‘Tis the season to be enlightened: we’re now months into perhaps the most challenging crises of our lifetimes (plural), and we’re being called upon to go deep in our analysis, understanding, activism, and ability to adapt to new realities. Here at The Root, we’ll be doing our part with our inaugural monthlong Root Institute this August, but as July closes, Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) will be setting the tone, celebrating its 38th anniversary with a weeklong series of special events titled BWHI Anniversary Week: A Celebration of Life, Legacy, and Service to Black Women presented by Bumble.
Per a press release provided to The Glow Up, the weeklong series of virtual events will take place from July 26 to August 1 with participation by over 30 dynamic speakers, including cultural icon, activist and professor Angela Davis, BWHI Founder & Board Member Byllye Avery, actresses Jurnee Smollett, AJ Johnson, and Angelica Ross, recording artists Keri Hilson and Syleena Johnson, television personalities Cynthia Bailey, Egypt Sherrod, Eboni K. Williams, and Erica Cobb, and a host of other health professionals, community activists and non-profit leaders who share in our organization’s mission.
And all of this Black female excellence is free and can be accessed by RSVP-ing online, where you can also find the complete schedule of BWHI Anniversary Week events.
For more details on BWHI and what to expect from Anniversary Week:
The Black Women’s Health Imperative is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing health equity and social justice for Black women, across the lifespan, through policy, advocacy, education, research and leadership development. The organization identifies the most pressing health issues that affect the nation’s 22 million Black women and girls and invests in the best of the best strategies and organizations that accomplish its goals.
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BWHI Anniversary Week will include an informative and action-packed week of virtual forums featuring more than 30 speakers about healthy lifestyles, mental health and emotional wellness, challenges within the LGBTQ community, maternal mortality, uterine fibroids, and solutions to address disparities plaguing our health systems both now and in the future. Panels like It’s My Time! – Committed to A Lifestyle of Wellness are presented by AARP and will explore strategies for committing to self-care with BWHI’s signature program CYL2 (Change Your Lifestyle. Change Your Life.) as the source of viable solutions for maintaining a healthy lifestyle at all ages. Generation NEXT! – Empowering the Next Generation of Women’s Health Advocates will explore how young women are balancing activism, advocacy and self-care, which are components of BWHI’s MSK (My Sister’s Keeper) Program. Other programming partners, like Silence The Shame, and the Take What You Need Podcast will provide expertise and content to frame panels about emotional wellness and about health disparities within the LGBTQ community.
“While 2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenges, our commitment to supporting, empowering and educating Black women has remained the same as it’s always been for the past 38 years,” said President & CEO of Black Women’s Health Imperative Linda Goler Blount. “During this time of heightened awareness about issues impacting Black communities, we are excited to amplify the needs of Black women of all ages with the goal of mobilizing action for self-care and support for our work to uplift Black women.”