Social Wellness Club Creates A Third Space For Black Women

Aley Clark began Black Girl Playground and now it has grown to a social wellness community of women where they can find a safe space to connect with other Black women. PHOTO PROVIDED BY ALEY CLARK.
Aley Clark began Black Girl Playground and now it has grown to a social wellness community of women where they can find a safe space to connect with other Black women. PHOTO PROVIDED BY ALEY CLARK.

Social Wellness Club Creates A Third Space For Black Women

By Tia Carol Jones

Aley Clark created Black Girl Playground in 2023 as an Instagram community. During the pandemic Clark was looking for moments for joy and play. She believed there was a need for a space for Black women to gather. Once she moved to Chicago, the Black Girl Playground turned into a social wellness club where women could meet and connect at events.

The mission of Black Girl Playground is to break Black women out of their solitary routines so that they can build community and form new connections through the wellness space. Clark really wants the Black Girl Playground to be the touchpoint for women who want to find other Black women in Chicago. She wants them to come to the events and feel less alone.

The Black Girl Playground has a Play Girl Walk, which was started in 2023, where Black women could get together and walk. It started out as eight women coming together at the Riverwalk to take a walk to growing into a larger event, where women meet up at the 606 and other parks. The group has also met up at Solidcore for fitness events, as well as Meet at the Mat, where Black Girl Playground meets at different Pilates and Yoga studios to take curated classes. 

Clark credits people for sharing the content from the Black Girl Playground events on social media with the growth of the group. She said when people share the content, it allows the events to reach more people and those people want to attend the events. She said being able to reach the women who want to be part of the community through Instagram has been a huge asset. She said having third spaces is everything when it comes to mental health and wellness.

“We have come out of a very isolated time, so much so that it is almost like we have to reintegrate ourselves back into society … Us gathering and having a space that is outside of our home and outside of work, there’s so many ways that third spaces can add to our overall mental wellness to break out of that isolation,” she said.

Clark said that when people leave the wellness events that Black Girl Playground curates, they are always happier. She said they are able to move their bodies while being social. She said there is something that happens when Black women see people who look like them. It lifts their spirits and empowers them.

“I just think there’s really something powerful when Black women gather, it just fills us up in a different way,” she said.

The Black Girl Playground recently collaborated with the Chicago Chicas Y Cafecito for a Spring Expansion Session at The Studio Chicago. It was an opportunity for women to network and listen to panelists. Clark said being able to bring Black and brown women together at an event was a really special time. She said the women said they felt poured into and received a wide range of insights from the panel discussions.

The Black Girl Playground has more interactive events planned for the spring and summer, which will combine the idea of play and joy through Happy Hours and curated after work events. The Play Girl Walk will take place on April 12th at 31st Street Beach. There will also be a collaboration with a Pilate studio at the end of April. In May, the Black Girl Playground will celebrate its anniversary.

For more information about the Black Girl Playground, follow @blackgirlplayground on Instagram.


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