Loving Blackness is radical, because we are often taught to despise it; and Black folks, especially women, are pushed to assimilate into white beauty standards. Part of our healing journey involves divesting from the false ideology of white supremacy. We chatted with Daisy B. 📸photographer, documentarian, and founder of @thebrowngirlproductions about her photography and film series “Dark Beauty” which uplifts the lived experiences of #darkskinned 🧘🏿‍♀️ Black women. Women who are thriving on their own terms!

Healing from harmful faith paradigms that disconnect us from our God-given intuition, seeing community care and self -care as connected, another layer of support for our ongoing work of social justice. We got into all this and more with @revaureliajoy pastor @peacewilco church, spoken word artist / writer and author of A Brown Girl’s Epiphany: Reclaim Your Intuition & Step Into Your Power.

What does it mean to heal with writing? How can this practice help us on our pathway towards inner revolution? In our conversation with Reign, writer, artist and teacher, we delved into everything from her artistic journey and work to how creativity, as a tool, helps support mental health and well-being so we show up in creativity, community and activism from a place of nourishment vs. depletion. Reign leads an amazing creative community for women of color in their 40s and beyond @sowing_seeds_within.

Listen to survivors. 💥Their stories, voices + truths. We caught up with @eunicebrownlee - writer, speaker, and activist - about her work amplifying the lived experiences of survivors through WomanSpeak. She shares her own story of working to protect her daughter from abuse in family court, and how the root of what we see in this country is connected to the ways we dehumanize our own children (who are often pawns in the court system), and so many on the margins (folks within BIPOC communities, our LGBTQ+ siblings).

As we prepare to celebrate Juneteenth, we’re lifting up the urgency of decolonizing Black history, while unpacking the many ways Black folks resist oppression. Our guest is Marcus Sankofa Nicks, acclaimed researcher, historian, educator and the founder of @historyheals, a business devoted to using African American history as a vehicle to aid schools, institutions and businesses in fostering healthy and inclusive environments. He regularly facilitates conversations surrounding the African American historical experience, the topic of race and its present-day implications.

I chat with @kelseyfoxbennettboyd author, educator, consultant and licensed Brain Gym Instructor / Consultant. We discuss her forthcoming children’s book - Arya & Everyone Else’s Feelings which supports highly sensitive kids (who feel so much intensely) and their parents. Kelsey and I dive into the power of imagination as a tool, the importance of empathy, how grown ups can embody community care + self care / compassion. We also explore the urgency of healing trauma within ourselves and families to create a better world.

Angie Alt joins us for this month’s Move it Forward Monday to discuss radical community care. Angie is a writer, community care activist, independent researcher, and former health coach. After a decade helping clients manage chronic illness through nutrition and lifestyle, she shifted her focus from teaching individuals about self-care toward community care centered work. Angie now writes a weekly newsletter, Notes from a Neighbor, on new ways to frame the pressing health and wellness challenges we face collectively and the small, slow, simple actions we can take to meaningfully respond.

What does it mean to resist with LOVE and build community power? For our first Move it Forward Monday of 2023, Rowana and I caught up with Tyra and Lenora to discuss their work through Village of Love and Resistance @volarbmore. VOLAR’s mission is to co-create a cooperative community in East Baltimore owned by Black and Brown people ✊🏾✊🏽✊🏿 focused on the reclamation of land, 🌱healing, reconnecting, and building a base of community power.

I chatted with Kellene Diana (@kellenediana), mental health warrior, coach, founder of @greenheartuniversity and author. Her latest book is F Anxiety: This is My Time - a guided journal for navigating anxiety through the power of writing. For more than a decade, Kellene has worked to destigmatize mental health by developing and cultivating a safe place for men, women and teens to share their stories and receive resources and aid.

Rowana and I chatted about caring for ourselves in challenging times while also centering community care. In the tradition of writer #AudreLorde who calls self care an act of political warfare, we shared healing practices for self + community care such as DIY practices like creating your own JOY box and more.

We chatted with my husband, Kes, founder of Keystone Productions (@keystoneproductions) about art, faith and activism, and his recent creative projects - “Too Many Names,” a short film he produced for Family Survivor Network @fsnwork, which lifts up healing + community based solutions around #gunviolence. Kes is an award-winning videographer, photographer and creative director. He lost his brother Micheal to #gunviolence and has dedicated his creative art to centering the stories & lived experiences of those living on the margins, along with Black and Brown folks.

Move it Forward Monday, our Instagram Live series, is about cultivating space to be in conversation with folks who are making a difference in their communities… folks who have said NO to the status quo and YES to creating change. Our monthly chats on IG Live give folks 1-2 tangible steps they can take, in the immediate, to also make a difference where they are… whether it’s through financially supporting an org., volunteering, signing a petition, or attending a workshop / event.