Intentional
As a child, I understood there was something extraordinary about Black women. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I had a deep feeling that they were celestial. I saw them grab life by the collar repeatedly, and they never missed a beat when it came to caring for family and community, all while looking good. I was eager to be a Black woman, to mask life’s struggles under fire-red lipstick and fly hairdo. I couldn’t wait to carry my family on my back like Big Mama. I looked forward to achieving milestones in my career while balancing the precious act of loving a Black man and rearing his children like my mother. I was ready to pray on Sunday, dance on Friday, and hold it down for the neighborhood on Saturday like my aunts.
And then, I became a Black woman/mother/wife/confidant/friend/career woman/community advocate and realized that the weight of being everything to everyone was a health hazard. Helping the community, doing for family, and tending to everyone else’s needs left me little time to myself. I had seen the other women in my family do these things gracefully, or so I thought. What I didn’t know was that they, too, were often attempting to pour from an empty cup, trying to keep up with the debilitating “strong Black woman” façade.
As an adult, I often chat with my friend and business partner Chaila regarding the struggle of breaking free from the need to be that superhero Black woman and being more intentional about taking care of ourselves. And we couldn’t help but wonder how many other Black women needed a push to do the same thing. So, we decided to birth this nonprofit that will force Black women to pour into themselves. A lot of Black women carry health burdens and have died from not making themselves a priority, and our goal is to elongate the lives of Black women by starting a radical self-care revolution that encourages them to release, rest, and pour into themselves. We advocate for the holistic well-being of Black women, recognizing that by investing in ourselves, we can live healthier lives and better serve our families, communities, and society at large.
We aim to accomplish our mission by conducting quarterly events offering relaxing activities, adventures, forums, exercise/meditation, workshops, in-depth conversations, etc.
Since our inception, we have held an introductory event to introduce some women of our New Orleans community to our movement. Our next event will be the first one of our Sister Circle Series, where we plan to delve deep into radical self-care by exploring grief and how it heavily affects our sisters during the holidays (see event section). Our Sister Circle series is a sequence of intimate, in-person conversations. These meetups promote radical self-care by allowing Black women a safe space to vent, learn, share, release, grow, etc. while dissecting various topics.
We thank you for subscribing to our newsletter and joining our radical self-care movement. Our hope is that this organization spreads all over the world. We also hope you, too, will become more intentional about yourself and make sure you prioritize you.
- Samjah Iman