New Month, New Me!
April showers bring May… well showers. It’s still raining here in the D.
It’s a brand new month and that means brand new opportunities. Since my official launch in February, I don’t think I have worked as hard on this blog as I intended but that’s all about to change. I’m finna, yes finna, get it poppin’.
April was the month of rebirth for me. I felt like I was beginning to come out of a fog that has plagued me since the end of February. This weekend, I celebrated that rebirth by attending the Words of Fire Conference put together by the Black Women’s Blueprint. I spent three days in Atlanta surrounded by some of the most influential Black feminists in the country: Michaela Angela Davis, Jamilah Lemieux, Kimberly Foster, Beverly Guy-Sheftall and my big sisters Kim Trent and Darci McConnell.
I attended the conference on behalf of the Enough SAID AA490 Challenge, an initiative to end the backlog of untested rape kits in Detroit. The challenge was being honored along with the names mentioned above.
I needed this conference more than I knew. On Saturday, there was a gala reception to honor the women of the conference. Something ignited my spirit being in a room full of beautiful black women. There was no competition. Everyone was telling each other how much they slayed. The room was filled with laughter and joy but when the DJ started playing hustle songs…baaaaaabbbyyyyy we had a ball. Nobody was too important or prestigious to do the wobble. Hell, I was teaching Beverly Guy and her sister how to wobble. One of the most influential black feminists and her sister asked me for dance lessons.
And that wasn't even the best part. So we're dancing, having a great time and the DJ drops an R. Kelly record.
I have never seen so many angry women rush to a DJ booth. Like bro...did you not know who your audience was. My heart skipped a beat. Usually, when R. Kelly comes on at a party, I'm the only once to leave the dance floor. I've never felt more at home than surrounded by these Black women angered by the sound of a pedophile.
The next day, I had a 20 minute conversation with Michaela Angela Davis, the conference keynote speaker. Here I am, fan girling all the way out and this amazing woman is just shooting the breeze with me like we are at the water cooler. In what alternate universe was I living in?
Attending that conference was my power up. I felt like Popeye after he ate his spinach.
Now, I am back home and doing my best to keep that strength up. It’s a new month so that means it’s time to set new goals and smash them. If not for me, then for those black women who gave me the most valuable gift ever; the gift of breathing new life and purpose into my spirit. Stella has definitely gotten her groove back. I’m walking taller. I feel more confident and self-assured; things I haven’t felt for a very long time. My only goals for this month are to get this blog popping, banish all self-doubt and finding motivation within myself.
You’ve already wasted 120 days of 2017 not being the best version of you. That stops today! Get out there sis and start shining.
