This past Sunday, thousands came together in the spirit of solidarity, love, and outrage at the Brooklyn Liberation march for Black trans lives. This action came just one day after new information was revealed about the death of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco. Layleen was only 27 when she died. She was a part of the New York ballroom scene. She was both a daughter in the House of Xtravaganza, as well as a house mother to one of her childhood friends, and was known for

The results of the election left many of us shocked, in despair, and the most marginalized of us (Queer, Trans, Immigrant, Differently Abled), afraid for our safety. I for one, could not stop shaking. As a black woman, living with PTSD from various acts of sexual violence, the election of a self-proclaimed sexual predator to the highest level of office, left me replaying my victimization over and over in my head. As calls to action started to flood in, my anxiety made it d

Transcending the Legacy of Violence and Abuse The founders of the “New World” created a global economy and the greater portion of today’s African Diaspora as we know it by understanding the premise that Black birth and Black bodies matter. Many Blacks born in America are the descendants of enslaved Africans who endured generations of violence and abuse. Since the abolishment of chattel slavery, Blacks have triumphed over innumerable challenges making notable accomplishments i

10 Things to Know This Week: 1. The family of Sandra Bland, the 28 year old Black woman who was found hanged in her Texas jail cell on July 13th 2015, reached a $1.9million settlement in a wrongful death civil suit. The settlement also includes a change in prison policies of the Waller County jail where Bland was located, however, this part of the settlement is still in contention. Read more here. 2. The officer who shot and killed Korryn Gains, a 23 year old Black woman,

"Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change. And when I speak of change, I do not mean a simple switch of positions or a temporary lessening of tensions, nor the ability to smile or feel good. I am speaking of a basic and radical alteration in those assumptions underl

Photo: Inquiring Minds - Girls and STEM -Here, children take part in a science class, Washington, March 1942 #CosbyWatch: Bill Cosby's trial is set for June 5. Thirteen survivors are courageously testifying. We #BelieveSurvivors and Center Survivors. Tweet with Us: This week Black Women's Blueprint hosted a Twitter Chat #Vision4BlackWomen @blackwomensbp. Type in the hashtag on Twitter to follow the conversation. It is not too late to add your voice! Click here to see the thre

Photo Credit: Maybelline McCoy “we need a god who bleeds now a god whose wounds are not some small male vengeance some pitiful concession to humility a desert swept with dryin’ marrow in honor of the lord we need a god who bleeds spreads her lunar vulva & showers us in shades of scarlet thick & warm like the breath of her our mothers tearing to let us in this place breaks open like our mothers bleeding the planet is heaving mourning our ignorance the moon tugs the seas to hol

In that jail it was nothing to see a woman brought in all beat up. In some cases, the only charge was “resisting arrest.” A Puerto Rican sister was brought in one night. She had been so badly beaten by the police that the matron on duty didn’t want to admit her. “I don’t want her dying on my shift,” she kept saying. - Assata Shakur Although her story has not gained the media attention it deserves and although Black cis-het men have been doing everything in their power to disr

Rarely is gender and violence against women considered when the plight of people of African descent are addressed. The Black Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is inherently a transnational initiative with a diasporic analysis and international implications for full achievement of recognition, justice and development, which are the objectives of the International Decade of People of African Descent. From April 28-May 2, 2016 women of African descent and their allies