We always enjoy when the tennis season starts as we see our favorite starts hitting global courts. We also know that it’s a great sport that we can enjoy with family, colleagues, and friends old and new! We sat down with Kimberly Selden, Founder of Black Girls Tennis Club to know more about how why she created this organization, how she is making sure that youth and adults can into the sport and an upcoming event that will take place at Roland Garros.
ATHLEISURE MAG: Before we delve into BGTC, I’d like to know more about your background.
KIMBERLY SELDEN: My background is an interesting path. I sit at the intersection of a lot of different industries. I started my career in fashion. I studied mass communications with a concentration in PR a minor in fashion merchandising. I moved to NY right after college worked for Custo Barcelona in PR.
I ended up working in production on the management side. I worked on NBA All-Star, and then went to creative, so I did the whole freelancer circuit for different award shows and live events. Starting in production management and landing on the creative side, working my way up from executive producers, assistant production, assistant production coordinator, associate producer, segment producer, and producer. I’ve played every single role, and I started to transition from there into the story side, and so I worked on a Food Network show as a story producer. I worked on Oprah behind the scenes as a story producer.
During that time, I randomly was asked to come to Niger in West Africa, about two of my friends were there schooling mission work – it was really random. So they met someone who got a license for a radio and television station. They naturally reached out to me because I was the closest one to that production world, so we had a break for the show. I moved to Niger for three months to start this radio station, which led to a television station. I ended up meeting the U.S ambassador and I came back - was in graduate school while on our second season of the show and my thesis became a real project, and I went back to Niger with a grant from the US Embassy. I got to speak at the US Embassy! We distributed solar power radios to villages. It was life changing to say the least. I’ll say that was a huge turning point for me where I started to use this term, social impact, and just realized the power of change.
I was doing a whole lot and in different countries in Africa. One of my friends had an Africa travel company, so I was traveling with her. I have worked on a number of campaigns and projects over the years!
I was living in NY this whole time and I moved to Virginia right before COVID. In Virginia, there were courts in my neighborhood and when I lived in BK the whole 10 years I was there, there were tennis courts in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. I always wanted to play tennis but didn’t know how to get involved. The Fort Greene tennis courts were kind of intimidating when I was in my hometown in Virgina Beach, that’s how BGTC got started. I walked past tennis courts everyday walking my down and I thought, we should start a Black Girls Tennis Club and that’s how it started. So, my career and my background have nothing to do with tennis, but everything to do with making a difference.
AM: And community!
KS: Our communities, and Black people. Like I said before, to me, it all comes together in a very unique and unplanned way. In fact, we’re going to Ghana in November, so even my passion for Africa is coming into the mix.
AM: Now that you have been running BGTC for a few years, did you think it was going to be what we’re seeing now from it?
KS: Absolutely not. In fact, I was really hesitant because we’re a non-profit and when BGTC started, I really was in a space where I wanted to build wealth. I didn’t see a pathway to that, and I actually wanted to build a boutique hotel like I was ready for the next chapter of my life either way, where I would be a little more behind the scenes. But this is essentially pushing me to the forefront. I’m a Founder and I had no idea at all. Now, I’m aware of the potential, but every day, I’m still shocked that I’m in this seat and that it has completely taken over right. I’m trying to do other things and I’m still getting pulled to really just focus on this, but I will say, you know, even though I want these other things, I I feel that my other wants and desires are being met through BGTC.
AM: What is BGTC because there is an adult track and then a younger track. And what is the goal of the organization overall?
KS: We are a 501c3. I like to call us a Social Enterprise. We have, free and low cost youth programming and adult programming and our mission is to liberate Black women and girls through play, and I say that because we really focus on joy, wellness, and community. Looking at my past and my whole time living in New York, if you asked me what my hobbies were, I would have said - going out to eat or shopping. I’m a recovering workaholic and I know from life experience that having a hobby is a luxury. I just know how important liberation is. Playing sports is a pathway to that, and I could go on and on about the benefits of girls playing sports economically just for their own wellness and joy. I just see this as a catalyst to joy, community, economic growth, and health. I don’t want us to be a non-profit that is viewed as they’re serving underserved people only. You know, our youth is expansive. Some are underserved, of course and some aren’t. We have kids that could go pro. We have kids that never touched a racket.
AM: What is your role like? I always say that the role of a Founder is one that is growing and it doesn’t really have a start or stop to it. What is your role and what is a day-to-day or week to week look like, for you?
KS: I see myself as the key vision holder strategist and leading Partnerships, and we’re figuring that out as an organization. I’m technically Founder and CEO. A lot of this, we’re figuring it out as we go. We have tried things that have worked and have tried things that haven’t worked. My goal is to raise enough money so that we can have someone in place. Whether that’s an executive director or whatever that title is that can lead the organization operationally, I know what my strengths are.
I am an executor and I am a visionary.
My day-to-day I have a lot of calls. I’m talking to a lot of brand partners. I’m talking to our board members. Tennis season has started and I went to Palm Springs twice. My day. It’s a lot of emails. I don’t even know the amount of emails that I send per day. We have a we use Monday, which is like a project management tool. I’m always approving. Between social media like I’m approving Graphics, I’m getting and I’m sending decks to people. I’m giving direction, I’m delegating.
I might be going to Indian Wells. I have a call later today about an Arthur Ashe documentary project, so it’s a lot of exciting things. It’s a lot of things that I’ve never done before.
AM: I know you have a few chapters. You have the one here in New York, and there’s others. Can you tell us about these chapters?
KS: We launched in Virginia, and so in Virginia, every year we do a free summer camp and we have some adult programming. We were actually pushed to launch in New York because of our Challengers event with Zendaya (Dune franchise, The Drama, Euphoria). It’s really exciting for New York, so we have yearround programming in New York, because we have indoor courts right, too. We’ve had some programming in DC. We do Citi Open every year in DC. DC is a great meeting point because that’s a middle ground for all our board members to come together. Last year, we had an in-person board meeting there.
I’m actually in La, so we had fun LA event. We’re gearing up for La. I’ve been meeting with, YMCA Crenshaw and Compton United School District, so LA’s been on us. I think I feel a lot of pressure from every part of the country, as well as outside of the country to launch. There’s a whole back end that goes into it. If I look at our pillars which are care, access, representation, and exposure, there’s different reasons to be different places.
Logistically and operationally, I just have to move with care as well, and make sure that we have what we need in place so that our team you know isn’t overwhelmed. And I want people to be connected and be able to find people to play with, because if I’m being honest, I still didn’t solve my original problem which was I wanted to play tennis more. So that’s where technology comes in, and we’re working on that as well.
AM: Well, for the New York chapter, what are some upcoming events that are taking place here that you can share?
JS: We have Pop Up and Play. We just had one in February. We have another one at the end of the month of at our indoor ports at Sun East which is in Manhattan. We’re up in the Bronx at Stadium Tennis for Cardio Tennis. We have our Foundations Clinic coming up, which is 4 consecutive sessions that cover the basics of tennis at Brooklyn College. We have 2 courts of that. That will be announced in the next 2 weeks. We have Cardio Tennis Pop Up and Play Foundations. We’re going to have Sunset Saturdays coming up. That’s going to be from May through the end of August. I don’t know what we’re doing for US Open, but we’ll of course have activations during US Open. So, we’ll have weekly programming almost twice a week in New York. It’s been growing every single year, and we’re going to do a Big Girls Day of Play in Brooklyn, May 31st. We’ve been wanting to do more youth programming with our partners and we always do Juneteenth at Fort Green with The Layout.
AM: The French Open is coming up and you guys are actually going to be at Roland Garros, tell us more about that.
KS: We are working with a tennis travel company, and so this is a trip that opened up that people paid to go on. It sold out within 2 weeks. At first, we wanted to start small, so we had 10 spots, but we had to open it up, so we have 20 Black women and girls going to the French Open. May 23rd, through the 26, and this year is actually the 70th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s historic win at Roland Garros.
A lot of people going on the trip, they’ve never been. It’s a bucket list item. It’s our first trip and we’ll see how it goes. I’m thrilled, and I, I know, it’s going to be an amazing time, and I can’t wait to like be in community with everybody.
AM: So they’re going and they’re also having tickets to go to the French Open as well?
KS: Exactly! It’s gonna be epic, so that’s a pretty big deal.
AM: Well, are there other things that you haven’t talked about that you want to share?
KS: Something that I’m really passionate about is what we do on Martha’s Vineyard. This year will be our third year on The Vineyard. Oak Bluffs is this historic Black neighborhood on Martha’s Vineyard. We’ve been working on a short documentary project about Black tennis history, and it’s such an epic story and the story. Is it really documented in a significant way, and so it all started because my friends actually posted it in a Facebook group because we were looking for our house and people in the group saw BGTC, and they all started chiming in, like, “oh my God,” my mom used to play in the Mary Tucker Invitational. Oh wow, my dad was in Oak Bluffs.
Naturally, as a producer, my wheels are turning. I’m like, we need to capture this. I just started doing more research. Martha’s Vineyard is beautiful, being like the month of August is just amazing. You know, a lot of the Black sororities and fraternities, all HBCU’s have events. It’s just a sight to see. Obviously, Ralph Lauren did their Oak Bluffs collection, and so there’s been a lot of attention drawn to this historic island.
My first time going was just a couple of years before we went as an organization. It’s such a fun trip and so we do activations we do about 3 events. This year, I think we’re doing 3 or 4 events now and I hope that we’re gonna be finishing our documentary this year, and my plan is to enter it into the film festival that happens on the vineyard. So, we’re planting roots there. This year, we’re actually working with a group in Boston to bring a group of girls down, for a day trip, and so that’s something that there’s certain things that I know will do every single year U.S Open, of course. Martha’s Vineyard, Citi Open is a big one for us that I mentioned in DC. We’re also doing Ghana which I hinted towards earlier this will be in November and we will take Taylor Townsend, who’s one of our honorary board members. There’s a new tennis club called the Accra Backyard Club. That amazing architecture was built by our artists, who has this incredible tennis story that is just so inspiring, so we all want to see it. And as you know, my ties to the continent, I’ve been trying to find a reason to get us out there.
We’ve partnered with other orgs out there. They just had a woman’s tennis tournament that we’re gonna be covering. We’re going global, and I see us as a global organization.
Martha’s Vineyard, I’m really passionate about and want to tell those stories and I don’t want them to get lost. It’s really cool because one of the tournaments that went away the Oak Bluffs Tennis Club and Tournament, my now friend Gatsby Karam is bringing that tournament back this year.
AM: Wow!
KS: It hasn’t happened in over 10 years. He got permission from the family to bring it back and the first person, they told him to contact was me. So you know, we’re in cahoots together to be in support of each other, so I’ll be covering that. And to me, that’s the perfect ending to the documentary.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Kimberly Selden
Read the MAR ISSUE #123 of Athleisure Mag and see TENNIS FOR ALL | Black Girls Tennis Club + Kimberly Selden in mag.
