Jalonda Hill’s presentation focused on challenging stereotypes about Black women and questioning what is commonly accepted as the “norm,” particularly in relation to transportation, space, and health. Drawing from her own lived experience, she shared how personal hardship led her to choose bicycling over car dependency, which ultimately shaped her advocacy and the founding mission of Colored Girls Bike Too.

Colored Girls Bike Too is guided by six core pillars that center justice and liberation through the transformative power of the bicycle. Mobility Justice, which emphasizes access, safety, and freedom of movement. This is supported by Healing Justice, recognizing the physical and emotional healing that comes from biking and reclaiming well-being. Spatial Justice addresses how space is designed, who it serves, and the need to reclaim and redesign spaces for communities that have historically been excluded. The remaining pillars include Racial Justice, Gender Justice, and Food Justice, all working together to dismantle systemic inequities.

Jalonda highlighted the organization’s physical presence on Jefferson Avenue, including the Colored Girls Bike Too bicycle shop, which serves as a community anchor. She also discussed the People’s Free Market, held every Friday outside the shop, which provides free food to the community as a direct action toward food justice.

In collaboration with the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Colored Girls Bike Too developed Black Holistic Urbanism: Reimagining Jefferson Avenue in 2022. This project responded to the racial shooting on Jefferson Avenue by re-envisioning what the corridor could become through a Black-centered, healing, and justice-driven planning framework. The work explored the creation of a holistic mobility hub and examined opportunities through grant funding and Buffalo’s $10 million Clean Mobility Initiative.

Overall, Jalonda emphasized reclaiming space that has historically been designed without or against Black communities, and instead creating environments designed by and for Black people, spaces that support mobility, healing, nourishment, and collective empowerment.