INSIDE GRIOT GIRLS

FRESHH started as a student organization on the campus of Howard University in 20001. In its time on campus it served as a safe haven for sisters interested in discussing the current state Black womaness in and out of hip-hop. Empowering hundreds of female students, politically artistically and socially, FRESHH was incorporated in 2004 to serve a similar purpose nationwide.

 

There was a call, and FRESHH answered the call. Girls in Southeast Washington DC working with founder, Goldie Patrick expressed a need for a means to strengthen sisterhood in their community, an outlet to express them creatively and the need for a deeper foundation for their self-awareness. Using the experiences and structure from its collegiate roots, FRESHH began serving girls ages 8-17.

 

In 2011 FRESHH began serving girls in a hip-hop rites of passage program. In the next year, FRESHH began its Power of the Pen Summer Youth Employment Program. After year 2 of Power of the Pen, The girls involved continued performing year round forming the Griot Girls, a mentoring program for girls in Hip-Hop Theatre. Four years teaching girls playwriting, technical theatre, and acting techniques, rap, dance and singing, Griot Girls has an ensemble, which has partnered with the Kennedy Center, The THEARC, and throughout the community. Griot Girls is now a curriculum available for schools, organizations, and institutions to help empower girls through hip-hop theatre. In the 2016 Season of FRESHH Inc Theatre company, the Griot Girls will be presenting 3 shows, including My Mic sounds nice a journey through social justice movements throughout the world led by Black women put to a library of music from Salt and Pepa.