Ladies, Get in Formation: A Celebration of Black Women and Girls is Coming to a Southern City Near You

Every Black woman you have ever admired (the auntie who held the family together, the organizer who flipped a state, the artist who changed the culture) started out as a Black girl. We don’t poof into existence fully formed, crowned and capable. Somebody poured into us. Somebody told us we mattered. Somebody made room for our joy.

That truth is exactly why, on June 18, a pretty pink bus is rolling into Jackson, Mississippi, the first stop on a journey through eight states and nine cities across the South. We’re launching on the eve of Juneteenth, and that’s no accident. Juneteenth was born when our ancestors turned the news of freedom into a celebration, proving from the very beginning that Black joy and Black liberation ride together. More than 160 years later, we’re kicking off our own freedom ride in that same spirit. We’re calling it the Joy and Justice Tour, and yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

Let me be clear about the moment we’re in. Washington has rammed through the largest cuts to Medicaid and food assistance in American history, and policy experts warn that women and children in Southern states will be hit the hardest. This administration has frozen and slashed billions in federal funding for after-school and summer programs that our girls depend on. Political representation in the South is under attack, and our voting rights are being eroded in real time. And through all of it, Black girls and women are not standing idly by. We never have. We have always met adversity with our superpower: sisterhood. In the famous words of the ultimate Southern Black girl, Beyoncé, “Okay ladies, now let’s get in formation.”

So we got in formation, and now we’re taking our love for Black girls on the road.

Why We Are Rolling Through the South

The Joy and Justice Tour is the work of the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium, an organization I founded alongside three powerhouse anchors: Felecia Lucky, Alice Easton Jenkins, and Margo Miller. We built it on a simple, radical premise: if you want to change the South (and if you change the South, you change America), invest in Southern Black girls and women. And we’ve put our money where our mission is: to date, we have granted more than $12 million to over 200 girl-serving organizations across the South. Today the Consortium is led by our amazing executive director, Chanceé Lundy-Russell, and a mighty team of Southern Black women who prove every single day that Black girls are not waiting on permission to lead.

And let me tell you something about Chanceé. She has been my mentee since she was 14 years old. The same girl I poured into all those years ago now runs the organization. She is living proof that investing in the talent and dreams of Black girls yields great rewards for our entire community. I don’t have to convince you this work pays off. I just have to introduce you to our executive director.

Because here’s the thing, folks keep getting wrong: youth are not only the future. They are the present. Black girls are leading in the South right now (organizing in their schools, building businesses, making art, registering their classmates to vote), and this tour is our way of meeting them where they are, lifting up what they’re already doing, and reminding them they are not alone.

Why You Want to Be There

Picture a festival-style experience landing in your city. At every stop, girls and women step into nine activation zones where they can get hands-on with STEM, dive into arts and culture, build financial literacy, explore health and wellness, learn about HBCUs, and have real conversations about advocacy and justice. There’s something for everybody (parents and community members included), because this is an intergenerational space where joy, leadership, and healing sit at the center of the table together. And everywhere this bus stops, we are listening to and loving on our girls throughout the South, because before you can pour into a girl, you have to hear her.

And we’re not just celebrating. We’re registering young voters at every stop and talking honestly about why this election matters so much in this moment. When they shrink our representation, we grow our participation. That’s how Black girls clap back.

The numbers from past tours tell the story: 100% of participants said they felt free to be fully themselves. That kind of space is rare, and we protect it. 86% experienced joy, and 88% left with a more positive image of Black girls and women (including themselves). Megan Thee Stallion has spent years telling the world to protect Black women, and we agree. But protection isn’t only about defense. Sometimes protecting Black girls looks like building them a whole festival, declaring a Hot Girl Summer of liberation, and letting them be classy, creative, brilliant, and free, all at the same time.

Joy and Justice Are Our Strategies

Some folks think joy is a distraction from the struggle. Baby, joy IS the struggle’s secret weapon. Our foremothers sang freedom songs on the way to jail. They cooked feasts in the middle of boycotts. They understood what we still know: a people who can hold onto their joy cannot be broken.

Black girls don’t have to choose between celebration and liberation. Both are the strategy. Both are the mission. And both are coming to a city near you.

Joy is our strategy. And right now, joy is also our intervention.

Catch the Pretty Pink Bus:

• June 18: Jackson, MS
• June 20: New Orleans, LA
• July 10: Fort Lauderdale, FL
• July 11: Eatonville, FL
• August 8: Louisville, KY
• August 21: Richmond, VA
• August 22: Charleston, WV
• September 26: Columbia, SC
• September 27: Charlotte, NC

Eight states. Nine cities. One declaration: You belong here.

So here’s my invitation. Join us: pull up to a stop with the girls in your life and bring your whole family. Spread the word to every auntie, teacher, coach, and church mother you know. And if you’re able, donate a little gas money to keep this pretty pink bus rolling, because every dollar fuels joy, and joy fuels justice.

Find your city, get involved, and support the tour at southernblackgirls.org/joytour.

LaTosha Brown is a co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund and founder of the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium.