Pittsburgh group Black, Young & Educated grows to keep amplifying Black youth's voices

Created three years ago by high school students, a Pittsburgh group to increase the visibility of Black youth’s voices continues to grow along with its founders.

Black, Young & Educated (BYE) is, among other projects, planning to create a documentary called “We Got Power,” highlighting the Black experience in Pittsburgh.

“From every aspect — Black women, Black queer people, single Black parents, and youth. Every sector of Blackness within Pittsburgh. That is our focus,” said BYE co-founder Treasure Palmer, 20, who is now devoting much of her time and energy to the group.

Palmer co-founded BYE with Nicholas Anglin when they were both attending Pittsburgh’s prominent Catholic high schools — the all-boys Central Catholic for Anglin and all-girls Oakland Catholic for Palmer. Both natives of Penn Hills, they worked together on the Black Student Union that served both schools. The organization provided them a place to feel unapologetically Black while in predominantly white spaces.

In 2019, school administrators separated the Black Student Union into organizations for each school. At that point, Anglin and Palmer felt a disconnect — that their space was incomplete and their voices were drowned out when concerns of racism and discrimination were brought to the schools.

“When they separated BSU, they didn’t think it was a big thing,” said Anglin, now 20 and a student at Temple University. “But this space was the only space Black people were coming together.”

An opportunity arose at Central Catholic for the pair to apply for a grant that would fund a Black business social event. Their idea won and led to the creation Black, Young & Educated in 2019. The non-profit organization aims to “amplify Black voices through community and media,” in the words of its website.

The 2020 pandemic paused events that the organization had planned to make itself more visible. But after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020 and the wave of protests that resulted, Anglin sprang into action.

The pair, each in their senior year at the time, led a 16-week protest called Civil Saturdays, which allowed the community to come together to talk. The time brought lessons for the duo, who worked alongside local veteran activists and groups.

“At that moment I was thinking, ‘I’m being heard and also amplifying the voices of other Pittsburghers around me, and they are being heard,’ ” Anglin said.

As momentum was going, the two soon realized the importance of balancing their youth and advocacy. The weekly Saturday protests would be five hours long, on top of other protests the pair would attend throughout the week. The adrenaline of having their voices heard was worth it, but they knew they needed to be able to step back, too.

“In the beginning, it was hard to remember we were young, and we don’t have to succumb to all these expectations people have of us,” said Palmer.

Anglin continued his involvement after graduating from Central in 2020 and starting at Temple. But he had to pace himself and balance his efforts to avoid burnout, as a college student with a heavy workload who was also taking late-night bus trips back to Pittsburgh for BYE events. Anglin took the time to figure out how he could incorporate what he loved most into what he did.

“There are only so few spaces for Black leisure in Pittsburgh, and I don’t want our non-profit to be another space for people to wallow in Black trauma and hardships,” he said.

The realization prompted Anglin and Palmer to put their heads together on how to return to BYE back to its roots of creating a space for Black youth to share happiness and joy — while keeping to the mission of “amplifying Black voices.”

The organization is looking to hold monthly activities, including open mic nights, and build an educational resource roundup for those looking to learn and help. To further educate the community, the pair run an Instagram account called “BlackYoungEdu” that has amassed more than 10,000 followers.

“I want us to be able to share that [Black trauma], but also look towards a bright future and know we are here today to build community for the future,” Anglin said.