The
BLACK BEAUTY CLUB
Since 2020, the Black Beauty Club has been incubating a space where Black women can share their cultural traditions and rituals, and where Black beauty business owners can exchange best business practices, previously a forum mostly inaccessible to the 800-strong community. Founded by Asmeret Berhe-Lumax and Tomi Talabi during the height of the BLM movement, the BBC’s core objective is to pierce the surface of Black representation in the beauty industry. At the heart of BBC is the congregation; amplifying conversation as a rich narrative of intertwining traditions, taking ownership of those traditions as acknowledgement of the worth and organic, historical contribution of Black women to the beauty industry, and protecting the integrity of these stories and the innovation of business founders for future generations. The nature of these events themselves are therapeutic to audience members as industry players, investors and beauty lovers mingle thoughts, experiences, ideas and joy in a non-judgmental circle. In addition, and foundationaly, BBC events encourage all participants to actively confront the toxicity of colorism and featurism, the lingering divisive tools of white supremacy. It is this holistic centering of the Black beauty experience that has allowed the BBC to expand its mission authentically as it charters its path forward in a world after the summer of 2020. Please join me in celebrating Asmeret, Tomi, the Black Beauty Club and their growing community of Black beauty stewards.
Our Hair Don't Care is a beauty focus developed by ATPB in 2018 to bring the rich and diverse stories of our multi-generational relationship to our hair to the center stage of media, rather than as a tokenized, sporadic story. We feature people whose lives and ancestry are intertwined with their hair journey, and untangle what that relationship means to each individual.
Tamu McPherson
Tomi and Asmeret, it's really nice joining you today. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to talk about Black Beauty Club - can you tell us how it got started?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
In 2020, at the height of the BLM movement, Tomi was initially working on a project called The Black Beauty Market, and I was working on researching for a skincare brand. We actually initially got connected by my husband, because he was like wait, you both are having all these great discussions and you guys should talk to each other! We started talking about some of the challenges that exist within Black beauty, and this, again, was the height of BLM, and I feel like all editors were rushing to try to put together their list of ‘10 Black Beauty Brands You Need to Know’, and there was a lot of conversation around only the visual aspects. A focus on, why isn’t this brand using Black models in their campaigns?
But this is not a trend. All the challenges that we're facing, we've been facing for a long time, and the discussion never really ends up going beyond skin-level. So a lot of conversation we were having between us was like, what’s the infrastructure? What are the real challenges around getting funding? Looking at it from infrastructure and cultural aspects, rather than just visual.
And then Tomi said we needed to take this conversation beyond just the two of us. So we started a Clubhouse conversation.
Tomi Talabi
Right before this, I was also Director of Comms and Influencer Relations at Bobbi Brown. So already being from the industry, when we found out that there were over 800 Black brands in existence… and that's just like, Black brands. Not even other cultures other people of color. It was really mind blowing, because people often complain about the lack of diversity in product, or in products that actually work for them. Or just the overall understanding of Black skin, and centering Black skin.
So we felt like how do we not just have a conversation around the glossiness, but actually like more skin deep? And initially we were definitely going hard as to how we help solve business problems. The first conversation was actually with Laura Naiper Beauty, who was working hard to try to get more investment. I was talking to Olamide Olowe, who's founder of Topicals, and she was one of the youngest Black women to have gotten over $2 million in funding. People were really interested in that especially, because everyone who was on Clubhouse at that time was just trying to find a way to push their business forward, and to find their audience, and so that really brought value to them.
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
We realized very quickly that there are so many brands out there. A lot of them don't have media access, and then a lot of them don't even know that each other exists.
The other thing we really quickly noticed was like people were dying to be able to connect and share challenges and resources, and they didn't feel like there was a platform to really do that in a very safe space.
Tomi Talabi
But it quickly moved from just the business aspect into the cultural aspect of Black beauty. And especially understanding that Black beauty is not actually rooted in products, or solving problems, the way a lot of other beauty is. It’s truly rooted in how beauty' passed to us from generation to generation.
We are all so alike, even if someone if Black but has a French accent, or Black but has a Spanish accent - we’re still hearing the same afflictions around beauty, and feeling not seen. Having issues with their hair or having issues with their body type. And knowing that it didn't matter where you were in the world, even if you're in Africa you still couldn't find someone to do natural hair for you. Even in the Motherland right?
Black beauty is not actually rooted in products, or solving problems, the way a lot of other beauty is. It’s truly rooted in how beauty' passed to us from generation to generation.
But the other part also was for me that was difficult to see was other people, who have been in America since the past 400 years felt like they didn't have any traditions that were passed down to them, and there was a lot of them. There were a lot of African Americans that were listening. But the thing is, we all have beauty traditions that are passed down to us, even if it’s just oil in your hair at night before bed. All of those things, as minute as they may seem, are beauty rituals. And what happens when we don't take ownership of those beauty rituals, we find other cultures suddenly deciding that , for instance, putting grease on your skin is a new trend in bodycare. You know, when you do ‘body slugging’ right?
How do you just take something that someone has been doing their whole lives, something that is a huge part of - like, ‘don't go outside with like dry skin and make us look ashy on the streets’ - to this new thing of slugging our faces, slugging our bodies, slugging our hair… But Indians have been drenching their hair in oil since forever! And so, if we don't take ownership of these stories and pass them down to each other constantly, because word of mouth is truly how Black culture passes things down, then you're just gonna be sitting there getting mad every month when someone decides that the next trend is like… brown lipstick.
Tamu McPherson
So as a Jamaican who grew up in the United States, and now I live in Italy, I'm fascinated by the diaspora, and I'm extremely deferential to all of our traditions. And when I am learning about them, or when I'm pursuing them, I really lean into the story and the tradition being shared. How are you guys presenting that in BBC? And how are you setting it up for future generations? Because one of the things I've found is that we don't understand each other within the diaspora fully, and if you grow up in the United States, for example, you're very U.S.-centric and you tend not to listen, or you tend to lead from a place of “authority”. But one of the things that excites me is we have the opportunity now to create a way to communicate this, spread the word, and pass it down through generations - especially since you guys have a very hungry, interested and enthusiastic audience. What platform is BBC developing to be able to unify all of our traditions and to take the narrative forward in an enriched and mixed kind of way?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
I think the first step was figuring out, how do you get people into the same space to actually start talking to each other and having dialogue? For us, I think the first step has always been figuring out how to bring people together. These conversations are a super interactive space that starts with our co-host or panelist, but then the most exciting part of it is really everyone that's in the room together. And I think that's been the first step for creating this platform.
Also, it’s not about who we all hear from already. It’s about who has an interesting point of view, and who has something else that doesn’t usually get shared. Or who's already building something, but is not as visual. And putting people together. So then you hopefully have a continuing conversation or continuous work.
In these conversations, we see ourselves very much as guides, but not experts in the actual specific topic, because we're learning at the same time. Some conversations might not be that comfortable to have - how do you make sure that we have them? How do we put people together that might not usually be in the same room?
Tomi
BBC is basically one huge conversation. It's not like we have the co-host and they just kind of start off the conversation, and they might have a bit of experience, or a point of view. Some of the most profound things have come from the audience. We learned that really early on. There's so many people out here who don't necessarily have millions or even thousands of followers but have the most thoughtful, profound contributions.
We're all so different, different in upbringing, different in backgrounds. Coming in with an open mind is always the best part, right? Leaning into our tradition, passing down stories to each other, which is very common within the Black diaspora.
So this year we are trying to take these conversations to a podcast, because it’s about how we continue the conversation and really have it rooted and available in our cultures across the diaspora. Making sure that everyone can learn from each other.
It's like what you said, Tamu: everyone's experience is valid. Everyone's Blackness and experience is valid, and, therefore, no one's is above the other.
Ultimately we do have the same sort of underlying experience in the sense that we need to be seen more? Within our community, we also need to see ourselves a lot more, and the reason why we center on Black beauty specifically is because, realistically, there's so many things that we need to figure out ourselves before we start talking about other people. We need to be the first ones to decide what we can't allow - colorism is an issue within our community more than it's an issue outside of our community, right? Featurism is an issue within our community more than it is outside of our community. Until we have those hard conversations between ourselves at the club, and hear each other, we should just forget about other people who are not Black understanding our point of view. You know what I mean?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
Even when we named it the Black Beauty Club, it was very deliberate. We even had the conversation like, some people might feel intimidated from the start, feeling like okay they're being excluded or not included, or this club is just going to touch on specific topics and nothing else.
The majority of our audience feels like this is a good space or safe space for them to join, and that is definitely very deliberate. But with that said, we do approach it from the point of view that blackness is very expansive. We keep talking about these very traditional buckets of Blackness that are being pushed out on everyone, and if you don’t fit into those buckets you feel very othered. Blackness is huge… it's so multifaceted and there's so many things about Blackness that traditionally are not being brought up. And that was another thing that we wanted to make sure that we address within the Black Beauty Club.
Tamu McPherson
And I love that you are challenging the notion that we're a monolith, and essentially unpacking all of these buckets, because you have no idea how many there are, and I love that. And it is a safe space and I love that you are insisting on having these conversations, because I think that you know I'm just going to bring in the latest Kanye scandal, for example. We never take our entertainers to task. He pinpointed a black woman to throw under the bus, and he denigrated her appearance and that was what it was and you know we won't look at it like that. We'll just say he was bullying, but this is an old move from the playbook that happens all the time. But we won't have these conversations, and that's the most painful thing. Because we won't talk about colorism and we won't talk about Futurism and I think, in order to set ourselves up for the future, these conversations have to happen now, because this is the time for them to happen.
Especially because we're coming out of the latest BLM uprising and all of the minerals are there in the Earth for us to really get into, and I think that by setting up the conversations here that that's what progress is about.
Does your audience understand that this is foundational? We have created foundations before, but more than ever in this modern day age where we have social media that is so vast, where there is so much information, it's all about having these conversations. Because we don't have the luxury to turn back anymore. We have an opportunity to take ourselves in the future. But we're going to have to be above colorism. We're going to have to call out entertainers and our celebrities. Leaders who use the tropes for their benefit, or to provoke.
You guys have to invite me because clearly I need to be in a meeting as soon as possible.
Tomi Talabi
You have to. It's beautiful. I think what I'll say is this: One of the things that Asmeret and I learned early on when we began the conversations, was that it would start off as a bright, lively conversation… and somewhere in the middle, it would just become almost like a therapy session, right? And someone who expressed something around how someone made them feel about their body, made them feel about how they look, made them feel about their hair, and that someone was always the Black person in their own family. You know? You know, you're pretty for a dark-skinned girl. Oh, don't go outside because you're gonna get darker, or you know, you don't have the good hair. And what we realized, which made this even more important for us, is that we started to realize that all those things that are a joke or a side comment, we need to stop it, and we need to have these conversations. Everyone who's in this room will be alert when they catch themselves, if they ever find themselves doing that. Or stop somebody else if they find them doing that to a Black boy or a Black girl about how they feel, because all of it is the reason why some of these men feel like - you know I always talk about Wesley Snipes, for example. And his choice in specifically marrying a white woman. He said that he was treated really badly for the way he looked. He was too dark-skinned, his nose was too big. All the things he probably heard from his own community, making him decide, I'm gonna take a pause from this and I'm gonna go in this other direction, right? I think that happens to a lot of Black people. It’s like, how do I dilute the Blackness, right?
And I think a lot of it obviously stems more from men than from Black women, and so when you see some celebrities doing things like this choosing the woman that they choose, you don't know what their experience from childhood has been. You don't know what they've heard, you don't know. There's an episode of Girlfriends that really - I didn't know I missed it in college but I watched it in hindsight now - and there’s this gorgeous Black man, a whole lot of money, literally every single thing that Toni would want in a man… the only thing is that she did not like him because he was dark-skinned, and after everything that she had been through as a dark-skinned Black woman, she did not want to raise any black kids to go through the things that she had gone through, so she felt like she could not jeopardize her children's future by being with another super dark-skinned black man, in spite of the fact that he fit all of her bills.
Tamu McPherson
It's very hurtful, because it's our own self-loathing, because of the traumas that we experience as Black people in the diaspora. Because you know, in Jamaica's classes, most of the wealth lies in people who are light-skinned, from white to light skin, or Chinese or East Indians. It's just our trauma and it's our quest to achieve proximity to the white patriarchy, and it's unfortunate.
But you're having these conversations and you're focusing on Black-owned beauty brands and Black beauty world issues, and one of the things that struck me about what you said earlier, is that Black beauty is not directly rooted in ‘product’ or ‘solution’. It is passed from generation to generation, and we touched on that a little bit before but I want to talk about it more. In relation to the corporations and the corporations that a lot of brands are seeking investment from, whose spaces they're trying to enter… essentially they don’t speak the same language. Or the same goals.
Tomi
Yeah, clearly the beauty industry is getting a bit better now, right? You can see a little bit more of the strongest storytelling, which doesn't overly focus on, ‘fix this’, or ‘fix that’. I think it's that's that's getting a little bit better, and a prime example, which I overuse, is Topicals, right? That brand is definitely a scientific product, but they sell it to their audience very rooted in Gen Z and Black cultures. I think yes, you can find a way to connect to a product and have people be connected to that because that's what all these brands have been doing, these non-black brands. Except the culture that they're focused on just wasn't our culture and the way that we see things, right? Our problems are completely different.
Anywhere we can find marketing around Black people that exudes joy, it's going to work. The problem is that these big corporations don't see it that way. They only see the problems that they want to solve, because they always think about the white space, the gap. How can we ‘fix it’ and how does your product fit into that right?
You have to create a strategy for them. I talk to a lot of Black founders and they tell me, well, I pitched them this, but I'm gonna execute it this way, because that's gonna connect to my audience.
I mean have you ever seen a campaign shot in Harlem and Senegal before? That's never been done before. That's Ami Colé’s brand, and it's just such a beautiful connection that people have towards that brand. It was an African, a Black country, and then there was a Harlem side, and everyone has a neighborhood like Harlem, that means something to them, that's gonna connect for them. She deserves some sort of an award. The way she shot all those like girls - even in Senegal, it was just in their motorbikes in their abayas, just beautiful. And that's why she can't keep a lipstick or a lip gloss in hand, always selling out.
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
This makes me think of something that we have been going back and forth so much about has been this idea of segmentation. You know, initially, we're just happy that it's a Black-owned brand and then you're like okay, but that's not enough. If you look at the black consumer, we don't all have the same needs or wants. So then the next step is, how do you address it? Because we don't need 500 brands that only focus on hyper pigmentation.
There are so many needs that are still completely unmet, because of this idea that what Black people want - I mean we do want all the 40 shades of foundation, as well - but only want products addressing hyperpigmentation.
There are so many other different needs as well, and the barriers for entries have lowered a little bit. There's an excitement, because we see more brands entering the market. Smaller brands are getting a little bit more attention, and one of our focuses is, how do we keep them, make sure they are talked about. But then, what is next in terms of how they address not just needs but also, again, innovation.
Tomi Talabi
Yeah I would love to see it more! I'd love to see more rituals that have to do with hair and things like that. I feel like right now we're still doing the problem-solving, and that's where the hyperpigmentation is.. It's a huge problem for Black Consumers. So we're gonna make all hyperpigmentation products. But we obviously care about other things. You know, we might not lose as much collagen as the next person, but we still want to have collagen. We want to be bouncy, you know?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
But I don't think it's just that. Because when you're going for financing, the VCs and investors, those are the products that they think will sell best in the market. So then, as a beauty brand, you're like, okay, maybe I have to start with this product, because otherwise I'm not going to get the funding…
Tomi Talabi
Also, obviously Black brands center Black people. Fantastic. But just because a Black brand is founded by a Black founder doesn't mean that product is only for Black people, right? That's also an issue they might have within like the VC - you might start with thinking about centering Black people, just like other brands have started with centering white people. But when they end up going to market, everyone buys it regardless of race, color or creed.
So, a Black founder is making products centering Black people knowing that these products also have efficacy for people of other races. Again, Topicals: that product is used by everyone. It just has a Black founder, right? It’s definitely telling stories rooted in Black culture, but we know that those stories are not going to repel anyone - people consume hip hop and other elements of Black culture without a second thought. So to me, we need to evolve beyond “I am a Black founder and I have a Black brand”, which is being enforced on Black founders, whereas when a white founder exists, it’s assumed that whatever they’ve created is just for everyone.
Tamu McPherson
So how do you guys support your Black founders? Because there's a lot of organizing that has to take place. I mean, it's so painful when you're looking for funding and you want your baby to really take off and you want your brand to be successful, that you would ultimately accept bringing on investment from someone who doesn’t really understand what your culture is about. You know, the research, and how your product came about, or pigeonholing you into a product category when you know that there's just much more to be offered. And as you mentioned Tomi, the imbalance of expectations from Black founders versus white founders.
Similarly, Black hair stylists learn how to work with all textures, whereas white hairstylists are not expected to do so. So when we're doing our research, because we have to work so much harder, of course our product is going to meet every safety guideline, it's going to be very efficient, it's going to be a great product, but our marketing is forced to be so narrow.
How are you empowering these founders’ messaging, and their ability to really advocate for the products that they want to create, with the funding they deserve? How do we unify 800 Black brands to say, “No, we want to develop something else, and yes, our product is good for every skin color or every hair type”?
Tomi Talabi
Initially, we used to do everything, from finding out who needed grants , and who needed funding, running through concept ideas on who to reach out to, including some of the attendees at the BBC conversations, because investors are there. That's one of the magical things about the Black Beauty Club space, everything is truly authentic, right? Black investors in VC - and not just in America but also internationally - they're definitely investing in tech and they're definitely investing in other things. How do we get them to actually invest in our own products and our own brands? I think that's another hurdle that we have to jump over.
Because right now when you look at the brands that have millions of dollars in investments, at the end of the day they're being invested in by other white people, not by Black people. But we also have the capability to do that! If you look on the billionaire list in Forbes, a good number of them are in Nigeria. Why are they not investing? The money is there. How do we get it more directly?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
This is our next step, in the future of BBC, because starting in 2020 there were a lot of incubators and grants popping up. We used to have this monthly conversation where we actually just listed together all of the existing available grants. We also worked with the Sephora Accelerator program, and Shea Moisture. We helped to put forward brands, and start conversations, because a lot of brands otherwise might not have known about the programs.
For us, it’s really about, okay, how do you create longevity? So it's not just a reaction to a very traumatic moment in history, and all of a sudden everybody jumps in. You already see two years later, the pendulum is already starting to swing back, and it's on to the next thing. It’s really about figuring out how we, and how our community, can personally be a part of the next generation and financial support. That's something that we're working on on the side.
Tomi Talabi
We want the power to support people to be in our own hands, so it's not just us like passing them off to someone else. I think it's obviously valuable to the Glossier cohort to have that $50,000, and then to also connect with industry people.
Let’s take it further. We need to focus on a step beyond the brands. What about the Black founders in packaging, in supply chain, and how do we make that easier? How do we make that better? It's amazing to get on the Sephora shelf. But if you don't have a strong supply chain, because you're new to the game, you're not gonna be in every Sephora. You might actually end up in debt. It's one thing to have the 15% space available for Black-owned brands. But how do they survive? How do they actually last in that space?
For us, it’s really about, okay, how do you create longevity?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
Tomi was so upset one day, because the big Sephora on 59th street was so vocal about their Black-owned brands, and so she visited and when she saw the space she was so upset.
Tomi Talabi
I get in there and I'm trying to find Danessa Myricks - she’s just an icon, a legend, waiting for the world to recognize what she's doing within this space - and I went into the store and asked, because I couldn’t find any of her stuff, and none of the brands I asked for were available. This is at 59th Street! The manager recognized how livid I was and decided to go into the basement and bring out all of Danessa's stuff. I basically said to them, if you guys want Black brands to win in your store, but no one can see them to buy them, then all you're gonna report back is that they didn't sell. And if it doesn't sell, then we're back to square one.
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
And the next time they want to take a chance on another brand, that’s the metric they’ll use. For distribution, for marketing capital…
Tomi Talabi
Or thinking, I'm going to put all the Black brands in the Brooklyn and Harlem locations. But I'm not going to put them in 59th Street, because Black people don't exist on 59th Street. People love Danessa Myricks. She should be everywhere, not just in select locations because her product is made by a Black woman. Like, you're not putting Pat McGRath in just the hood.
Tamu McPherson
I've had a lot of conversations about supply chain alone in the last month. Can anyone from our community please tip off the investors that that's an area that needs their attention? We're not addressing a huge part of the issue, if there is no one representing the brand, making sure the shelf space is honored and that customers have access to the product. An emerging brand does not have those resources if the money is not there.
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
It’s too expensive to have an employee going around everywhere to check, but not only that, it’s also about educating sales personnel about your brand so they know how to sell it!
Tamu McPherson
I think that Black Beauty Club members may have to fill in that role for the time being.
Tomi Talabi
Someone should start a company where they can just enroll people to learn about the different Black-owned brands and other BIPOC brands. Even coming from a big brand like I do, it’s expensive. The advertisement, the email marketing, being in the holiday mailer, that’s all paid for by the brand. I mean some small brands get subsidies, or a discount to be involved in that effort. But there comes a time where we don’t want to be getting free stuff. We want to get on the same level. This is not a charity case.
Tamu McPherson
And given the opportunity, we won't need the subsidy for a long time. It’s just that we're not given the opportunity. These brands who were championing our success for about 12, 13, 14 months lose interest or get distracted, or go back to what they were doing before.
Tomi
Realistically, I think our own media, Black media, is also part of the problem. What they choose to cover and what they don't choose to cover. We finally get the opportunity to tell our stories, and we do it for a little bit and then we just kind of slide away. When all these other brands started these cohorts and programs, everybody wrote about it in 2020, right? The following year, less brands continue to do this. The one exception is Glossier, who started with a really strong program and has committed to moving it forward with the same effort.
But Shea Moisture and Brown Girl Jane did it and the coverage was nonexistent. How do you incentivize these brands? We know they want the press. What’s going to incentivize them to continue to do this? Just good of their heart? If it was just from the good of their heart, they would have been doing it a long time ago.
Tamu McPherson
That definitely is a word.
Can we talk about the club members who are not founders, not investors? Can you just share some of the ways that you guys have been moved and inspired, and just validated in your mission to connect us all?
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
Tamu the next time you’re in New York, you have to join us for our conversation. The interactiveness of our guests that are sharing experiences and ideas, for me, that means everything. Especially when it's not a founder, or it's just somebody who's interested and is willing to share something that they might not feel comfortable sharing in other situations. That means everything.
Tomi Talabi
Everything we do is for the community. Everything that it's become is because of how the community has shaped it. They want this space to be a majority Black space, because they don't feel like there's anywhere else where they are the only ones centered. So even when we think about how we would do things with other cultural partners, how do we address the intersectionality? For example, discussing colorism in India. Colorism is rampant in the Black community, as well. The audience is open to those things, but they definitely want a space that is rooted just for them, to be able to just come and vibe.
And let me tell you, every time we sit in our big circle, with the sofas all around, everyone's looking at each other… Tamu, you will never see anything more beautiful, I promise you. They show out. They look fantastic, the members. They always say, I wish the younger girls could be in a space like this so that they can see themselves, and they can see how beautiful they are, and they can see how valid they are, and it's true.
To me that's like the most beautiful thing is just the way we show up with each other, and bond and connect. We don't want it to be like a gatekeeping community - and Black people are so good at gatekeeping themselves. ‘You have to have an invite, you have to be cool. You have to have 10000 followers and you have to do this and you have to do that.’
But in the Black Beauty Club space, there are who have 200,000 followers, and there are also just regular people who are just happy to be there. They bond, not just because of influence, but because of that experience you talked about, I felt that, or that advice that you gave, that means something to me.
Once the conversation is done and everybody starts mingling, I feel like other people make more friends than I do! Because I'm actually the shy one, and hiding. But that's the best part for me, is the community that we're building with each other.
Asmeret Berhe-Lumax
Like we said, it becomes like a therapy session. But I think there's a lot of positivity around it. So it's not just like just ‘trauma bonding’, but also making sure that it's uplifting and solution-oriented conversations, not just coming together and complaining. I mean… it's a space for that too! But we acknowledge the situation. How can we connect other people to try to get to constructive steps after that. One of the most beautiful was one we had at Dumbo House about the joy of Black beauty. Because a lot of times, the narrative tends to be rooted in having been mistreated, or not being seen. And this was really about the happiness and joy. And hearing all these different stories, and people sharing. Creating and celebrating joy, and the steps that we are taking to move forward… that's super important, as well. That's another thing that I love about this community. It’s not one of those things where you just hold each other back, but we really move each other forward.
Tamu McPherson
It's about healing. That's the energy that you're describing. It's a healing energy. It's not existing in a stagnant place. It's not sitting and festering in any wounds. It's about moving forward and it's about solutions. Healing is creating a solution, providing a solution for a condition.
