Across the web, Black women are producing incredible content on a wide range of topics. We've come across these 8 pieces by Black women that deserve your attention.

by Faye McCray

I have always been nervous about having a daughter.  I have two sons and when I was pregnant with each one, I breathed short sighs of relief when the doctor pointed to the third leg waving back at us on the ultrasound screen.  It was not that I did not want a girl.  I am really close to my mother, and I know the lifelong friendship a good mom can have with her daughter.  It was just as a thirty-two year old former awkward black girl, I know all the wounds and healing it takes to grow into a confident woman.  Having my own daughter would be like reliving them.  However, as my eldest son enters school age, I am starting to realize boys struggle with issues in beauty and identity just as readily as girls.

The other day, I was reflecting on experiences I’ve had at the intersections of dominant White culture and my identity as a Black woman. Given my spiritual background (nondenominational Christian), a lot of these intersections have happened at churches. And I can’t tell you how many churches, community groups, Bible studies, and even campus ministries from my college days told me that they wanted to “do life” with me. They wanted to help me grow spiritually. They wanted to offer me a community to grow within.

by Janice Fuller-Roberts

The enormous popularity of certain reality TV shows would have us believe that true friendship between African American women is as anachronistic as rotary telephones and record players.  From the dramatic cuss-out, smack-down scenes featuring Nene, Phaedra, Kenya or K. Michelle, you’d think Black women were incapable of being friends at all.

by Dana L. Stringer
Whenever an African American woman displays qualities synonymous with strength, she is characterized as a “strong Black woman.”

The popular phrase is one of the most highly coveted compliments bestowed upon Black women, yielding a deep sense of pride and validation.

By most accounts, it is considered a virtue to be strong, garnering respect for a race of women whose journey has often been one of struggle and hardship.

by Yirssi (@Yirssi)

I live in a world that tries to police both my body and my sexuality. Different people, during different and unrelated conversations, feel the need to tell me how long I should wait to have sex with a new partner. My father thinks I should wait until I get married again. My friend and coworker thinks I should wait six months. My brother says 4 months, and the movie “Think Like a Man, Act Like a Lady” says 90 days. And of course, most of the men I go on dates with try to get into my skirts as quickly as possible.

Uterine fibroid tumors are one of the leading causes of hysterectomies in African-American woman. Throughout the years, my doctor had diagnosed and treated mine with a ‘don’t bother them unless they’re bothering you’ mindset.  Approximately four years ago, I woke up bothered. A large fibroid had interfered with the flow of blood to my left leg, causing a blood clot.  A clot that, had left undetected, could’ve traveled to my heart and killed me.

We're nearing the end of Women's History month, but we want to make sure that the learning about Black women's histories continues. We've selected 15 historical texts to help you delve deeper into Black women's past.

YouTube allows talented men and women who would otherwise go un/underrecognized to create their own platforms to share their work. Black women are doing this brilliantly. They're building audiences and producing web video that showcases their talent offers an alternative to handful of portrayals of Black womanhood that we may get in mainstream arenas. These five women are cracking us up regularly on their channels, and we're grateful for it.

It was the beginning of Women’s History month and I was looking forward to joining my housemate to see a film written and produced by filmmaker Jennifer Lee, titled: Feminist Stories from Women's Liberation, 1963-1970.

I also wanted to start the month off by honoring the many Black and Women of Color (WOC) feminists/womanists whose shoulders I stand on. While this piece is not intended to be a review of Lee’s work, it did, however spark some internal dialogue and thinking about feminism that I want to flush out.

Dear Tyler Perry,

I know you don’t know me but I am a huge fan of your work and your journey. I was first introduced to your work in the lounge of my dorm my senior year in college. One of my dorm mates acted like a Tyler Perry evangelist. He kept folks up all night watching videos of your staged plays. I remember being woken up in the middle of the night by the howling laughter of my friends watching your plays. Fast forward over 10 years later and you have gone from being an obscure playwright to … well… you know who you are. And I am so proud of who you have become and how you have created something huge from absolutely nothing.

My mother always told me with a hint of disappointment that my brother had hazel eyes when he was born, and then after a day, they changed to brown. She swore they were the same color as my uncle’s who had, what she calls, “Paul Newman eyes.”

The way she tells it, women couldn’t resist those eyes; even men gave him respect. In an ideal world, he would have been a movie star or the leader of the free world, but instead he was a hustler doing things most of us wouldn’t dare. Like attaining a top administrative position at the most prestigious hospital in Toledo, with barely a GED. Legend says he didn’t even have that.

A judge has scheduled a Sept. 15 trial date in the case of a Detroit police officer charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones.

Prosecutors pursued the second trial for Officer Joseph Weekley, whose first trial ended without a unanimous verdict last year. The trial date was set Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Quite frequently do we discuss the challenges that Black boys face in the classroom, but a new study released by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights compels us to think about how racial discrimination in schools disproportionately affects Black girls.

The study, compiled from data from 2011 and 2012 in 97,000 public schools across the country, found that Black children are suspended at shockingly high rates.

by Krystalyn Azikiwe (@CafeUzuri)

Two weeks removed from my return, I sit pondering the possibilities of my next trip abroad. I have officially been bitten by the travel bug and taken hostage by wanderlust. My inaugural solo trip abroad took me to the sanctity of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the hustle and bustle of City Centre in Nairobi, and the mesmerizing white sands of Mombasa. With barely any itinerary in hand I let the wind be my guide.

by Lyndsey Ellis

I bought my first cassette tape when I was 9 years old. It was TLC’s debut album ‘Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip’. I remember begging my mom to take me to the neighborhood music store, buying the tape with my allowance money, ripping the plastic off, and popping it into my cassette player as soon as I got home. I read the jacket cover from front to back more times than I can remember and engaged in sing-a-longs with my best friends on the phone many nights. We used to argue over who would be Chili because we all loved her vocal ability.

If you're in the United States, today you'll see activist Dorothy Height represented in the Doodle at the top of your screen. Dr. Height would have been 102 years old today.

Like many of the women whose work were integral to the success of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-century, Dr. Height's contributions are often overlooked in historical texts.


She helped plan the March on Washington in 1963, and even sat on stage with Martin Luther King, Jr as he gave one of the most remembered speeches in history.

But Height would not become a noted name in the movement until many years later.

Height was born in Richmond, Va., on Mar. 24, 1912, but grew up outside of Pittsburgh. She was awarded an Elks scholarship, and graduated from New York University in 1932 with a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in psychology. Though Height was admitted to Barnard, she could not enroll because she was Black.

She went to work as a caseworker in New York’s Welfare Department, and began volunteering in support of civil rights activism.


Dr. Height's work has been recognized nationally. She was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

President Barack Obama called Dr. Height "the godmother of the civil rights movement" upon her death in 2010.

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Kimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or Follow @KimberlyNFoster

It’s likely you’ve seen Academy Award-winning actress,  Lupita Nyong’o in photos and followed by a sea of one-word comments that sum her up existence like, “Yaaaass,” “Flawless,” Beautiful” and “Stunning.” Tapped for her beauty, intellect and all around delightfulness, she’s been praised for her classic fashion choices and perfect cocoa complexion. Mainstream critics can’t get enough of her, but for black girls especially, we seem to love seeing ourselves and the image that wasn’t always considered beautiful take center stage.

by Audrey Elisa Kerr

My children are upstairs pretending to be dogs eating the carcass of their mother who has recently died. At first I took it personally, then I remembered that had I not given them “Benji” to watch (it is far more violent than I remembered) they might be playing something else. Anyway, their absurd theater of mother-consumption conveniently speaks to a larger issue: much of the creativity demonstrated by children is inspired by mimicry, and the range of their exposure largely dictates the depth of their creativity.

by dara mathis

I have watched Shonda Rhimes’ drama series Grey’s Anatomy for nearly its entire nine-year run. When the show returned from its mid-season break in late February, I noticed not many other Black women on my Twitter timeline tweeted about it. Although Grey’s paved the way for Rhimes’ future success with Private Practice, her flagship show does not appear to have the large Black female following that Scandal does.

Love Laz Alonzo & surprises? He's teaming up with Lexus for a special Tweet Chat about all things Lexus and the #Hybridlife from health, to style, to his new Lexus CT.

by Rev. Dominique C. Atchison

Like many people of African descent, the issue of skin color is a theme in my family narrative. My mother’s mother was the dark-skinned one of 2 sisters. If you go a gathering my mother’s side of the family you may hear references being made to someone simply named “Black.” “Black” was the nickname given to my mother’s father who was apparently the one with the darkest skin in his family. And apparently my father was derisively referred to as “Smokey” because he was the only dark-skinned person in a family full of light-skinned people. The theme of being the only dark-skinned one in one’s family is a theme that repeats itself in my ancestry.

by Kendra Ross

“In a culture of domination, we are taught to devalue care.” – bell hooks

Last fall, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in an intimate event called a “sister circle”. It was hosted by faculty and staff of The New School, and presented in conjunction with a weeklong residency at the university featuring esteemed feminist scholar/cultural critic, bell hooks. The informal gathering consisted of a dozen or so women of color who were invited to join dr. hooks in a discussion about their lives and work, current events, and whatever else came up in conversation.  It was truly a life changing experience for me to commune with a room full of women (none of whom I knew personally) in a safe space where we were able to expose our vulnerabilities and share our stories.

Tyler Perry's latest feature film "Single Mom's Club" took in $8.3 million at the box office this weekend though it was predicted to take in double that amount.

The film starred Nia Long, Amy Smart, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Zulay Henao, Cocoa Brown and Perry as Long's romantic interest.

Britney Cosby's mother, Loranda McDonald, told KHOU that James Cosby had expressed his dissatisfaction with his daughter's sexuality.

Lately I have found myself running across Danielle LaPorte's "Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be" quote. This quote has been the lyrics to my song of freedom. As I sit and reflect on what these words mean to me, I cannot help but think about every moment I've spent in conversations with friends and family, or every message received by media, instructing me on who and what I should be.

by Janice Fuller-Roberts

Recently, the news and the Internet have been abuzz with stories about Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and pop star Beyoncé Knowles and their mission to ban the word “bossy” as it applies to girls and women.  Their campaign makes sense.  It’s no secret that in America, attributes praised in men are often vilified in women.  Where a man is bold, confident, daring and a real “go-getter”, a woman is aggressive, bitchy, cocky or a “ball-breaker”.  In other words, assertive girls and women get called “bossy”.

According to the latest reports from the Labor Department, Black women are fairing particularly well in the improving economy.

by Bee Quammie

Intersections are a funny thing. When driving up to one, you hope that everyone meeting in the middle stops appropriately, proceeds appropriately, and merges as needed. Everyone essentially needs to stay in their respective lanes, and failure to do any one of these things can be detrimental.

by Veronica Hilbring

What does it mean to Never say No?

I recently attended a bridal shower where other married women offered advice to my friend, the bride-to-be.

The most consistent words of advice given to her were, "Never Say No," or better known as never deny your husband sex.

by Kathy Garland

There have been many responses about my natural hair. The most common of which I have become accustomed to is the African-American cashier’s response.

Asked to identify the age of a young boy that committed a felony, participants in a study routinely overestimated the age of black children far more than they did white kids. Worse: Cops did it, too.

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, aimed at figuring out the extent to which black children were likely to be treated differently than their white peers solely based on race. More specifically, the authors wanted to figure out the extent to which black kids were dehumanized. "Children in most societies are considered to be in a distinct group with characteristics such as innocence and the need for protection," author Phillip Atiba Goff of UCLA told the American Psychological Association. "Our research found that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent."

by Lachelle Watson

Giving and receiving advice is an integral part of sisterhood. We bond through vent sessions, consoling one another after break ups and giving words of encouragement that provide the strength to continue pressing on. Those moments have such a large impact on how much we value our relationships with one another and even on how we perceive ourselves as friends, sisters and women.

A new study shows that black women tend to have higher rates of high blood pressure than any other group.

According to a new study out of Vanderbilt University, black women are much more likely to have high blood pressure than black men, white women or white men.

by Audrey Elisa Kerr

Last year, University of Virginia professor W. Bradford Wilcox -- Director of the National Marriage Project – did an interview wherein he asserted that being raised by a single mother is among the worse scenarios for children, even if you are not desperately poor.

Former Miss Kentucky Djuan Trent revealed her sexuality in a blog post last month after her home state’s ban on recognizing out-of-state gay marriages was ruled unconstitutional. The state is in the midst of an ongoing battle over marriage equality.

On February 20, Trent wrote on her blog that she is "queer."

by Tikia Hamilton

“You think about race too much,” a friend recently messaged me in response to one of my social media posts.  A Latina woman from New York, she insisted that, were I to adopt a more “color-blind” outlook during my interactions with people, I’d find greater peace. It’s possible.  Given the absurd racist encounters I seem to experience quite frequently, perhaps it is true that I need to take my friend’s advice and “see race” less. Then, too, I must learn to mind my own business, as she also urged me to do. Perhaps in this way, I will avoid the type of blow-ups that seem only to occur to folks, like me, who just might be living our lives with a bit of a racial chip on our shoulders.

by Tasasha Henderson

For the past few months on twitter, my timeline was inundated with discussions about feminism; what it is and isn’t, who is or isn’t a feminist, White feminism, Black feminism, and on and on and on. Listening to Beyonce’s new album and following the discussion about whether or not the album is feminist (@thetrudz has a great post about the Black feminism of Beyonce’s album, here), got me thinking about my first exposures to feminist ideals, which, aside from the women in my community, was through music.





Of course as a kid I didn’t know the lyrics of the music I loved so much were feminist, but they really did make a great impact on me. As a young Black girl, I just thought it was so cool to see women who looked like me singing and rapping in a language I understood. Even at a young age I did comprehend the meanings of many songs, in particular Salt N Pepa’s "Ain't Nothin But a She Thing" and "None of Your Business," Karyn White’s "Superwoman," TLC’s "Waterfalls," En Vogue’s "Free Your Mind," and Queen Latifah’s "U.N.I.T.Y.."

There are some people who like to say that Black music lost its radical or social consciousness after the 70s, but I don’t agree with that; there was still much social commentary in Black music in the 90s, especially with the increasing popularity of Hip Hop, some of it outwardly political, some of it more subtle. If we examine the lyrics of R&B songs, particularly by female artists, much of  it exposes and resists various forms of abuse; songs that immediately come to mind are Cheryl Pepsii Riley’s "How Can You Hurt the One You Love ," the aforementioned Superwoman, and Eve’s "Love Is Blind."

I also love the openness of women artists in expressing their sexual needs to their partners. Women often have a hard time demanding that our needs be met in relationships with men because we don’t want to be perceived as “hoes” and have been fed the message that sex is something we give to men for their pleasure not something that is a form of intimacy that people mutually engage in and receive pleasure from. Mary J. Blige’s "Slow Down" and Janet Jackson’s "Let's Wait Awhile" speak to women demanding respect from men by not having sex until she’s ready, which is also important. Salt N Pepa’s None of Your Business is the business, in regards to resisting the public policing of black women’s sexuality; who a woman has sex with and how many is not up for public discussion and regulation.

Janelle Monae’s album The Electric Lady is one of my favorites released last year, and it recently dawned on me that a song on the album, Ghetto Womans a direct descendant of Marlena Shaw’s Woman of the Ghetto . Both songs are tributes to Black women, in the hood, who struggle everyday to survive and create a good life for their families. There’s no scorn or shame of Black mama’s in the hood, only love and respect. Here are a few lyrics from each song:

Ghetto Woman

Carry on Ghetto Woman
I see you working night to morning light yet no one cares;
Carry on Ghetto Woman
Cause even though they laugh and talk about the clothes you wear
I wish they could just realize
That all you’ve ever needed was someone to free your mind
Carry on Ghetto Woman
Cause even in your darkest hours I still see your light

Woman of the Ghetto

I am a woman
I am a woman
I am a woman, yes I
I said that I am,
I mean that I am,
I’m the woman, I’m the woman, I’m the woman of the ghetto
Strong, true,
A woman
A woman



Another artist who I feel truly speaks to the lived realities of girls and women in the hood is Afro-Latina R&B singer Deemi. Her raw honesty about the experiences she’s had with domestic violence, poverty, relationships, and motherhood cut deep to the bone.

Feminist and/or womanist ideals have always been expressed in black music by women artists, from Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Betty Davis, to Queen Latifah, TLC, Salt N Pepa, Beyonce, Joi, and Janelle Monae. I plan on writing more about feminist and womanist ideals in Black music, revisiting some albums with a more open mind and knowledge of the need for nuance in these discussions.

by Audrey Elisa Kerr

The obnoxious behavior started before I was even hired.

At my interview to become the second black, tenure-track faculty member (and first black woman) at a large University, I was pleased to see a black face in the crowd. After my job talk, as I chatted eagerly with the university’s provost, the black man from the audience walked over, stood between the provost and me and said to me,“I need to talk to you, now please.” The sea of white faces around me looked both horrified and embarrassed

I have spent the past year immersed in pornography. Hard nipples and gyrating flesh flashed at me under raining dollar bills in almost every music video. I was uncomfortable, yet I was enticed. I wanted to mimic the kittenish poses and sensual moves of the models and dancers in front of me.

by Charday Ward

The 2014 Academy Awards was a night of victory not only for Lupita Nyong’o, John Ridley and the entire cast and production of 12 Years a Slave, but also for all Black Americans, past, present and future.  12 Years A Slave is Black History; by depicting the autobiographical details of Solomon Northrup’s kidnapping and subsequent enslavement, it tells the story of the struggle enslaved Black people endured and triumphed through. With truthfulness and grace it exposes an ill of early American history, and reminds us from whence we came and why we should be proud of both our ancestors and ourselves. Because our story was recognized and celebrated, we were all made winners this award season.

by Demetria Jackson

In February, my partner and I celebrated 9 years together.

For those of you already doing the math in your head - yes, that means we were high school sweethearts.

The thing about being high school sweethearts is that you grow up together and in that process you, of course, make a lot of mistakes. You’re both trying to figure out what adulthood looks like for you, as an individual, and then also trying to compare it with what adulthood looks like for you as a person in a long-term relationship. It’s a hard, trying process; but it’s worth it.

by Jenifer Daniels of The Friendraiser

“You’re just mad that I am smarter than you.” I remarked to my parents.

My mother laughs as she recounts that day. She laughs because it was true but she also laughs because the same could be said today by my 7 year old daughter.

My daughter Jordan, has an IQ of 134. She began reading at age 3 and received her membership to MENSA this past December. My daughter is smarter than me.

Oprah and Jay Z may be BFF now, but there was a time when Oprah was not hesitant to express her distate for the misogyny in the genre. While Oprah invited hip hop artists like Kanye West, Puff Daddy, and LL Cool J on her show, she made it clear that she would not tolerate certain discourse in the music. On her eponymous show back in the late-2000s, Oprah publicly called out rap artists like 50 Cent, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg for their misogynistic lyrics.

by Lyndsey Ellis

I had a friend in middle school who hated her skin. She was always poking at herself in the mirror, dying to be that celebrated redbone with fine hair and big thighs. She was one of the first girls I knew who started wearing foundation, and it was always several shades lighter than her natural tone. She didn’t even like to use lotion because she thought it made her look all shiny and "Buckwheat-ish."

The 2014 Forbes Billionaires list is out and there's a whole new line up of business women that have ranked highly.  42 of the 268 newcomers are billionaire women. That brings the total number of women to 172.
Forbes counts 1,645 billionaires in the world. From what we can see, less than a handful of Black women made the list including: Oprah $2.9B, Angola's Isabel dos Santos $3.7B, and Nigeria's Folorunsho Alakija $2.5B.

by Bee Quammie

When you need a shoulder to lean on, who do you turn to? A significant other? A best friend? A close family member? Have you ever thought to lean on yourself? I’ll tell you how I do it - with self-addressed letters. Allow me to explain.

I’ll never forget the first day of tenth grade. “Pull out your pens and paper,” my English teacher said. “For the next 30 minutes, I want you to write a letter to yourself.”