Yhanni & tribe via IG By Sharon Pendana Yhanni Jamila Brown, founder of Mama Makers Collective, a movement of mother creators, has embraced the lush glory of her natural mane all her life, rocking it all from super long locs to a super low Caesar. These days she keeps it simple with her thriving tribe of five: husband, Bobby and their…
Photo: Frederick V. Nielsen, II By Sharon Pendana Financial behaviorist, coach and author, Jacquette M. Timmons has two great obsessions: shoes, and getting people to see that “you don’t manage money – you manage your choices around money.” Though she left home at sixteen to study shoe design in New York City, an encounter with an Estee Lauder exec opened…
Photos of April Walker Courtesy of April Walker By Sharon Pendana When pioneering urban fashion designer April Walker was thirteen, she started kids gymnastics classes at Cadman Memorial Church in Brooklyn — not taking them, but teaching them — charging $5 per child. During high school, she combed the garment district for apparel to buy wholesale then resell at…
Photo of Tai Allen by Taylor Flash By Sharon Pendana Tai Allen is a multidisciplinary creative— poet, performer, music and event producer, graphic designer, to name a few of his many hats. He is also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. His recently published chapbook, No Jewels: A Biography (of sorts) Writ in Stanzas, through revelatory poetry uses his violation…
Glynda C. Carr (center) & Kimberly Peeler-Allen in discussion with Alexis McGill Johnson (Photo courtesy of Glynda C. Carr) By Sharon Pendana Since 2013, Higher Heights for America has been at the forefront of mobilizing America’s black, female citizenry at every level of civic engagement— local, state and national— rallying black women to not only exercise their right to vote but to…
Liza Jessie Peterson by Yoshinori Hashimoto By Sharon Pendana Liza Jessie Peterson is an “artivist,” her art and her activism conjoined. With a deep sense of justice, it is her Libran calling to balance its scales. “I’m an artist, but my advocacy is channeled through my art,” she says. “Everything I write about, everything I perform is through that lens.”…
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