The Sunflowerfolk Festival
I have been in charge of the Sunflower Girl Collective for 3 years. I have been in college for twice that long. I have been a lover of music all my life. I called it “the girls” not because of the way gender applies to anyone involved with the collective currently, but to honor the girlhood and inner child we hold within us all in the style of Morrison and related scholars. It was a stride towards centering Black girls (both youthful and femme, including my inner self) in literary, artistic and narrative research. Storytelling, artistry and personal narrative usage allows us to practice exposing evidence often neglected by ethnocentrism. Musical events in the DMV such as gogo and Moechella have proven to garner a strong cultural platform in the area where the collective/movement was formed, the way musical events around Jersey club music has proven to garner a strong cultural platform in the area where the founder of the movement is from.