The eighth episode of the audio series, THE AYA TALKS, has made one thing absolutely clear. Women are magical. I am not saying that to flatter or sound trendy. Women are endowed with powers that defy logic and reason. I recall how Prisca Munkeni Monnier, the sultry and enormously gifted photographer put it in our…Read more »
Tag: self-care
The Writing of Our Narratives in Mind, Body & Lineage: Meet Stéphanie Melyon-Reinette, Guadeloupean social researcher and multi-faceted creative
In Mousmée, the Diary of an Orchid Woman, an exploratory artistic piece that soulfully combines poetry, music, dance and language, Stéphanie Melyon-Reinette in tandem with Martinican musician Gérald Toto, talks about love, intimacy, sexuality in ways that reminded me of Edouard Glissant’s decolonial rendering of the process of creolisation as innately universal and intrinsically connected…Read more »
Holistic Artistry & Universal Healing: the Inspiring Journey of Clarisse Libene, Healer, African Natural Practitioner & Transformational Coach
As I sat reading articles upon articles on heightened stress levels, parental burnouts, depression, anxiety and fear of loneliness in times of global pandemic and social chaos, I kept reminding myself of our individual and collective capacity to heal but also to love despite it all… and mind you… over time. Of course there are…Read more »
When Being Black, Angry and Woman Becomes A Trajectory for Liberation: Meet Wonder Visual Storyteller, Prisca Munkeni Monnier
There is something infectious about this petite yet larger than life, all-around creative who goes by the name of La Furie Photographe (“Fury” in French is a feminine noun albeit it can be used to describe a man or a woman). And it is that moniker that led me to her photography… at first. I…Read more »
The Depth of Our Blackness: How Parisian singer Doris has made peace with her many selves
What I have always thought was a sly almost provocateur tilt in her head when posing, or in the way her gaze met the lens of the camera is actually what is so rare to find in the many afro-caribbean entertainers in Paris and France at large. Yet it is simply the mere sense of…Read more »
Meet Aïssé N’Diaye, A Resolutely Afropean Creative Powerhouse
You may have seen celebrity creatives sporting those uber vintage, crazy sexy cool t-shirts or sweaters with stunning photos of African family portraits or known African proverbs in Paris, New York or Accra and paused… perhaps even,wondered who was behind the name, the brand, the hype,… Afrikanista. Well, no need to look any further, her…Read more »
Womb Care, Self-Preservation, Solidarity & Laughter: My “Black Herstory” Month Manifesto
There is something about this year, about 2019 that calls for softness, gentleness, deep and authentic well-being… maybe because the world is everything but soft, but gentle, but reassuring. I guess part of this visceral yearning comes from wanting time to slow down, to skip a beat, to pause so as to let life unfold.…Read more »