Black Girl Rising

This enduring anthem for Black girls celebrates their power, potential, and brilliance—for themselves and for the world.

You are a thousand curls

unfurling in your hair.

You are a thousand fists

standing proudly in air.

You are the song of swallows,

lifting sun as they sing—

breaking light with their beaks,

breaking sky with their wings …

Black girlhood is beautiful! In this deeply moving celebration and rallying cry, and in the face of the many messages that still work to convince Black girls that they should shrink themselves, hide their light, know their place, Brynne Barnes reclaims that narrative: A Black girl’s place is everywhere, and her selfhood is everything she can dream it to be.

With poignant, poetic prose, this empowering book centers the inherent worthiness and radiance of Black girls that is still far too often denied. A love letter to and for Black girls everywhere, Black Girl Rising alchemizes the sorrow and strength of the past into the brilliant gold of the future, sweeping young listeners of all backgrounds into a lyrical exploration of what it means to be Black, female, and glorious.