After much thought and continuing planning, I’m back to blogging with purpose!

This week I am highlighting another divine sista’s work, Iresha Picot. Behavioral therapist, freedom fighter, doula, co-founder of The Assata’s Daughters Project, the Ntozake Shange School of Literary Thought, Black Feminist Working Group, and all around amazing woman! Pictured here are just some of the postcards that belong to this year’s edition of her “Summer for the Sistas” project. She explains it, thus:

Summer for the Sistas is a subversive project that was created by Iresha Picot to combat the rampant party flyers around Philadelphia that exploit Black Women for financial gain and reaffirms the image of the transparent Black Woman: always half-naked in a submissive pose with disjointed and fragmented body parts. This project serves as a need to de-center these damaging images and map out novel ones and compelling words that are dissident to our existence as Black Women. Summer for the Sistas includes [love] messages on the same type of glossy cards that we see these parties advertised on, instead, our cards will be a counter-hegemonic response to those and expound on love, beauty, self-respect, and acknowledgment through messages written by Sistas, for Sistas. Showing that Black Women can be subversive, intervene and transformative to other Black Women.

Today and everyday, I applaud this sister’s work! 

(Source: summerforthesistas.blogspot.com)

It would be…. PROTECTION

We must learn to shield ourselves from the imposition of others. All throughout life, all of our relationships with other human beings and all of our interactions with other human beings. We get projected upon ourselves day in and day out, moment in and moment out, from all others. We get dumped on with other peoples’ grievances, other peoples’ perspectives, other people’s ambitions, other people’s ways to love, other people’s idiosyncrasies, other peoples’ limitations, other people’s baggage! The fact that these people are in our spheres does reflect something about your point in growth in that given period in time, but the issues of that person are their own, just like yours are your own. They are their own selves just as you are your own self.

End now the time when you allow others’ limitations and visions of themselves to predict and dictate the limitations and visions of yourself. Release yourself and wash your SELF of all of those fingerprints!