The Black Girlhood Altar Toolkit is an extension of “Community Practice and Helping Relationships,” an SAIC Graduate Art Therapy and Arts Administration combined course led by Leah Gipson and Pascale Ife Williams, and was made in collaboration with Chicago-based nonprofit organization, A Long Walk Home (ALWH). The toolkit aims to summarize and outline the research and approach to art therapy and community building implemented in the “Care Sessions” led collaboratively led by SAIC students and ALWH at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) as apart of their Black Girlhood Altar Project. The Black Girlhood Altar is a sacred site assembled by Black girls in Chicago for Black girls and young women who have gone missing or been murdered, specifically honoring Rekia Boyd, Ma'Khia Bryant, “Hope,” Breonna Taylor, Marcie Gerald, Latasha Harlins, and Lyniah Bell.

View more information about the Black Girlhood Altar here, and the Homan Square SAIC campus here.