For Brown, her study of Black girlhood emerged from over a decade of practice, face to face conversations, rituals of dance and movement, and active relationship building with Black girls and women in Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths which is lovingly referred to by the acronym SOLHOT.

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In 2006, Brown began SOLHOT with a sincere promise of revolution. She asked some of the dopest women she knew in central Illinois at the time to join her on a Friday evening. She promised them revolution with Black girls running it all. She encouraged them to participate, be homegirls, share desires and talents, and create a space complete with new practices not premised on controlling Black girls’ behavior. The Black girlhood celebrated was the one that they would collectively make. Rituals directed content. Organizing principles (i.e. you can’t tell a Black girl to be quiet, bad attitude is an improvement on plan, and show up ready) were developed concurrently with the practice. This became the work and it felt like liberation.

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SOLHOT’s impact in the community and the community's impact on SOLHOT has transformed completely what Ruth Nicole Brown knows to be possible about knowledge production, artistic practice, and making community. SOLHOT continues to meet folks where they are, listen to Black girls, and cultivate a trustworthy foundation to make “philosophical and spiritual leaps to become more human” following Grace Lee Boggs. Continually motivated by what is made with SOLHOT's collective power, there is much more yet to come.

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In SOLHOT, Black girls’ dreams become reality so that the path made from collectively practicing Black girlhood becomes a reliable experience from which everyone feels and therefore knows- there is nothing Black girls cannot do! Brown envisions a world where every Black girl who wants to experience SOLHOT has an opportunity to do so without doubt or delay. This is the Ruth Nicole Brown's life's work. 

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