Women’s History Month isn’t enough for me. Here’s why…

As a Black Woman, I consider today, March 1, Intersectionality Day. It’s the day when Black History Month ends and Women’s History Month begins. The day when one part of my Identity sunsets while another steps, temporarily, into the spotlight.

It’s weird.

It’s like being told “Okay, you don’t need to use our feet anymore. Just use your hands.” And this comes with a lot of pressure. I feel like I have a deadline of March 31 to accomplish all of my goals. Whatever I didn’t get done in February as a Black person, I definitely have to get done now as a Woman because April will come and The Mainstream will turn its attention to National Poetry Month or National Cannabis Awareness Month (a real thing). Since I am neither a poet or a pot smoker, I’ll be put out to pasture again until June comes and I get to step out into the light again and be proud of who I love.

Patriarchy and white supremacy suck.

Living in a society that is centered around:

• Being White
• Being Christian
• Being Straight
• Being Able-bodied
• Being Cisgendered
• Being Man…

…really sucks. Living in this society means that any Identity that is not central is Othered, Separated, Splintered, and Cast Aside. These Othered Identities can only come out of hiding when appropriate and convenient for The Mainstream; leaving many of us lost, hanging out in the hinterlands simply waiting to be recognized.

As a Black, Witchy, Queer, Fat, Woman, I spend 99.9% of my time just trying to survive the darkness out here in the margins. I spend way too much of my valuable energy proving to myself and the rest of the world that I have the Right to Exist.

It’s exhausting.

I am totally and utterly exhausted.

But…

…I keep going. I keep going because I am a human freakin’ being and that’s what we do.

I keep going because God has blessed me with some incredible super powers. She has bestowed upon me the powers of Hope and Compassion and Creativity. These super powers allow me to access Love despite the excruciating Pain, to hold a vision for a better world than this one, and to take actions to bring that New World to life. I am incredibly grateful for these powers She has given me and I take them very seriously. I have chosen to forge an entire career around wielding these powers in service of others so that, one day, there might just be a Black/Witchy/Queer/Fat/Girl who is not as exhausted as I am.

Auntie Maxine has inspired us to Reclaim our Time. On this Intersectionality Day, I’m gonna do just that. I’m going to Reclaim all of the months as my own. Today, I get to bust out of February and March into the rest of the calendar and give myself the time I need to work and rest and heal.

I get to stand beside my comrades during Asian American History Month (May), Native American History Month (November), Latin American History Month (Sept 15-Oct 15), and the rest and declare that we all have the Right to Exist, in our Entirety, every day.

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I bring my full self and all of my powers as a Black/Witchy/Queer/Fat/Girl to my work as the CEO of Spotlight: Girls, a certified B Corp that educates, inspires, and activates girls and women to take center stage.

Registration is now open for our Go Girls! Camp, where girls and gender non-conforming kids ages 6–11 in Oakland and Berkeley learn how to love themselves and each other through making plays, art, music, and media. Learn more here.

We are also recruiting Black and Brown girls ages 14–21 in Oakland, LA, and Memphis to be part of our inaugural Shelectricity Youth Leadership Council. Shelectricity is the first-of-its-kind, digitally enabled ecosystem to empower girls in the U.S. to reach their full potential. Learn more here.