
The Cabin Kids: Black Children, Beautiful Voices, and the Joy We Kept Singing Into the World
Black history holds more than what was done to us. It holds everything we created, loved, celebrated, and shared with the world.
Watching old footage of Black children singing warms my heart. Especially when you know the hist [...]

Edward Crawford Jr. Tried to Protect Children in Ferguson. We Should Remember His Story.
Remembering Edward Crawford Jr., Darren Seals, and the Ferguson protesters whose lives and deaths deserve more than silence.
There is a photograph from the Ferguson protests that many people remember, even if they do not reme [...]

Janet Jackson’s Control: The 1986 Album That Taught Young Women to Expect Respect
Before we had today's language for boundaries, emotional labor, and relationship expectations, Janet Jackson was singing about them.
In 1986, Janet Jackson released Control, an album that gave young women something worth list [...]
Why Are Women Expected to Compromise Their Safety?
Mistreatment can teach us the wrong lessons. It can teach women to question our instincts, ignore our discomfort, and mistake surrendering our boundaries for kindness, fairness, or compassion.
For example, a woman may say, "I [...]
I Don’t Have to Explain the Boundaries That Keep Me Safe
SurvivorAffirmations.com | Inspired by WeSurviveAbuse.com
You’ve explained enough.
Why you stayed. Why you left.Why you didn’t speak sooner. Why you did.Why you flinched. Why you disappeared. Why you blocked them.
Now they wa [...]
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 best—not because they couldn’t, but because they wouldn’t. These are for the [...]

Grief Comes Back Again and Again. So Can Love.
How remembrance, music, and personal tributes can help us live with loss
There is something especially beautiful about the hip-hop classic They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) by Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Released in 1992, the [...]
Inspired by Gil Scott-Heron: 10 Affirmations on Deserving Respect for Survivors
Gil Scott-Heron: A Man Who Understood That Respect Begins With Recognizing Humanity
Gil Scott-Heron (1949–2011) was an American poet, musician, author, and social commentator who understood that respect was about far more than [...]

Behind the Wall by Tracy Chapman: When a Woman’s Cries for Help Are Heard, but Help Never Comes
Some songs stay with us because they are beautiful. Others stay with us because they tell a truth that society has spent generations trying not to hear.
In 1988, Tracy Chapman released a song called “Behind the Wall” on her s [...]

Before “I Am Woman” Became an Anthem, Women Were Fighting to Be Heard: The Story Behind Helen Reddy’s Song
The history behind Helen Reddy's 1972 anthem, the rights women were fighting for, and what her story can teach Survivors about independence, solidarity, and finding their voices.
In 1972, Australian singer Helen Reddy release [...]
Who Did You Have to Become to Survive? A Gentle Introduction to Jungian Self-Reflection for Survivors
Exploring the parts of ourselves we learned to hide, the roles we learned to play, and the freedom to discover who we are today.
Sometimes we become so accustomed to being a certain kind of person that we forget we had other [...]
🎃 Black Sitcom Halloween Episodes: The Ultimate Watchlist for a Cozy Night In or a Watch Party With Friends
From Martin and Living Single to Girlfriends, Family Matters, Abbott Elementary, and more.
There is something special about revisiting the television shows that made us laugh growing up. The familiar theme songs, the characte [...]

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 [...]
AFFIRMATIONS AND SELF LOVE
Greg Louganis Was One of the Strongest Athletes in the World. That Didn’t Make Him Safe.
Greg Louganis knew what it meant to command his body.
At the height of his career, he could climb ten meters above a pool, laun [...]
HEALING JOURNEY
Holistically Rah | Why the Closest People Sabotage Your Healing (And What to Do About It)
Why do the people closest to you sabotage your healing? This powerful video exposes the hidden reasons behind their resistance—fear, control, and proj [...]
🕊 You Are the Reason They Built the Walls — Because You Could Walk Through Them
They told the story wrong.They said the walls were built to protect something holy.But the truth is — they were built to keep you out.
Because you co [...]
What I Survived Speaks Louder Than What They Say
✨ Affirmation ✨
What they say is fleeting—rumors, whispers, labels.But what I survived is eternal—it beats like a drum in my spirit.My scars sing lou [...]
Survivor Affirmation: My Scars Tell a Story of Strength
If you’ve ever worried that sharing your story makes you look weak—Let me remind you what your story really says:
Something struck me.Something t [...]
Why Hip Shaking Heals: How Women Reclaim Wellness Through Movement
Let them stare.Let them misunderstand.Let them mock what they do not know.
Because long before the world tried to shame it, hip shaking was healing [...]
Edward Crawford Jr. Tried to Protect Children in Ferguson. We Should Remember His Story.
Remembering Edward Crawford Jr., Darren Seals, and the Ferguson protesters whose lives and deaths deserve more than silence.
There is a photograph [...]
CONFIDENCE/POWER/RESILIENCE
💖 You Deserve to Feel Safe
Affirmations for Survivors Learning to Trust Peace Again
There is a kind of safety that isn’t just physical.
It’s emotional.Spiritual.Energetic.
It [...]

The Afro-Peruvian Woman Who Started Telling the Story She Couldn’t Find
Natalia Barrera Francis did not have to invent an Afro-Peruvian history. It was already there. Generations of Afro-Peruvian people had lived, worked, [...]
For the One Who Feels Ashamed of How She Survived
Some of us look back on how we coped, and the shame rushes in.
You didn’t tell.You froze.You smiled through it.You went back.You blamed yourself.You [...]
HEALTHING JOURNEY
THEY LET BLACK GIRLS BE LITTLE GIRLS 🎀
There was something precious about watching Rudy Huxtable.
Olivia Kendall.
Judy Winslow.
And the little Black girls who appeared across the s [...]
🌼 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 [...]
You Didn’t Ask to Be the Mirror
✦ [SurvivorAffirmations.com] ✦
Dear Survivor,
You didn’t ask to be the mirror.But here you are—living, healing, choosing joy.And without even tryi [...]
This Is Why I Study Our Art — Deeply, Tenderly, Proudly
There comes a time when I grow beyond saying:
“That’s just old.”
“Just something from back then.”
“Just music, just fashion, just dancing.”
No.
O [...]
For the Ones Who Keep Going When No One’s Watching
There’s a moment at the finish line of the New York City Marathon thatdoesn’t make the highlight reels.
It’s long after the crowds have thinned, afte [...]
She Is AMAZING
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 [...]
I Don’t Remember a World Before Dolly Parton
I think some artists enter your life so early that you cannot remember becoming a person without them. Their voices get mixed up with childhood itself [...]
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 [...]
WE GREW UP WITH THEM 🤎
There's something tender about realizing that some of the Black girls we watched on television aren't girls anymore.
Neither are we.
Kim Fields. [...]
Women Are the Source, Not the Punchline
“It is not inclusive to sit silent while people mock the beauty and humanity of women. That is not progress—it is plain old misogyny. The same misogyn [...]
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 [...]
ART HEALS
Janet Jackson’s Control: The 1986 Album That Taught Young Women to Expect Respect
Before we had today's language for boundaries, emotional labor, and relationship expectations, Janet Jackson was singing about them.
In 1986, Janet [...]
9 Quotes from Maya Angelou to Nourish the Survivor’s Soul (Part 1)
Updated for 2025
🌿 For the Survivor’s Journey
1. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
2. “You alone are eno [...]
Merry Christmas Brave and Courageous Survivors!
My feelings matter, even during the holidays. I’m allowed to honor them.
I choose to notice kindness instead of chasing app [...]
The Playlist: Funk, Soul, and Body Release
Some anxiety does not need another explanation. It needs a doorway out of the body.
Sometimes anxiety does not leave through thinking. Sometimes it l [...]
JOURNALING/WRITING IN A HEALTHIER WORLD
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