When
But Blackbird House, the co-working space she created, has become that and much more.
“I had this audacious thought,” she said. “What if there was a space like this that really centered on women of color with their allies? What are the specific things that you would need to really have a safe space to be inspired?”
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The interview was edited for clarity and length.
A: When I was acting, one of my agents was in a
Q: Can you talk about how creating this space and providing it to others is a type of philanthropy that doesn’t always get noticed?
A: The space can be beautiful, and these things are important, but really it’s the people. It’s about the people and the magic that they bring, the heart that they bring and reverberates out to the planet and reflects back. I’m super-impressed with the members and their friends and the allies and the people drawn to this. This is my philanthropy because I’m a self-funded startup, so it was, “All right, we’re gonna keep going big.”
Q: You had so much momentum. You got Blackbird House ready. You selected the members. You opened. And then the pandemic hit.
A: It was a challenge. We thought, “OK, we’re gonna go off and work remotely for a couple of weeks, and then this whole thing will blow over and we’ll come back.” We said what we’ll do until it was over, which was kind of a gut instinct, was be of service. So we started doing virtual programming, just through (Instagram Live). We didn’t have a virtual platform — that was a year or two away in the plans — but the world told us differently. So we created it. Over the last two years, we’ve done over 350 virtual programs. Basically, we started this baby Blackbird media network of content specifically geared towards women of color. We knew we needed to keep moving forward, and we knew the community needed it. So we just started to go in that direction.
Q: You’ve said you’ve only recently started thinking of yourself as a philanthropist.
A: For years, I’ve worked on nonprofit boards, with groups that do an incredible impact in education, environment and all that. But I still was never calling myself a philanthropist because that’s for people who are giving millions and millions of dollars in a year. But what I love is that we’re now really reframing the idea, that philanthropy is embedded in who we are, especially as black women, where we will be making sure everyone has something. It’s not just giving your extras. It is giving the parts that really matter — your time, your intention, your shirt off your back, the food off your table. All of those things are philanthropic. I love the idea of shifting that narrative to include more people, because I think we need more positive reinforcement. And I think that helps us move forward.
To hear
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