When Black Women Walk, Things Change. #GirlTrek

Walking is the single most powerful thing a woman can do for her health. From Harriet Tubman to the women in Montgomery when black women walk things change. Vanessa & Morgan: Co-Founders Back in March, our Aunt Lisa invited us and a couple of other women to her house for a Harriet Tubman Day celebration where she introduced to us: GirlTrek. We had no idea what it was at the time but she asked us to come and we came to support and to listen. We discussed relevant and heart wre

Hidden Gems of New York: #ProjectHomemadeENY

On a beautiful Sunday morning last month with the summer days winding down, my mom, my sisters, and I took a little trip to a local community garden. What was special about this garden is that it is a quaint oasis of greenery, tucked away on a Brooklyn street right in the middle of East New York. East New York is a Brooklyn neighborhood which has struggled for the past few decades as an under-served community. We set out to participate in an outdoor cooking class with persona

Fall Back in Love with Reading: Top 5 Fall Fiction Reads

I love a good fiction story that leaves me wanting more….& more. && There’s something about the fall that just reminds me of cozy sweaters, cute boots, Starbucks’ salted caramel hot chocolate, comfy couches and a good good book while looking out at the multicolored leaves. So here is my top 5 fiction* reads perfect for this snuggle weather. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult Well pretty much any Jodi Picoult book would have the same effect but this one was definitely on of my faves

Mom’s Homemade-Every-Occasion Pound Cake

One of the main traditions we always had growing up was singing around a homemade birthday cake for E V E R Y O N E’ S birthday. In our endlessly growing family there’s Recipe by Jacqueline Chin (Mom) Ingredients 3 sticks of sweet butter (softened) 2 cups of sugar 3 cups of Presto Self Rising Cake Flour 1 cup of milk 6 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract Directions Allow butter to sit out until soft in a large bowl. (Save butter wrappers for later) Preheat oven to 345 degrees. Once bu

Modern Day Renaissance Woman: PQ

Paquilla Jones, aka PQ is an engineer, entrepreneur, grad student, artist, Nas lover && most importantly my “adopted” sister & bestfraaand. So let’s be inspired from all her #blackgirlmagic: Tell us about yourself. I like long walks on the beach and candle light dinners just kidding. I truly hate this question because how can you sum up 24 years of life and counting into a few sentences. So the most important things about me would be I am a young black woman from Prichard, Al

Insights into a seasoned father

We learn so much from our father everyday… so we decided to share. 1. Knowing that so many children grow up without a father in the home, what is the importance of a father in the home? The Black father is one vital component that completes and give balance to the black family. The Koran says that we are made from a single essence, and from that essence we are made into pairs and mates of the same kind. 360 degrees, 180 from woman and 180 from the man. It makes it infinite,

From College to… After College !

2015 was an amazing, stressful and long year ! From graduating from the best school in the world the illustrious Howard University ( the real HU !) to moving back and readjusting to life at home with my parents and deciding what was next for me. I lived off campus for 2 years so I was living the life, free, so to move back was a little weird to me. Yes, I missed my family so much and missed all the impromptu family time that is guaranteed in our house. I missed spending time

Ten Universal Rules

One of the highlights for my trip to Alaska was vising the Alaska Heritage Center.Although I had mixed feelings about the performances, I loved touring the site and learning about the Native s of the land, the original people. I liked seeing many of the young generation of Native Yup’ik, Cup’ik, Inuapiat and many more because we could feel the love of their past and their thirst to revive their culture. I talked to so many people just to fully understand what they were going

# 1 Cardinal Rule; Broken

from: August 2014 Rule 1 number for every child growing up is- “Don’t get in cars with strangers.” So why did we? Here’s why: So of course Saturday is “adventure saturdays” here in Buffalo, since things are so hard to get to without a car, we stay close to campus during the week. So we decided we were going to Elmwood Village. Some things about Elmwood Village: Its an artsy street in downtown Buffalo right by Buff State Theres boutiques, consignment shops, cute restaurants an

Senior Year Realizations: PEOPLE SKILLS

There are always those people everyone is naturally drawn too, easily to get along with, easy to talk. But then there are others that just exude an “uninterested, dont talk to me” aura. So I cam across this this article on forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/11/15/the-20-people-skills-you-need-to-succeed-at-work/ Entitled: The 20 People Skills You Need to Succeed at Work. This year, particularly starting this summer, I said I wanted to work on my peopl

Senior Year Shenanigans

September 2014 So its been a while since my last post but there’s been SO much going on ! My friend Erin re-inspired me to continue…”for the archives” So here’s a likkle recap 1.Senior year has officially begun and started kicking my butt !- with Senior Design, Traffic Engineering, Research, ASCE and now my new “job”- its just been alot. 2. I finally went camping && did some hiking 3. Hung out with Malee && drove to Syracuse to see Kareem play for FSU 4.My last Homecoming

Meet My Team: Buffalo Edition

My time in Buffalo is officially over, this time tomorrow I’ll be in Reno. But meet my team whose been with me the wholee summer. So it was Me & PQ- the youngest, only: black girls, born in America. WE are the life of the lab, I’m sure its pretty quiet and depressing when we aren’t there harassing everyone and asking them questions about school back in Brazil and China and Ethiopia. Then there’s the Pedros- Pedro & Pedro are exchange students from Brazil, they been with us fo

Universal Family

August 2014 This summer has been one of love and learning. Everywhere I went, I had some family waiting for me, helping me and just showing me around the area. Making me feeel at home around the world. Tanzania: How can I have family in Tanzania? Well I do. So there was our of us that traveled to Tanzania; 3 girls and 1 boy, so the way they had the housing set up was me & PQ are living in the dorms, the boy(Parnell) has his own dorm room and the other girl (Camille) will live

A Million & One things closer than the grocery store

A Million & One things closer than the Grocery Store… (Actually 25 things closer than the grocery store, but you know,) “Its not that far” she says. “Its closer than the other one” she says. “It says 0.9 miles” she says. Well you know me, I’m always down for a little adventure, so we’re off for the hunt for the “close grocery store.” Either I don’t know what 0.9 miles feels like OR that store wasn’t 0.9 miles away. As we’re walking on one of the main streets in Buffalo I’m

Not So Glamorous Buffalo Days

August 2014 So when I’m not outside wandering around, jet-setting taking cool pictures and eating as much good food as I possibly can since Ramadan ended- Im “in the lab.” In the Lab could me 1 of 2 places: The Dungeon The Work room The Dungeon refers to the place where I spend 96% of my day, it big, brick walled with like 3 rows of “grad school” desks. The room is eternally freezing and there’s a cricket that dies and comes back to life daily. yup, pretty uneventful. This i

Reflection Sundays: Kemet

take me back to the land of my ancestors, the land of the great Kings & Queens and Warriors & Engineers take me back to the Shukrans && the Shukranettes take me back to the Red Sea, the natural curly pudding, the hair elixir take me back to the sisterhood, the family, the infamous fellucaa ride take me back to the seminars, the ethnographies, the teamwork, the cool & warm feedback Take me back HOME, Kemet International Youth Leadership Institute (IYLI) Egypt 2010 – Live, Laug