This blog post was written in Fall, 2023, as I prepared the Brave Sis Perpetual Journal, and reflected back on four years of operating my love mission. I was seeking to merge the platforms of history, learning, awareness, and sisterhood for BIPOC women and their friends, and I was seeking the way of burnishing a stronger voice for the values many of us share as well as staring down into the abyss of backlash and retreat against pluralism, intersectionality, allyship, and a bunch of other aspirations. Today, as we live in a world that has greatly shifted beneath our feet, I and I hope you remain committed to our shared values. I hope that reflecting upon the bravery of those who have come before us can give us all anchor points for continuing the work.
As a journal, book, and #sistorylessons platform, Brave Sis Project has reached thousands of readers in at least eight countries, served dozens of foundations, social organizations, small businesses, and other groups, produced four editions of the world’s only combined guided journal and day-planner honoring Black and other BIPOC women in US history whose stories are too little known. It also feeds the work that I do as a thought leader, strategist, and coach — and my fire as a community builder, advisor and mentor.
I’m so thrilled to have published my book in spring 2023 through Workman Press that has garnered sales and fans in five continents—even though the focus is on American women. I really do hope to someday soon write a book on World Brave Sis!
(a colleague snapped my book on display at his local coffee shop in a Seattle neighborhood. Cooolio!)
In looking over these four years, I’m proud of how Brave Sis continues to elevate Black, Brown, Asian & Indigenous Foremothers and she-roes — and in so doing, helps women across cultures and geographies build a practice of deeper awareness, self-care, and pride. Clearly, in this work, there is something for everyone:
- Discovery and pride for Black and Brown women in discovering or remembering erased and/or little-known BIPOC women and reveling in our own legacy
- Recognition and celebration for the broader US—across cultures and ethnicities, as we learn that our stories and struggles are more interwoven than our faultily manufactured history lessons and mainstream, commercial (white-centered) culture avails to us
- And importantly, a heartfelt welcome to white women who join in the circle. I have always maintained that the white women who are fans of Brave Sis, are key members of our alliance — as they are the ones with the adjacency to white men. So, your awareness, understanding, and sisterhood is frankly, essential.
But I’m not going to sugar-coat the purpose in fireside-circle kumbaya. Of course, Brave Sis Project will continue to focus on pride, sisterhood, and celebration—but (and many of you have helped prod me in this direction) Brave Sis is PREDICATED UPON an agreement to de-center the whiteness norm and abolish performative allyship once and for all.
And with that, I’m really excited to be introducing a new layer to Brave Sis Project: new content, learning platforms, and events (including book events) that will point all us Brave Sisses towards ways to truly embody the spirit of the Foremothers.
(Take note, all posts to Instagram automatically post on the homepage of this website, towards the footer.)
Based on the stories and lessons of the women we celebrate, we will be doing more work to confront and understand privilege, the ubiquity of whiteness, devaluation, and erasure. To be honest, these are the reasons why so many of the now over 600 women in my “Brave Sis database she-roes are not household names. (Update: with my new book-in-progress, this is expanding to a global list!)
Celebration remains the order of the day, but the Foremothers are asking me to insert some more facts, interrogations, and mini-aha moments to move us closer to what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others called The Beloved Community: one that embraces and creates harmony among all in living together, a love which, as MLK said, “will bring about miracles,” and the vision that Fannie Lou Hamer may have been referring to when she uttered her famous words: Nobody’s Free Til Everybody’s Free.
For anyone who is new to Brave Sis, go to the Instagram feed and scroll down these past four years: there's a lot to discover!
Stay tuned, and thanks for you support and encouragement.
Rozella Kennedy