Brave Sis Project #SistoryLessons

August is National Black Business Month, a designation created in 2004 to spotlight Black-owned enterprise in an economy that has never made room for it easily. For this issue of #SistoryLessons, I got to thinking about the legacy of Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous small businesswomen and what we owe them in tribute today. I include myself in this category, as we celebrate the relaunch of Brave Sis Project 3.0! Check out the website and the many offerings—and consider a purchase of a...

Dancin' Queens When I was a little girl, I was too self-conscious to dance. Anyone who knows me today finds that impossible to believe. But in my young years, the world was a little less diasporic, and "dance classes" was generally the classical forms, also not financially within reach for this young kid in Spanish Harlem. Even a free class wouldn't have beckoned me; there was nothing about me that was primed for ballet (pun intended), and, for reasons I can't figure out, I was (and still...

Before Serena: 5 Sports Foremothers Who Broke the Color Lines and Expanded Access... I often enjoy watching the ESPYs, sports broadcaster ESPN's version of the Academy Awards. They take place this year on the day before Major League Baseball's All-Star Game and just a few days before the FIFA World Cup final, so it's likely to be a moment when many people are hyped up on team and individual athletes. Even if I don't know many of the players (US football and hockey hold no thrall for me), it's...

Strummin' Foremothers How many of you knew that June is Black Music Month? This celebration has been officially on the books since 1979, at the urging of the Black Music Association—an industry coalition co-founded by Kenny Gamble of Philadelphia International Records, music executive Ed Wright, and broadcaster Dyana Williams (who is widely credited with proposing the month itself)—President Carter signed the first proclamation on June 7 of that year. That's 47 years ago! (Note: President...

Dear friends, At Brave Sis Project, we are doing our part to respond to our current social and political moment. In a post-DEI world, where fracture and division have become too common, we want to hold onto the legacy of the Foremothers who have inspired us since our founding on Christmas Day, 2019. They faced unimaginable hardship and challenges, in an era where solidarity was mostly a pipe dream. In 2026, our headwinds are many, but we believe in the future they dreamt for us, and it’s our...

Proud of Them I've been thinking about this fact that this is Pride month. As a society, we are being asked to “celebrate” Pride 2026 in a context where LGBTQIA+ people—and those who stand with them—are watching their rights erode in real time. Coded homophobia has become overt, and "hysteria-over-data" attacks on trans lives are too commonplace. In corporate America, so many so-called inclusion commitments by institutions who used to call themselves equity leaders just dissolve before our...

Pacific Rim She-Roes To conclude AAPI Heritage Month, this edition of #SistoryLessons commemorates three women from East Asia whose stories are too little known—even within Asian communities, let alone beyond them: Ume Tsuda, Xue Jinqin (Sieh King King), and Pearl Mark Loo. In a moment when immigrant communities are being scapegoated, jailed, and expelled, when history is being erased from classrooms, and when the rights of women and minorities are under sustained assault, and when far too...

Pacific Rim She-Roes We are going to kick off AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Month with a serious interrogation. While I’m genuinely delighted that we set aside time each year to appreciate, learn about, and uplift Asian and Pacific Islander people, cultures, and histories, we also have to ask how and why such a vast and diverse geographic region gets lumped together under this “AAPI” label. I often wonder: what do we lose when we lean on this kind of shorthand—what happens to...

Culture-Keepers: Writing Story to Keep Self, Hope, and Legacy Alive For this edition of #SistoryLessons, I'm thinking a lot about women’s voices in the face of adversity. Whether we have loved ones in harm’s way, are ourselves facing precarity, or are just highly attuned to the suffering of others that seems so dominant in our headlines as to be nearly “normalized,” we are all finding ways to navigate levels of adversity that feel quite unprecedented. In these moments, I’m inclined to think...