The Love Note is a blog highlighting various aspects of the Black femme experience through conversations, reflections, and story-telling from different Black femmes. Curated by our founder & creative director Olivia Fenty, this space will portray the ever-changing and complex journey that is the Black femme experience.
|
Intentionality & Creativity: an oral interview w/ Filmed By Gutta"An idea might come to me in April, and I won't sit down and actually get to work on it until, like, June. Then there's some days where an idea comes to me, and that same night at 3am I'm doing a deep dive on Pinterest and looking through my magazines and watching old interviews and documentaries on YouTube. So I think my creative process is kind of all over the place, and it differentiates based on my head space and my environment and my reality. And, yeah, it can look really, really, really, really messy......" read more |
Of Her Own Making:
|
|
|
Intentionality & Wellness:
|
Music & Community building: an oral interview w/ DJ RAYVINO aka Rayven"So I definitely do think that my identity as a black and gender-fluid person definitely influences my practice as a DJ, mostly because I personally feel like a lot of pioneers when it comes to creative process with any medium usually starts with a black person, specifically black trans women".
read more |
|
|
Re-imagining liberation through creativity: an oral interview w/ Mercedes
"In my opinion, full and total liberation for black LGBTQ plus folks looks like the continued unabashed goal to be whoever it is that we want to be. This means showing up how we can in spaces, whether or not they're built for us, and owning our experiences, taking back the power and agency of our own bodies and our minds. Reclaiming the narrative".
read more |
Creativity & reflection: an oral interview w/ content creator Jay
" I definitely feel like the changes around me pushed changes in my creative practice and it made my content better. I wanted to experience something different. I wanted to try something new. As things are changing around me, I just feel the need to adapt to the things that are happening and just do what feels right in the moment".
read more |
|
|
Mental health awareness month edition: oral interview w/ Saddie Baddies founder Priscilla
"So I think first and foremost, softness is about compassion. It's about self-compassion, it's about being somewhat... You're being your own friend. And I think I'm finally at the place now where I am my own friend, I am my own cheerleader, in a lot of ways, I am also still working through being hyper-critical of myself."
read more |
Creative conversations w/ Monewade - an oral interview"I hope black femmes can identify all the ways that they already practice creativity, because we’re already in the practice, we’re already creators, we’re already all artists, and I think once we're able to identify that and all the way that we practice creativity, whether it be here or our style, or just how we move about in the world".....
read more |
|
|
Wellness & organizing w/ Queen-Cheyenne
"We must see the need for healing, justice and liberation as interconnected to one another. It is not something any of us can reach on our own but through collective practices of healing, collective visions of justice and liberation; we move together towards care that hopes everyone in their complexities and needs..."
read more |
Black Motherhood w/ Atahja
"It is the little things that help to keep you grounded when you feel you are losing the balance between motherhood and self care"....
read more |
Mental Health & intimacy: an oral interview w/ Tara M.
"As a Black woman I feel like I've been in a people pleaser role time and time again, that sometimes it's hard to even explore to explore what I actually desire, when I'm not so concerned with making somebody else happy"....
read more |
- to be
"With that being said, loving ourselves fully and
publicly does not align with the narrative Black girls have been feed since birth. It makes us the focal point of all the love we are meant to “give away”. |
|
- an intimate conversation with a healer: Moe
|
|
"Being a healer isn’t only about triggering healing within others, it’s being true to yourself so that you can relay truths to others and part of being true to yourself is digging up parts of yourself that you hide, disregard or need to pay attention..."
read more |
A space for and by Black femmes