Introduction:
How will we remember this time?
Will our stories be part of the narrative?
Will our memories reflect the truth of our experiences in all its dimensions,
or will we only remember the struggle that was 2020?
In the early summer of 2020, data began to emerge about how COVID-19 specifically impacted Black communities. Not surprisingly, data reflected the enduring inequities Black people experience in the United States as it pertains to access to health care and disproportionate experiences with illness and chronic health conditions. But the storytelling was limited.
As Black women storytellers, we have a deep investment in representing Black women and youth’s experiences in our daily life as well as in moments of social significance.
And so, we created the #HerTestimony Campaign
This campaign documented what Black women and girls were feeling, discovering, and navigating in this time.
We gathered stories through enriching conversations, opened a survey to women across the state of North Carolina, and linked arms with young Black creatives in local high schools who led peer focus groups to support Black girls and gender expansive youth amid the unrest and isolation that was characterizing their lives.
This report is the culmination of what what we discovered at each stage of the #HerTestimony campaign as the beginning stages of the pandemic unfolded in 2020 and 2021.
