women

Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium brings its nine-city Southern tour to Appalachia on Saturday, August 22

Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium’s Joy & Justice Tour touches down in Charleston, West Virginia on Saturday, August 22, with a free festival-style community event at the North Charleston Recreation Center. Expect music, food trucks, and a day built for fun, alongside community resources, and a photo booth experience sponsored by Dove. Each stop also features nine activation zones designed to uplift, inform, and celebrate Black girls and women in their fullness: Arts & Culture, Beauty, Economic Empowerment, Health & Wellness, STEM, Advocacy & Justice, Sports, Nutrition, and Education & HBCU. This is where joy and justice live together, because joy is strategy. You belong here!

Saturday, August 22, 2026
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET – Joy & Justice Tour Charleston
North Charleston Recreation Center, 2009 7th Avenue, Charleston, WV 25387

Our why is simple: Black women and girls in the South are facing converging crises, from gender-based violence and a Black maternal health emergency to the erosion of health care access and the systemic underfunding of Black women-led organizations. Less than 1% of the South’s $4.8 billion in philanthropic investments reaches Black women and girls. The Joy & Justice Tour is the response: resources, community, and the refusal to be defined by what Black women and girls are surviving. As Executive Director Chanceé Lundy has said, joy is not a luxury; it is strategy, and right now, it is how we protect each other. Joy without justice is temporary. Justice without joy is unsustainable. The Charleston stop carries that declaration into Appalachia, where Black girls and women have long shaped West Virginia’s story while being left out of its headlines and its funding.

Since 2017, Southern Black Girls has awarded more than $11.4 million to over 250 organizations and provided more than $600,000 in micro-grants to 1,000+ recipients through its #BlackGirlJoyChallenge. Some of our recent, local grantee partners include:

  • Aspire Achievement Project (Charleston) — mentorship, leadership development, and enrichment for Black girls ages 5 to 24
  • Black By God (West Virginia) — community-led news and storytelling reviving the Black press in Appalachia
  • Inner Sunshine Arts (Southern West Virginia) — Black-led arts programming making Black girls feel seen and celebrated

Register for Charleston – www.southernblackgirls.org/joytour/charleston.html
Learn more about the Joy & Justice Tour – www.southernblackgirls.org/joytour/

For general tour inquiries: joytour@southernblackgirls.org

ABOUT SOUTHERN BLACK GIRLS AND WOMEN’S CONSORTIUM
Founded in 2017 by LaTosha Brown, Felecia Lucky, Alice Eason Jenkins, and Margo Miller, Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium channels philanthropic resources to Black girls, women, and femme identifying communities across 13 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Learn more at southernblackgirls.org.

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