
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."
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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 [...]

Dance is a Weapon, a Womb, and a Journey Back to Ourselves
They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds. And we dance where they tried to end us.”
Across time and across oceans, African peoples have danced through grief, joy, resistance, and survival. For us, dance has n [...]
AFFIRMATIONS AND SELF LOVE
Affirming: Protect Your Power from Self-Doubt Seed Planters
This week, I wish you success in distancing yourself from people who plant self-doubt in women and girls. Many female S [...]
HEALING JOURNEY
From Shame to Strategy: How to Train Your Brain to Fail Smarter
 Learning about shame is so important. I've personally seen shame drive people to their very end.
Learning about shame is a life saver.
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đź’” When Healing Hurts (And It Will, More Than Once)
For the Survivor who wonders why healing feels heavy, not light.
Nobody tells you this part:
Healing doesn’t always feel like relief.Somet [...]
🌺 Survivor Affirmations Post: “I Don’t Exist to Be Understood by Those Who Harmed Me”
A reminder for the Survivor who’s ready to stop explaining her healing.
I used to spend my energy trying to be understood.Trying to soften [...]
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 [...]
From History to Present: Self-Care Through Yoga in the Black Community
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Your Fall Pain Reducing Anti-Inflammatory Recipes Most Everyone Can Prepare
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CONFIDENCE/POWER/RESILIENCE
The Healing Hum: A Sound Our Bodies Remember
Before we had language for healing…Before we knew the words nervous system or self-regulation…Many of us grew up in homes where someone hummed us th [...]
Survivor Affirmation: I Appreciate Me for Being Me (featuring poet Steven Willis w Youtube video link)
Affirmation: I speak to myself in the tone I once searched for in others—
gentle, unhurried, faithful to my becoming.
Oh how I love, adore, and a [...]

🌼 10 Signs You’re Healing—Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It
A love note to the Survivor who’s doing the hard work of rising, even when it doesn’t look or feel perfect.
Healing doesn’t always look the way we [...]
HEALTHING JOURNEY
Ketty Lester: Honor the Firsts, Remember the Closed Doors
Ketty Lester deserves more than a passing mention. She deserves the kind of appreciation that slows the room down.
Born Revoyda Frierson in Hope, Ark [...]
✨ Knowing My Body Is My Birthright. ✨
Knowing about my body and how it functions is not shameful.It is not taboo.It is not “too much.”
It is my right.As a woman.As a human being.As someon [...]
🌺 Survivor Affirmations Post: “I Am No Longer Waiting for Them to See Me”
A declaration for the Survivor who has outgrown invisibility.
There was a time I whispered, hoping someone would hear.A time I stood still, [...]
Are You Still Protecting People Who Never Protected You? 5 Powerful Questions to Break the Cycle
These affirmations are written with tenderness, truth, and a deep honoring of those who carry the ache of being raised by parents who did not do their [...]
Survivor Affirmations: I Complete Myself
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Finding Your Anchor: How to Prioritize What Matters in Times of Chaos
Man speaks out after climbing 19-story building during fire looking for his mother
In times of uncertainty, it is easy to feel pulled in [...]
She Is AMAZING
Great Re-Inventors: Eartha Kitt #courage #changeyourlife #comeback
When an American presidential administration attempted to blacklist and silence Eartha Kitt, she simply took her talents and skills overseas where [...]
🌤️ Clarity After Chaos, Grief, and Rain
There comes a moment — after the thunder, after the tears — when the air feels different.
It’s quieter.
Cleaner.
You can finally see what was [...]
Before We Called It Therapy, Black Folks Had the Stage
There is an old kind of healing that many Black Americans know, even if nobody ever gave it a clinical name.
Some of us met it in a church basement [...]
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 w [...]
9 Quotes from Maya Angelou to Nourish the Survivor’s Soul (Part 2)
Updated for 2025
🌟 Resilience & Strength
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced [...]
ART HEALS
Soul Train: Where art became cross-cultural language
Soul Train. Soullll Train. The hippest trip in America.
 I was in front of my television nearly every Saturday morning and pouted when I couldn't be. [...]
Great Re-Inventors: Eartha Kitt #courage #changeyourlife #comeback
After being blacklisted in the United States in 1968, Eartha Kitt had several choices. She chose to find new doors and soar.
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7 Ways Listening to Sad Music Can Relieve Sadness (podcast recording)
Podcast Episode Link
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The Harlem Photos That Were Hidden for 40 Years
These photos are evidence of resilience.
In 1970, New York City was officially collapsing. The media called it "Fear City." But while the world saw [...]
JOURNALING/WRITING IN A HEALTHIER WORLD
WE Survive Abuse Podcast

















