Today, we are giving you Part II of Dr. B‘s Q&A segment for Mental Health Awareness Month. Below the break, you will find Dr. B’s insightful answers to your questions about relationships, depression, and social anxiety, among others.
Thank you so much to those who sent in questions and a very, very special thank you to Dr. B for her thoughtfulness and care in answering them.
As promised, our Mental Health Awareness month collaboration with Dr. Brittany Blackmon, a.k.a. Dr. B, is here! Dr. B is an LGBTQ affirming Clinical Psychologist and the owner of the empowerment-based organization, Dr. B Cares. She has graciously used her expertise to answer some of your toughest mental-health related questions.
In this first installment, Dr. B addresses topics such as coping with a breakup, how to know if you should seek therapy, and raising children with ADHD. Read on for more!
This week’s “Femme Voices” feature is Evelyn, creator of “100 Womxn of Color”. This photographer overcame obstacles in her life and emerged with a new purpose. Evelyn took a hobby that had been discarded during darker days and transformed it into her passion and a way to pay homage to others like her who have survived much. With “100 Womxn of Color”, Evelyn showcases the lives of 100 vibrant women of color as well as her own growing talent behind the camera as a photographer and art director. Through this alignment, Evelyn forges ahead to perfect her craft and bring affirmation to her existence and that of others.
Read more about Evelyn and “100 Womxn of Color” below!
V of BlackQueeMagic is this week’s “Femme Voices” feature interview. V’s story resonated with me on so many levels, from personal to professional. This self-made jewelry designer explains how she went from a job that was wearing her down to discovering her creative talents and turning them into a fulfilling career where she is able to help others. V also speaks about the period of reconciliation that she had to go through in order to embrace her Jamaican heritage yet still hold on strong to her self-worth and identity. These challenges are very relatable to those of us who struggle to find a balance between purpose and passion while navigating through the conventions of our culture. But despite these difficulties, V managed to overcome and flourish in her Black Queer Magic.
Learn more about V’s journey below the break!
Sunny is this week’s “Femme Voices” feature! Founder of “Yoniverse Talks”, Sunny is a birth worker who started her business after realizing how poorly women of color are treated when they seek medical treatment and the skyrocketing mortality rate of Black women during childbirth. Sunny offers many services, teachings, and products to help women through their fertility issues, childbirth journies, and even their trauma. Yoniverse Talks is centered around the idea that women of color must rally together to work towards healing and gaining access to safer and better quality healthcare.
Read on for more about Sunny and Yoniverse Talks!
The Glam Femme’s next “Femme Voices” feature is Majic Dyke, a performance artist whose dancing helped them find their voice. Also known as the “King of Beards and Titties,” Majic uses dancing in the drag king space to bring joy to the LGBTQ+ community and awareness to the masses. They confront the idea of gender by expressing the fluidity that they have embraced within themselves and sharing this experience with others. To Majic, performing is not on only an art form, it gives life to a path towards self-love and freedom.
Read on to find out more about Majic!
Credit: *D,Irvin Photography
Stephanie Raymond is a designer and founder of LezBReaL Fashionz and the subject of our next “Femme Voices” feature interview. She is a proud Haitian lesbian woman who puts all of her perspectives into her art. Stephanie is a true hustler, constructing custom designs for her clients while finding time to publically amplify her brand by exhibiting her work in fashion shows and representing her designs at events for various causes. She is extremely goal-oriented and gives some amazing advice on how to have faith in yourself and find your creative passions, even when the dream seems far away.
Read Stephanie’s full interview below!
Credit: Andre Cerezo
Avery Webster-Hobbs is our next “Femme Voices” feature interview. This artist uses bold colors to paint pieces that celebrate the feminine form. She focuses on a more natural aesthetic in her portraits, both with the backdrop and the figures that are the center of her “Femme Fuzze” designs. Avery’s art challenges the status quo on what is acceptable for those who possess a femme identity. As someone who values the support of a community, she uses her artistry to partner with small businesses in Brooklyn and encourages other artists to put their work out there as she has done.
Read below to learn more about Avery!
Sex educator, Jimanekia Eborn is our next “Femme Voices” feature. She infused her positive attitude and her desire to help people to create the career of her dreams, where she teaches people about sex as well as how to get through their trauma. Jimanekia has built her brand from the ground up so that she could find new ways of reaching people and assist survivors and allies in learning about healing. The work Jimanekia does is so important and truly inspirational. Read below to read her story!
We’ve all been here before: You meet someone. You immediately feel seen, exposed, and vulnerable in ways that you’ve never been before. You question everything you thought you knew about love. You make space for each other’s emotional traumas. You meet each other’s blood and/or chosen families. You book a Caribbean vacation, have incredible sex, and profess your love for each other under the moonlight.
You make the big leap to move in together and even though your partner has a beautifully renovated pre-war apartment with south-facing windows, you decide to sign a brand new lease together for the sake of fresh starts and equal partnership. And one day, when y’all are doing your joint laundry, commiserating about your cycles (which are now synced, by the way), you look at your beloved and think, “Damn, this has been the best four months of my life.”
Thanks to religion, colonization, sexism, systemic racism, and homophobia (honestly, the list could go on), queer couples — especially black + brown queer couples — historically make it their business to secure safe spaces to express themselves and their glorious love for each other. While its history is rooted in solving seemingly basic logistical issues, U-Hauling is a mainstay in queer relationships.
Whether or not your relationship is doomed, I’m rooting for you, sis. I’m only here to wax optimistic, illuminate some truths you’ve been hiding from, and ask all the hard questions. So based largely on my personal experiences and the stories my femme friends are kind enough to share with me, here is a list of four reasons that brown femmes U-Haul:
