
Because They Refused Jim Crow, We Walk Through Different Doors
October 7, 1955: Ella Fitzgerald Arrested After Performing Before an Integrated Audience in Houston
We live inside freedoms that somebody else had to be brave enough to imagine. I am grateful for the people who challenged Jim C [...]

10 Surprising Lessons for Survivors from Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive
When most of us hear Gloria Gaynor sing “I Will Survive,” we hear certainty.
We hear a woman who has figured something out. She sounds like she knows where the door is, knows she deserves better and knows she can live without [...]

10 Lessons from The Forever Tree for Black Women, Girls, and Survivors Who Have Learned to Play Small
There is something quietly radical about The Forever Tree.
Tawny Bennett, played by Olivia Washington, is a young Black woman living during the Harlem Renaissance. She is intelligent, knowledgeable and working as an antiquari [...]
10 Lessons for Survivors from Sandy “Pepa” Denton’s Let’s Talk About Pep
Sandy “Pepa” Denton is known to millions as one of the women who helped change hip-hop. But Let’s Talk About Pep tells another story underneath the records, performances, fame, laughter, relationships and celebrity encounters. D [...]

Tammi Terrell’s Story Reminds Us That Survival Is More Than Staying Alive
When people speak about Tammi Terrell, they often begin with how young she was when she died.
Twenty-four.
They talk about the brain tumor. The interrupted career. The songs she never got to record. The future that was cut sho [...]

7 Reasons Survivors May Want to Read Taraji P. Henson’s Around the Way Girl
Sometimes the books that stay with Survivors aren't the ones written specifically about surviving.
Sometimes they are simply somebody telling the truth about her life.
Taraji P. Henson's memoir, Around the Way Girl, was pu [...]

Angie Stone, Roberta Flack & Gwen McCrae: The Power of Their Musical Legacy
Angie Stone’s Music Pulled Us Through—And Now, She’s Gone.
Angie Stone has passed, and somehow, it still doesn’t feel real.
During one of my lowest valleys, her music became my guide, my comfort, my reassurance that I [...]

The Wishing Tree With Alfre Woodard: A Beautiful Movie About Finding Your Way Home + Full Movie
Sometimes you want a movie that doesn't demand everything from you.
Something you can put on while folding clothes, answering emails, working on a project, cooking dinner, or finally dealing with that pile of papers that has [...]

How Singing is Surprisingly Good for Your Health
There's a vocal teacher on Youtube that I love, and I wanted to share her with you. Kristel Cherelle's approach reminds me of our choir teachers back in school who had faith in our ability to sing if only we understood technique [...]

10 Lessons Women Can Take From Star Jones, Al Reynolds, and Everybody Who Had Something to Say
There was a time when Star Jones and Al Reynolds seemed to be everywhere.
The proposal came at the 2004 NBA All-Star Game. Then came the enormous wedding, the vendors, the publicity, the photographs, the commentary and eventu [...]

7 Survival Lessons From Eve: Your Life Is Allowed to Have More Than One Act
Some chapters prove you can survive. Others remind you that survival was never supposed to be the whole story.
I love Eve's music.
Let me get that out of the way because, obviously. Tambourine. Love Is Blind. Let Me Blow Y [...]

Vanessa Williams Refused to Become the Worst Thing People Said About Her
Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect, and make everyone else deal with you the same way. -Nikki Giovanni
It was 1984, and Vanessa Williams was surrounded.
Only months earlier, she had made history as the f [...]

Some People Don’t Wait for Affirmation. They Give It to Themselves.
They did not wait for the world to settle the question of their worth. They kept something sacred for themselves: the authority to know who they were.
There is an old story about Diana Ross. "Call her Miss Ross."
[...]

There Are No Children Here: When Survival Makes a Child Grow Up Too Soon
In 1993, Oprah Winfrey starred in a television movie called There Are No Children Here. She played LaJoe Rivers, a Black mother raising her children in Chicago’s Henry Horner Homes, a public housing development where violence, p [...]

Survivor Affirmations: You Are Not Too Late for Your Own Life
Maybe the life you imagined for yourself was supposed to happen by now.
That is the part we don't always say out loud.
You thought you would have written the book by now. Started the business. Finished school. Traveled. Ma [...]
Steve Harvey Survived the Closed Door Because It Wasn’t His Only Door
There is something Steve Harvey has been saying lately that I think is worth hearing beyond the celebrity story.
Harvey has spoken about conflict he experienced with a powerful television executive and what he believes ha [...]

You Remember the Beat. But Do You Remember What Chubb Rock Was Saying?
I have been thinking about Chubb Rock’s “Treat ’Em Right”.
Maybe it is because I keep hearing people talk about hip-hop as though an entire generation of Black music can be summarized by the worst words anybody ever said on a [...]

Bob Mackie Set Beauty Free: Remembering a Designer Who Knew How to……
Before Bob Mackie dressed Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Cher, Dolly Parton and some of the most famous women in entertainment, Black women were already d-r-e-s-s-e-d.
Look at photographs of Black Americans from the 1920s, ’30s and [...]

Why Does He Get Angry When You’re Happy? When Your Joy Becomes a Problem in a Controlling Relationship
Inspired by.......
Why women’s laughter has long been treated as a threat | Psyche IdeasÂ
Posted by Amy Diehl, Ph.D on X.com
There is a scene television loves to give us before a man becomes violent with a [...]

Florida A&M Marching 100: They Gave Dolly Parton Her Flowers Like Black HBCU Bands Do
A great Black marching band performance is not casual praise. It is labor as praise.
Somebody had to arrange “9 to 5” for that instrumentation. Musicians had to learn their individual parts. Sections had to rehearse until they [...]
AFFIRMATIONS AND SELF LOVE
I Deserve Safety. Not Spectacle.
SurvivorAffirmations.com | Inspired by WeSurviveAbuse.com
You’re not here to entertain their curiosity.You’re not here to be pi [...]
HEALING JOURNEY
Not Defined by Them, Defined by Survival
✨ Affirmation ✨
I release the weight of their opinions, their names, their judgments.
I am not defined by what they said, thought, or tried to mak [...]
🌺 The Sacred Right to Be Seen, Loud, and Whole
There is a world that fears your full presence.Not just your voice — but your volume.Not just your story — but your entire truth.Not just your surviva [...]
Big Life Lessons That Teach Black Girls to Silence Their Pain: Um, The Hair (audio)
Are we teaching girls to ignore their pain? Are we teaching girls that their pain doesn't matter? Are we doing enough? Th [...]
When Reality Is Contested: How Survivors Protect Their Truth in Controlled Narratives
It’s about trust in what is real.It’s about who gets to define truth.It’s about whether change is organic or imposed.And it’s about whether people are [...]
Black Classics Reading List Created by Chelsea Yvonne
In the spirit of Juneteenth, free your mind!Â
These Black literary classics are worth a read or re-read.Â
Gratitude to Chelsea Yv [...]
I Can’t Educate the Willfully Ignorant While Healing Myself
SurvivorAffirmations.com | Inspired by WeSurviveAbuse.com
Some people don’t misunderstand you by accident.They misunderstand you on purpose.
They do [...]
CONFIDENCE/POWER/RESILIENCE
The Day the Women Came Together: The Nigerian Women’s War of 1929
It began with a question at a woman’s home.
Not a battlefield. Not a government building. Not a grand speech delivered before thousands of peop [...]
Survivor Affirmations: I Deserve to Be Seen in Gold
"Gold is not just what I wear—it's who I am."— SurvivorAffirmations.com
✏️ Reflection Prompt:
When do I feel most radiant in my skin?
[...]
The Truth About Family Outsiders (video)
From gogetterswantd on Tiktok.com:
The truth about family outsiders is..
They’re the ones that can see the wounds that the family ignores.
Th [...]

A Juneteenth Reflection for SurvivorAffirmations: Not a Bill. A Bridge.
Some of us grew up hearing about sacrifice in ways that hurt.
“I did everything for you.”
“After all I gave up.”
“You owe me.”
Tho [...]
HEALTHING JOURNEY
Survivor Must-Read Reading List: Black Widow by Leslie Gray Streeter
I've been familiar with the power of Leslie's pen for years. But when a storm of loss and change came around just when her beautiful memoir was [...]
Survivor Affirmation: Body, Mind, and Soul
elink.io | See Original
[...]
🧡 The Power of Telling Yourself: “I Am Safe.”
Some of us never heard those words growing up.Not when we were afraid.Not when we were hurting.Not even when we were in real danger.
So we learned to [...]
I Will Not Shrink to Fit Your Comfort: 12 Empowering Womanist Affirmations About Consent, Boundaries, and Self-Respect
The phrase “I will not shrink myself to fit your comfort” is a declaration of bodily, emotional, and spiritual autonomy. In the context of consent and [...]
BLACK GIRL, YOUR CREATIVITY HAS TRAVELED THE WORLD 🌍🤎
Look around.
Hair.
Fashion.
Dance.
Music.
Language.
Beauty.
Humor.
Style.
So much of what Black communities h [...]
She Is AMAZING
BLACK TEENAGE GIRLS HAVE AMAZING STORIES 📺
Before Moesha was writing in her journal, other Black teenage girls had been growing up on our television screens, because Black girls have amazing st [...]
7 Reasons Survivors May Want to Read Taraji P. Henson’s Around the Way Girl
Sometimes the books that stay with Survivors aren't the ones written specifically about surviving.
Sometimes they are simply somebody telling the t [...]
Denise Ho: 🌿Once You See It, You Can’t Go Back
“The greatest gift in this life is always more of me—and I am not going back to less.”
Denise Ho was a singer.
A successful one.
She had:
[...]
Survivor Affirmations: I Am Allowed to Be More than My Worst Decision
Maybe we don't have more talented female singers in mainstream markets these days because we never learned how to treat them?Â
There was something [...]
Survivor Affirmations: I Tend My Own Light (w video)
We might not be able to be friends and that's okay.
• Part of my healing is recognizing that not every person deserves access to my spiri [...]
Quotes from Harlem Renaissance Author Nella Larsen
✨ Nella Larsen was one of the most brilliant yet often overlooked voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in 1891 to a Danish mother and a West [...]
ART HEALS
🌺 Frida Kahlo: She Lived in a Body That Hurt—and Still Created Beauty
 For a long time I celebrated Frida's art and had no idea she lived in pain. I was truly spellbound by the art. As a young person, I thought the art w [...]
Selena Quintanilla: 🌿 She Brought Joy to the World. And We Will Not Ignore What Took Her.
Selena Quintanilla carried something extremely rare.
Joy that felt real.Warmth that reached people across language, culture, and place.A presence tha [...]
An Affirmation for Choosing How You Live
Anyone who danced the way Prince danced—with that level of athleticism, speed, torque, elevation, repetition,and especially in heels—understood early [...]
Survivor Affirmations: Deep Lessons in Self-Assurance
"You alone are enough." — Maya Angelou
Self-assurance is a quiet confidence rooted in knowing who you are. It doesn't require applause, constant ag [...]
JOURNALING/WRITING IN A HEALTHIER WORLD
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