What We Carry Stories Black Women Never Tell Volume 4: Stories Black Women Never Tell: Callender-Scott, Goodman, Hailu, Kali, Michell, Muhammad, Shaheed, Smith, Smith, Square, Tea, Tummings, Williams

WHAT WE CARRY: STORIES BLACK WOMEN NEVER TELL is a product of Telling Our Stories - a program at Healthy Black Families, Inc. (HBF), in Berkeley, California. In this program HBF offers participants a safe space to recognize, analyze and address the affects of toxic stress associated with living with interpersonal and institutional racial discrimination. Motherhood, mother-child bonding, relationships, are more of the main themes that surface through these writings as a form of self-expression and agency. To date, HBF has completed three rounds of empowerment writing circles that have culminated in three books, entitled: What We Carry: Stories Black Women Never Tell – Volumes 1, 2, and 3. These books are authored by dedicated Black women from all walks of life who gathered over a period of 6 weeks sharing stories of many life experiences. Topics in the book range from Black Hair and Family Relationships to the Representation of Black People in Books and Films and more. The communal writing space whereby this book was birthed is an integral space devoted to Black women and community empowerment. When the women are empowered, the community is then empowered.