Thank you NABJ for recognizing my reporting on the people of my community. I work so others know their stories and voices are relevant, their ideas and contributions are powerful and their pain is real. Elaine Houston, reporter WNYT, Albany, NY
OUR STORY
I was a reporter who'd taken a new job at a television station when I felt the sting of corporate America doing what it does so often with women of color and that is try and marginalize me. It started very early; during probation that they began to insinuate I wasn't good enough. While that was management's belief, it wasn't mine. I knew I had the education, experience, solid reporting skills, the ability to project my voice in a professional public speaking manner and I knew how to be personable while giving the news.
However, I had to work harder than I'd ever worked in my life to fight against the box that my bosses put me in through their implicit bias.
It was because of that I decided that I had to tell the stories of women. I had to present a new perspective about women of color. I did that through my first book, THE FRIENDSHIPS BETWEEN WOMEN. It's a book of letters from women to women on perseverance. I next traveled to Africa and spoke to women in three countries on the challenges they faced and produced the documentary, TOUCH A WOMAN, TOUCH A ROCK. I returned home and started a new television series for women called TODAY'S WOMEN. All of these projects led me to start this website, www.SHEspeaks2me.com where I do stories on women of color from around the world. In 2017, I began holding an annual summit for women to help them transform themselves in the person God created them to be. That is what got us here, but what keeps us going is seeing women succeed. Elaine Houston
SHE Tales; Stories about women
SHE Tales; Stories about women
LET HER story: SPEAK TO YOU!
MEET THE WOMEN OF 'DOUBLE DEES'
by Elaine Houston
A great necklace can make a woman’s dress sing but it’s what’s underneath that dress that’s grabbing the attention of four twenty-somethings from Kenya. Meet Charity, Constance, Millicent and Stella. They are the owners of Double Dees, a women’s lingerie store in Nairobi, Kenya.
Victoria may have a secret, but these ladies want everyone to know that a good bra gives a woman confidence and for women in Kenya who are beautifully endowed that confidence was lacking because they could not find a bra that fit. So, necessity as the saying goes became the mother of invention. The four friends, two in college in Kenya and two in college in the U-S, knew they had to open a store to fill that need.
Opportunity came knocking when Stella pitched the idea of Double Dee’s Lingerie to the Harvard Women in Business innovations competition in 2014. “We didn’t emerge the winners but we received great feedback and revised the business plan accordingly, said Stella.’’ In 2015, Stella with a revised business plan, pitched the idea again at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York before members of the New York State Business Plan Regional Competition and Double Dee's won first place. It earned the group 20,000 dollars and 5,000 dollars worth of legal fees.
Stella pitched again to Harvard again that same year and the business plan came in 2nd and won 2,000. They used the funds to rent a space and opened Double Dee’s Lingerie store in June, 2016. They are already thinking of the future and of giving Kenyan women the lift they need. “”Our three year plan is to have multiple stores all over the country and in East Africa, says Stella.” They carry sizes 30D to M.
SHE
speaks into the lives of Women by Elaine Houston
Cheryl Wood stands before crowds of women telling them to feel the fear and still walk into what they want. As an international motivational speaker she is passionate about helping women and so personable and down to earth you just want to talk to her for hours. Respectively, she has a gift of gab. However, she hasn’t always been fearless. “I was completely opposite the woman I am today, she says.” She says she was shy, introverted, certainly not the type of person who would stand in front of others and speak.
She grew up in a rough neighborhood in Baltimore. ‘’I saw things I didn’t want to see. I saw pregnant women, drugs, but my dad was an alcoholic, so our house was as dysfunctional as what I saw on the street, she said.” Wood went to a vocational-tech high school and learned business. She says college wasn’t emphasized and she went to work right out of high school. She ended up at a law firm and was a legal secretary for 15 years.
The money was good but she worked long hours, missed her kids and then lost her dad, it was the perfect storm that pushed her into wanting more. “Some thought I should be thankful, I was, but my dad died and I thought something has to happen, I am not going out like this, she said.” Incredibility, she started selling t-shirts. “It was hard, but I learned how to network and build my own tribe and stay connected and hear ‘no’ and not be crushed. I learned so much sitting behind those tables, she says.”
HELPING WOMEN IN CONGO
It's been going on for years. Men are the inventors of war and women are the victims. But, in this particular war, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, women pay an unimaginable price. Elaine Houston made contact with some of those women, brutalized, tormented, raped by soldiers who kidnapped and captured them. In her documentary. 'TOUCH A WOMAN, TOUCH A ROCK', listen to an excerpt of their stories.
...WHAT IS BLACK LOVE?
...WHY ISN'T OUR LOVE PORTRAYED IN THE MEDIA?
...BLACK WHITE LOVE?
However, that is not the end of her story. Remember how Wood encourages women to feel the fear and step in to their future and live their dream?
She can do that because she had to take risks herself. Wood, did not go to college and that fact would try and haunt her when she first started out as a motivational speaker. “Whose gonna let me, whose gonna let me? That’s how I was talking to myself because I did not go to college, she said.”
But, soon she began to preach to herself with that same wisdom she doled out to others. "It's not enough to wish for something better, you have got to turn your power on and give yourself permission, stop focusing on all the negative that could happen or that people will judge, she says." She soon began to believe it and now thanks to her others believe it too.
Recently Wood went to a law firm as a motivational speaker and it brought her to tears. A few years earlier she was a secretary at a law firm, now the tables had turned." It was an emotional moment I wanted to cry but I had to keep it together because I was the expert. It was surreal, she said."
A FRIEND TO WOMEN IN CONGO
DENIS MUKWEGE
Congratulations to my friend and hero, Dr. Denis Mukwege, on being named a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. He heads Panzi Hospital in Bakuvu, Congo. I was a grad student earning a Master's in International Women studies, concentrating on women in war torn countries. I has studied his work on repairing women's bodies from the evils of war in a protracted civil war that used rape against women as a weapon of war. It was 2007 and I was considering a documentary on those women and others as my thesis. He not only healed women's bodies but helped them get a second chance in life. I was more than inspired by him.
I heard he was coming to the U-S and flew to the Holocaust Museum in D-C hoping to interview him. He graciously agreed. Before meeting him I had heard about the war and saw a news series in 2001 on what was happening there. Naively, I wrote a book to give the proceeds to a woman I saw in the series HEART OF DARKNESS. I tried to find her to no avail.
Fast forward and now I was getting a degree to know how to help women in those situations. He was my inspiration to change course in my career as a television journalist and now start concentrating on stories about issues impacting women's lives as well as to start doing stories on inspiring women. Meeting him meant I now had a way to give my money from the book to aid Congolese women.
His winning this award means other people will now know what these women have suffered through. My women's summit, this website, and the stories I tell on television are all rooted in this man's labor of love to help these women. Please consider purchasing my book knowing the proceeds will help change your life and that of the women in Congo. YOU can also listen to a portion of my thesis documentary above 'TOUCH A WOMAN, TOUCH A ROCK'
Thanks,
Elaine
Some women's lives are not pretty. They are
messy,
like TiTi Ladette's. Read her story and listen to her video and be inspired!
Some people get their parenting skills from their parents. But, what happens when you realize the people you thought were your parents are not? That was how life started out for Trina TiTi Ladette Cleveland. “I was raised by my paternal grandparents. I did not know my grandmother was not my mother, she said.”
In fact, she was 6 years old when she discovered her grandparents were keeping secrets. Her birth mom was the first secret. Secret two was that her mom had committed suicide. She was 13 when she learned that. Understandably these lies began to have a negative effect on her, but it was the one about her parentage that started her fall over the cliff. “It did have an impact but there was a lot going on, she says.” According to Trina, what was going on was that her siblings were being molested. She says she told her grandmother what her uncle was allegedly doing but no one stopped him.
So she says she started running away. “All of that set me on a path to really seek out dark places, she says.” She says a neighbor molested her with intravenous drugs at 13. “I didn’t get addicted right away but I never forgot that feeling, she said.” That feeling she discovered was a way of escape and she had a lot to escape. “There was prostitution, violence, dysfunctional relationships and I loss my kids 5 times to the state, she says.” She says she’d never been in trouble before but at 19 she went to jail over drugs. “ I took a ten year sentence for transporting drugs for a guy, a pimp. He said I wouldn’t get a case because of my age and for never being in trouble. He said they would let me out, she said." They did not. She got out just weeks before her 30th birthday.
But there would be more twists and turns to come. She had two kids before going to jail. “ When I got out I kept having babies. I got every hue of a child. I kept having babies, she said.” And her life soon became a vicious circle. Her drug charge was a felony so she couldn’t get a job or welfare and food stamps, which meant she had no resources to take care of her kids. She would relapse and start using drugs again and would lose custody of her kids again. “The relapses kept happening it was a Catch 22, she said. “
Her transparency about the gritty and painful world she grew up in on the streets of Austin, Texas has people across the world talking. They know about her heartaches, bad decisions, and heartbreaks because she is sharing it all in a video on social media.
If that were the end of her story, it would be another tragic tale about a person unable to escape painful situations and poor choices. However TiTi was able to turn her life around and ironically she needed to go to jail one more time in order to do so.
It was while she was there that she got some clarity. She was locked up following an assault on a woman. She had protested the sentence she had received but was confronted with the truth on why she was going back to jail. “God say, ‘because you did it. I heard it and at that moment I looked back over my life and started to see the decisions I made. Those decisions were based on bad choices I made, she said.” So for the next two years while in jail she read, prayed, and starting writing the book, The Pink Elephant in the Middle of the Getto. “The book is my journey through childhood, molestation, mental illness, addiction, and healing. I wrote it in prison and published it in January, 2014, she said.”
The book, which is on Amazon.com has sold more 20-thousand copies. She’s also written an institutional version that she says is being adopted by several prisons in the U S. She’s turned the book into a play and set up a non-profit to help women.
Once out of jail she continued to do surgery on herself and with hard work she got her children back. She's a better parent and person and now advocates for other women who've been in prison because she knows exactly what they are going through to try and get their children and lives back. “When women are in prison they get structure but when they leave that’s when they fall apart. I attend court with them because families are tired by then. That is my purpose in life, I believe it, she says.”
For more information go to: www.amazon.com or www.remembertothinkpink.org
If you wanted to make a purse, chances are you ‘d probably head to the fabric store, but Cameo Phillips might also make a stop at the hardware store. “I may see a screen door, something from construction, or nuts and bolts and wires, she says.”
CAMEO DE BORE PURSES
.....
That’s because Cameo doesn’t follow tradition, the St. Louis, Mo. woman never attended fashion or design school. In fact, when she started making purses, she didn’t even know how to sew.
“I did not sew in high school but I’ve been crafty and artsy fartsy and took an interest in fashion. I’ve been a corporate girl my entire life. By I always tinkered and loved fashion, she said.”
She especially loved the fashion forward women from the television series, Sex and the City. Plus, their accessories were to die for. “These characters had these oversized clutches and I wanted one and went on Google and couldn’t find one that was close to what these ladies were rocking, she said.”
So, she decided to make her own purses. You guessed it; they looked nothing like Charlotte’s, Miranda’s, Samantha’s, or Carrie’s. “I had a bunch of ugly ones and a lot of trials and eras, she says. One day she made one and didn’t take to it right away but her husband saw it and she says he loved it. “He said it was dope, she laughed.”
She took the purse to church. “Oh my gosh the women were, where did you get it from and they wanted one and I made them for my church friends for free, she said." She goes on to say, "Many thousands of years later, we have celebrity clients, have attended fashion week, and have been featured in publications and internationally and it’s been a blessing, she says.” But, she wasn’t always this confident.
“It’s funny because it’s so frickin scary to create and make something out of nothing. Every process of this has been a love-hate., Cameo says. Initially she says she was terrified, but her confidence slowly increased. " it’s still there. It’s thriving and that confidence made me pick it up and face this world because there’s a level of vulnerability that is terrifying, but something within does not let me quit, she says.’’
She believes all women have confidence, but need to draw it out. “This business has been such a character builder as I learned to deal with rejection. I say to others, don’t be fearful. Life is short, we might as well dream and create legacies and be all we can be. So many of us have the answer but are so afraid to say so, she says.’’
However, she’s not all business. She loves helping women and realizes that her purses provide an audience and allow her to start a conversation with women that not everyone is willing to start.
"I am always promoting the character of women and it’s slipping. I don’t like the way we look, she says." Specifically, she doesn’t like what she calls the movement to expose more skin, so she uses the purses to turn to that conversation and talk about how a classy woman can show less skin and still be a sexy woman. "It's important to hold onto the qualities that our grandparents gave us, she said.”
“We are trailblazers, invested in our communities, we try, we are not flawless but we are intentional. We support our men, our kids, are changing the world, but there’s a grace and humility that goes along with that, she says.”
For more information, links are provided below.
Instagram:Cameo de Bore
www.facebook.com/CameoDeBore
We not only tell stories on women, we also create docu-stories; short videos about women's issues through our production company, Daddy's Little Girl Productions INC. LLC
Check out the trailers below to some of our videos. These videos are available for purchase and we are available to host a showing on these subjects. Your organization must have an audience of 30 people in order for us to come out and hold a screening and discussion afterwards.
IMAGINE being a minority within a minority. Pam Mertz doesn't have to imagine, she lives it every day. She stutters, few women do. LISTEN to a trailer of Elaine's docu-story on women who stutter
below.
THEY are pleasingly plump and are not ashamed of it.
CHECK OUT THE TRAILER below
FOR ELAINE'S LATEST DOCU-STORY
CURVEE GIRLS.
SHE'S a poet- activist. Speaking about issues no one else is. She's upfront and outspoken. Listen to her speak out Loud!
I WAS SHOCKED. College had just begun- started just a few weeks ago and the 'Slut-shaming had already begun. I did not take the picture below, it was sent into our news station. But someone wanted this to be broadcast.
It stopped me in my tracks when I saw and read the words hanging from the balcony of an upstate New York home! The homemade sign was made out of a sheet or large towel-whatever it was scrawled on, the words were thought out; a plan.
It was deliberate and it was disgusting. It said SLUTS DRINK 4 FREE. It's called "SLUT SHAMING'' and it is happening more and more on college campuses.
In the video below, listen to these college students who've partnered with SHEspeaks2me.com to create more awareness of the issue of SLUT SHAMING.
Elaine Houston
