Joy as medicine. Play as permission. Art as proof you were here.
A joy-based wellness experience for Black women.
Permission to stop performing. Permission to just play.
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The little girl you
never fully got to be
is still in there.
BLK GRL Recess is a curated half-day experience that gives Black women permission to put down the performance — the strong one, the caretaker, the professional — and come back to themselves through play.
Not a workshop. Not a therapy session. Not another thing on your to-do list. BLK GRL Recess is joy as medicine — the kind of unguarded, embodied play most of us never fully got to have, or had taken away too soon.
We go back to the Block. We play, build, eat, and make things together. Every woman walks out an artist. Every woman walks out softer than she arrived. We deserve to be well.
Where joy is medicine.
Where strangers become soul-sisters."
Welcome back
to the Block.
Four spaces. One afternoon. All of it built to take you back to the girl you were before the world got loud — and show her what you've made of yourself.
Every woman leaves
as an artist.
She makes a keychain that tells her story. She builds a fascinator with her own hands. She leaves with nails that are hers. She creates something that didn't exist before she walked into the room. BLK GRL Recess is not a spectator experience — it is a making experience. And what she makes is hers to keep.
Your nails.
Your art.
Your story.
Black women have always understood that self-expression starts at the fingertips. Come with naked nails. Leave with art. Get sized for custom XO Beauty press-ons fitted just for you — and look for your chance to create original designs that go on display in the exhibit.
Because nail art is art. And Black women are artists.
Get Your Tickets →Four angles.
One argument.
BLK GRL Recess sits at the intersection of health, arts, civic life, and human connection. The research on each is clear — and they all point to the same place.
↗ KFF Survey on Racism, Discrimination & Health
↗ Frontiers in Psychology — Engaging the Arts for Wellbeing in the US
↗ NEA / University of Missouri–Kansas City
↗ Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2025
This is what it looks like when it works.
Two activations. Two very different rooms. The same outcome — measurable, observed, and real.
The model worked on people it wasn't built for.
A mixed-gender group — not BLK GRL Recess's target audience. Still produced measurable outcomes.
Then we ran it for the women it was built for.
Full BLK GRL Recess debut — play, making, food, and community. Black women in the room it was designed for.
BLK GRL Recess was designed for Black women carrying families, jobs, and communities.
And the model still moved the numbers in a mixed-gender room of college students who simply walked in.
If the effect is measurable on people it wasn't designed for —
the case for the women it was built for is stronger still.
See it for yourself.
This is what a room full of Black women coming back to themselves looks like.
Come meet her.
Then nominate her.
At Build the Block, you will meet women from our community who changed their block — women who showed up, stayed, and made life better for everyone around them. They will be in the room. We are putting their names up.
And if you know a woman in your community who deserves to be in this room — tell us about her. Send her name, her story, and what she means to your block to heal@soulmed.co.
Nominate a WomanAugust 22
Build the Block
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Location: dupp & swat
1824 Statesville Avenue, Ste 105
(inside Camp NorthEnd) · Charlotte, NC
Seven spaces. One afternoon on the Block. Play, build, eat, make things with your hands, and meet the women who have been holding this neighborhood together. You will leave an artist. You will leave softer than you arrived. Bring somebody you love.
Claim Your Spot
Limited capacity. The little girl in you has been patient long enough.
Spots are limited — don't wait
Reach the women
your brand says it's
already for.
BLK GRL Recess creates genuine cultural connection with Black women — not through advertising, but through experience. When a brand or organization is present in a BLK GRL Recess room, it is not interrupting. It belongs there.
This audience is discerning, deeply loyal, and underserved by most wellness, arts, and civic institutions. When they feel seen, they stay. When they feel used, they leave — and they tell everyone.
We are building a series of BLK GRL Recess experiences — and seeking brand partners, sponsors, and funders who share our commitment to Black women's joy, wellness, arts access, and full humanity.
Authentic Cultural Access
Your brand doesn't just appear — it participates. Product integration, sponsored stations, and co-branded experiences that feel like community, not sponsorship.
Documented Wellness Impact
We track what women build, what moves them, and what they say when the event ends. Outcome data available for grant reporting and impact storytelling.
Real Community Engagement
Black women gathering on their block, celebrating the women who built it, creating together — that is civic life. Not a photo op. The real thing.
National Growth Potential
BLK GRL Recess is a pilot with a plan. Early partners grow with us — from one Charlotte event to a national series. Get in now.
A healing collective built on one belief:
Black women deserve to be well.
SoulMed Holistic Health Collaborative creates spaces where Black women can breathe, belong, and come back to themselves — not by force, not by fixing, just by being. BLK GRL Recess is our flagship experience: joy as medicine, play as permission, community as cure.
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