Women’s Leadership

ed to be an Author. Growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, her mother passed along a love of books and history and she decided to become a librarian. In this episode, she talks about the journey from first-time author to becoming the primer writer of historical Black fiction in the United States with 49 books in an industry that rejected her. Beverly also shares intimate moments of her past, her process, and why she’s rooting for women writers to get off the sidelines and just “publish your damn book”.

Yogi, Dancer, and Activist Leslie Salmon Jones went on a journey of healing to West Africa to find her roots. She not only came back with a newfound love for herself but with the foundations of new practice: Afro Flow Yoga®. Created in 2007 with her husband Jeff, Afro Flo blends yoga and meditation with dance movements from across the African Diaspora and creates an inclusive and diverse environment, free of any judgment for the Black community, and celebrates the beauty in diversity.

Together with 5 plaintiffs and the law firm Emery Celli Brinkerhoff, Laura Strausfeld and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of New York for taxing tampons. Since 2016, their organization Period Equity has helped 20 states repeal the tax. In this episode, Laura talks about the winding creative road that lead her to this fight and asks women to join together and speak up about taboo subjects that women are uniquely poised to solve.