Who We Are
Our Story
Black Women Speak is an ecosystem of Black women who gather to share experiences as a way to heal, find joy, and move toward liberation on our own terms! We do this by tapping into the arts, practicing healing techniques, and providing education around what it means to be a Black woman navigating this world.
We work together in order to create and sustain a better way of life for Black women and girls. Our intentions mirror those of the Combahee River Collective, who stated: “We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters, and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work.”
Black women are the most oppressed group in America and once you add intersections to her, the road becomes more complex. According to various studies, Black women show signs that we internalize racism, misogynoir, and stereotypes that end up manifesting themselves through mental and physical illness. Despite the studies, we honor first- the voices of Black women who feel insurmountable pressure from this society’s expectations of us, who are overworked, underpaid, who are tired, who are not heard, and who feel they are not protected.
“We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters, and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work”.
-Combahee River Collective.
For this purpose, Black Women Speak was founded by A’Bryana Ware in July of 2019, kicking off the organization with the event Black Women Speak On: Misogynoir. Since then, Black Women Speak has hosted multiple workshops to engage and uplift Black women’s stories, including “Liberation from the Angry Black Woman” at the 2nd annual “Because Black Life Conference” in 2019, and bi-weekly healing groups at Augsburg University’s Pan-Afrikan Center. Black Women Speak has also held discussions on topics such as solidarity, Black representation in film, and book clubs. These long and short-term initiatives prioritize plugging into the work of and magnifying Black women’s voices in the community.
We provide year-round programming that is free and open to all ages. We welcome all Black women of various religions, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and identities.
We believe the lives of Black women have to be determined by centering the voices that matter most—our own.
Our Mission
Black Women Speak centers the lives of Black women by cultivating community, giving voice to our experiences as a way to heal, find joy and move towards liberation on our own terms.
Our Vision
Black Women Speak envisions a world where Black women feel safe to speak and live with support from the global community. With every initiative, we bring healing to the forefront in order for the neglected Black woman to be free and find joy.
Our Vision
Black Women Speak envisions a world where Black women feel safe to speak and live with support from the global community. With every initiative, we bring healing to the forefront in order for the neglected Black woman to be free and find joy.
Meet The Team
“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
~ Gwendolyn Brooks
Eshay Brantley
Program coordinator
Born on the south side of Chicago, multidisciplinary artist Eshay Brantley moved to south Minneapolis in 2004. Always the dancer of the family, Brantley embarked on her journey in performance art at age 15 in the Washburn Blackbox social justice theatre class, led by Crystal Spring. Full of passion, Eshay wasted no time and began her acting career with CTC (Children’s Theater Company) she played the role of Sweat Pea in Will Power’s Flow directed by Anton Jones.
Not stopping at the theater, Brantley began to showcase her other artistic talents. She competed in youth poetry slams with TruArt Speaks, was cast as the lead mover for the music sensation Heiruspecs in their music video “On the Ground,” making the City Pages Top Ten list. She directed “For Colored Girls” with an all-women of color cast. Eshay presented an original play she both wrote and directed at Patrick’s Cabaret in 2014. She also starred in a documentary called “Believe in Black Youth,” a look into the lives of four black high school students and their personal thoughts on the education system. Eshay was also a production assistant and lobby specialist for “U/G/L/Y” at the Guthrie Theater in the fall of 2015. The show was written and performed by Sha Cage, whom Eshay first worked with after being cast in “The Blacker the Berry,” directed by Cage at Intermedia Arts. She then curated a show at Augsburg Theater between Brown Eye Theater and Blu Bone: a play by Namir Fearce, where Brantley was the leading actor. Sending her off to Columbia College Chicago (Fall 2016).
After one year of attending Columbia College Chicago’s School of Drama, Brantley discovered she was pregnant with whom she calls her “WildHoneyChild” Matteo. Eager to grab hold of her dream, Eshay reached out to Ambiance Theater Company and together they planted and produced The Garden: a devised play centered around Black Women’s reclamation of self. That is when Brantley was brought on to the core Ambiance Team and was blessed with the title Director of Performance. After a year of being a part of the Theatre company, she went on to serve as a Program Director for Black Women Speak!
A'Bryana
Founder, Director
A’Bryana was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota; from the East Side, Selby (Rondo), to Frogtown, she is a thorough and true Saint Paul native. She has roots in Rondo as her great grandmother, known as “Granny” in the community, had a role in helping the Gopher Elks and bugle corps get back together after it disbanded for a time. Since childhood, A’Bryana has always been hypersensitive to her surroundings, to societal structures and behaviors, experiencing many racist incidents as young as 5 years old which has directly impacted her current work and mind frame.
A’Bryana spent some time in the arts, attending Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists high school for Voice and studying Broadway-style arts in North Minneapolis for several years. Despite not considering herself an artist, A’Bryana believes that the arts are a part of her, and of Black folks naturally – when sad, we write poems, we sing songs, when happy we dance, so on and so forth. We use art as an outlet for our emotions.
She attended Minneapolis Community and Technical College and got an Associates in liberal arts in December 2011. MCTC played a large role in A’Bryana recognizing her own place in the liberation struggle. . Shortly after she finished her degree, A’Bryana gave birth to a healthy baby girl in January 2012 and took a year off to focus on mothering- which the break also had a lot to do with the trauma she experienced at the hands of the hospital where she gave birth in.
In 2013, she began her long trek at the University of Minnesota where she focused on Sociology and African American Studies until 2019. That same year, she experienced a violent assault that not only made her question the general safety and protection of Black women but also led her to curate her first event, “Black Women Speak on Misogynoir,” an artistic expression of Black women’s experience of anti-blackness & sexism that concluded with a community conversation. . Following the Misogynoir event (which garnered an incredible amount of interest and support), A’Bryana knew that the work couldn’t stop there. She created a workshop titled “Liberation from the Angry Black Woman,” which she facilitated at the 2nd Annual Because Black Life Conference in August 2019. After seeing the impact that the workshop had, she was offered a donated space to lead her newly founded idea, a free and accessible healing group called “Black Women Heal” at Augsburg University.
A’Bryana also spent 8 years working in the Minneapolis Public Schools district, although she truly loved her students – working in Education is a toxic environment that she could no longer subject herself to.
A’Bryana grounds herself in the legacies of Black feminism, grassroots organizing, and collective freedom. She echoes Audre Lorde as she has stated, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” In her own words, “I just want Black women to get free, free in the mind, body, and spirit — placing our care, our voices and experiences at the forefront. Getting free from the constraints this society has placed on us to the overbearing responsibility our families hold us to. No longer should we be the martyr, superhero, or the person to wear all the hats, but as Nikki Giovanni says in her poem Revolutionary Dreams, “being a natural woman doing what a natural woman does when she is natural.” And then will we have a revolution!”
All of who she is – is because of her ancestors especially her late grandmother, Gloria Jean who was affectionately called, “Umma”. We give thanks to her and all of the Black Women who’ve held us. Asé.
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