Since its founding in 2006, members say the Yale Black Women’s Coalition has evolved into a strong organization that emphasizes diversity, leadership and community.
Celebrating the closeness of the group, YBWC held one of its signature annual events on Saturday — Black Women’s Weekend, which featured a few hours of karaoke along with food, music and games at the Afro-American Cultural Center. According to Chelsea Handfield ’15, president of YBWC, the low-key event fit in perfectly with the organization’s goal of providing a safe space in which black women can come together to talk about sociopolitical events, discuss unique experiences and form a stronger community.
Handfield said that as a double minority — both a woman and a racial minority — she is grateful to have a group like YBWC, where she can meet and become friends with other women who are going through similar experiences. At a university like Yale, she said, she is even more aware of her identity, as students often ask unintentionally insensitive questions.