The UK’s first pop-up school to empower Black girls is set to launch this summer.

Delali Kalitsi is the founder of Akoma, which is an education justice organisation for Black girls in the African diaspora.

This summer, the company will bring their creative and empowering pop-up school to London, to tackle the recent examples of discrimination faced by Black girls in UK schools.

Speaking to The Voice, Ms Kalitsi said: “I set this up to develop a holistic approach to Black girls and their learning identities in education spaces.

“Many times, they are culturally misunderstood and victims of racial bias. For example, hair discrimination policies, Eurocentric pedagogies and the Child Q case have really highlighted how racial violence interferes with Black girls’ ability to thrive in school environments.

“At the pop-up school, Black girls are given an alternative access to education via a culturally competent curriculum, by engaging with project based learning framework.”

Running from 24 July to 4 August, at Lewisham Art House, the pop-up school is aimed at Black girls aged 8-14.

It will include a variety of workshops on photography, engineering, music and performance, plant biology, material design and many more.

MISSION: Delali Kalitsi founder of Akoma

Ms Kalitsi said she is “really excited” about the pop-up and said this summer’s theme will be ‘The Environment’.

She added the project is in honour of Ella Adoo-Kissi Debrah, a nine-year-old black girl who died following an asthma attack in Lewisham, south-east London, in 2013.

Excluded

In 2021, Data uncovered by Agenda, found that black Caribbean girls were permanently excluded from school at a rate double that of white British girls during the academic year 2019/20.

Ms Kalitsi said the higher exclusion rates could put Black girls at greater risk of “underground economies like human trafficking.”

The founder, who is from south-east London , told The Voice, with her other geographical locations she examines how socioeconomic barriers could “negatively define Black girls and their academic attainment.”

“For example, in Brazil, our students are deeply affected by poverty and environmental issues. This contributes to a school to domesticated labour pipeline in which Black Brazilian girls make up 94% of underage workers,” she said.

Cultural approach

She said her pop-up school aims to meet the cultural needs of Black girls by using informal, creative and holistic pedagogy.

She said: “Project based learning and creative expression have been proven to develop the meta cognitive process in children who come from marginalised backgrounds.

“By developing an exposure to community focused learning projects, our students develop their soft skills including collaboration, risk taking and problem solving.

“They develop a sense of belonging among teaching artists and youth workers who identify with their needs and challenges, and this plays a huge role in their social awareness to have a voice in our society.”

Black girls from south-east London who sign up will have access to a week-long of free workshops which will be taught by specialist residents artists to put together their own community exhibition at Lewisham Art House on 6^th and 7^th August.

If you are interested in signing up for the pop-up school, please click this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJwY8d7jiePg2PW88Ln8PIKaJ7zwY64apOHlODpQXG_8KcRQ/viewform?pli=1