"Our Kind of Women: A visual love letter to Black women redefining their prime" is the upcoming book by photographer and creator, Bessie Akuba. The book will be a compilation of intimate portraits, honest stories ... a celebration of reinvention, resilience, and blooming in our own time.
The Mission:
~ To redefine "prime."
~ Archive our stories.
~ Build an ecosystem.
I am honored to be included among the 100 Black women, ages 40-75, who are blooming on our own terms.
During the shoot and conversation, Bessie asked each of us to reflect on a question or theme. To me, she posed the question: Do you feel more visible or invisible in this season?
My response:
"I definitely feel more visible in this season and I believe the impetus of it was from something God said to me. Last year, one day in my prayer time, he said: be your full self. And it was a bit jarring because though I tend to show up outwardly in bold and audacious ways, I had been holding back parts of who I was ... pulling back and parsing out the measure that I believed people could take of me. And it was truly a real moment of reckoning; the woman that I hope to be in this world would tell other women to take up all the space they can.
So, I started trying to do it; letting little pieces of my nuances out, a bit at a time. And, if I’m honest, this takes practice because I was withholding what I thought would be deemed “too much” or misunderstood. It even showed up in how I honed my craft professionally and creatively.
As a writer and as a journalist, I believed that all of my power was in my words. But, now I realize it’s time for me to be out and to be using my voice. And the more I step out, the echoing response has been that it’s what people have been waiting for. Though I felt like I was hidden, I’ve been like a blinking light the whole time. As I have started to be my full self, I realize the real truth and depth in what has always been a guiding principle for me which is that anyone can do what I’m doing, but no one can be who I’m being."
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