Unpacking Your Purse
The more conversations I have with Black women, women of color, and other marginalized folks in the workplace especially, the more I realize how many of us carry more than we should and how often we need a space and safety to put down our purses, or at the very least unpack them.
She/They: On the Tensions of a Black Non-Binary Femme-hood
Part of being lonely is being an outlier. Loneliness can be a fuel, a mirror; a powerful place for development and self-understanding. It can also be isolating, having no one else to talk to and affirm who you are and what you believe.
Taking Up Space
Working from home during a pandemic has allowed me to create a safe space from which to operate and engage on topics that often lead down emotional or defensive roads. I haven’t had to think about all of the pressures and perceptions and performances that go along with being a Black woman in a homogenous office.
Finding Your Place at Work
As I’ve begun to coach and support more Black and Brown people at my place of work, I hear that resounding echo of “these are not my people.” “They don’t value the same things I do.” “I’m made to feel that my way of being and doing is not welcome.” “I’m made to feel that I do not belong.” “I’m made to feel grateful that I even have a chance to stand in the room, not to mention a seat at the table.”
Histories
Over the last few years, I’ve started pressing record whenever my grandmother enters the room. A small brown woman, toasted almond brown from an afternoon nap in the sun, perched amongst a cloud of decorative pillows poised for comfort or stability. There’s always a story in her eyes, an “I know more than I’m saying right now” look in swimming behind her stylized spectacles.
Black Woman, Interrupted
I’ve been trying to wade through the deep sea of interruptions, the toll I pay economically, socially, spiritually, mentally, and generationally to be a proud Black woman.