Tiny, skinny and with corn-rolled pigtails, she named herself “Kool Kat ” when I informed the group that members could be anyone they wanted in our “Imaginary Zone,” where I hoped they would learn how to express their emotions in “The Write Way.”
Kool Kat, who picked a pink ribbon and a pair of rhinestone-studded sunglasses from my Pandora´s hat box, for the next exercise wanted to show the other girls, much older than her, that indeed she was “the bad-dest girl on the block.”
But when it came time to write a sentence from the decorated index card on which I had written the lead-in line, “I wish I could forget …,” Kool Kat was anything but cool. She whispered to my cousin, Cynthia Martin, who helped me facilitate a writing workshop during Wednesday´s third annual Save Our Sisters Summit at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in Northeast that she and her siblings had been beaten repeatedly and that she had been raped.
Kool Kat is about 12 years old .
“Oh you´re going to be something else,” the older girls said of Kool Kat, as they laughed and slapped each other with high-fives.
Not if the Peaceoholics get a hold of her first and save the young sistagirl as they have so many others.
About 150 young women, ages 11 to 19, converged from all parts of the District and hailed from groups as diverse as the Peaceoholics, the D.C. Department of Recreation, the Alliance of Concerned Men and the Metropolitan Police Department for the three-hour forum. The girls listened to women mentors and participated in a range of teen-focused panels - from applying makeup, starting a business, and coping with teen-dating violence to using journal writing for expressing emotions.
Organizer Maia Shanklin Roberts said the summit was designed “to educate the young women and provide a safe place for them to come together and be empowered.”
There were plenty of notable women after whom the participants could model themselves, including WPGC-FM radio personalities Rane and Justine Love; Tracie Wilkins, a reporter for WRC-TV; and Jasmine Adir, a star basketball player at George Washington University.
Some of the young women were brave enough to express their painful experiences before the diverse group.
“Ms. Important,” chose a red felt jewelry box in the shape of a heart for one reading. She said the heart represented the blood from a friend who was shot 17 times and nearly died. The experience spurred the Anacostia senior to do well in school and become a mortician because she has since received a two-year scholarship to Wayne State University.
“I wish I had more memories of my doing things with my father,” revealed one of the older teens, a natural-born ring leader, when she pulled the prompt card “I wish I could remember….”
Another poignant moment came when a 19-year-old college student pushing a baby in a stroller, held a tiny lock in her hand and informed the group that she chose the item because it represented her locking away her heart so nobody else could hurt her.
“Ultimately it was a very good turnout and the young women got a lot out of it,” said Ms. Shanklin Roberts. “I enjoyed seeing so much diversity…and it felt good to see so many young women in a room together and have other women tell them how they have developed and grown.”
Saving our Sisters will continue to hold group meetings throughout the summer and will include training so some of the young women can become peer mediators. Some will receive stipends.
Ms. Shanklin Roberts, 22, is a Stanford University graduate with a bachelor´s degree in urban studies who originally planned to attend law school.
She said that after a six-month stint at the firm Arnold and Porter, “I decided that was not what I was made for and that was not my purpose. My heart was more driven to do community work,” she said. In September, she was hired full time after several monthsof volunteering.
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