How Women of Color, across the nation, are staying connected despite COVID-19

Amongst the peak of racial and political tensions, a global pandemic, and a multitude of trials and tribulations that have occurred this past year, PDX Women of Color, a group of three black women based in Portland, Oregon refuse to give in to 2020 by encouraging others to do the same. Instead, they have come together, online, to hold a safe place for conversations about mental health, female empowerment, racial equity, motherhood, and much more. 

2020 Ain’t Cancelled hosted by Blaire G. Harvey, Monique Majors, and Karen Foster, is an interactive weekly series that takes place on zoom every Monday at 5-6 pm PST. The series, which began in April of this year, covers different topics every month with three new guest speakers every session. 

Monique Majors, the founder of  PDX Women of Color back in 2017, met both Karen Foster and Blaire G. Harvey at the various organization’s events and took them as the organization grew. Karen Foster, the organization’s Community Creator and Experience Curator, describes PDX Women of Color as an initiative to bring together, uplift, and empower women of color through creating and hosting events. As quarantine began in March of this year, the organization was forced to completely alter its approach from physical engagement and in-person attendance to remote communication. This transformation allowed the group to broaden its audience reach. 

This past session, on Nov. 2, more than 100 people from Los Angeles, California to Chicago, Illinois, joined to address the experience of motherhood, especially during a global pandemic through the perspective of three mothers: Nicole St. Louis, Brenda Strauch, and Angella Hernandez.

 Angella Hernandez, a wife and mother to her 17-month-old son, spoke about her experience with postpartum depression, practicing self-care, raising and homeschooling her son, as well as her marriage during a global pandemic. “This is not something i'm used to, so….sometimes I have to step away, I have to step out.” Angella continued, “Prior to [Covid-19] my husband traveled a great deal, I was in the office, we had a nanny and we traveled extensively as a family and then it all came to a halt.” 

In speaking further with creators of 2020 Ain’t Cancelled, it became clear how important the series is, not only to them but to their diverse audience as well. “This platform has given us much more confidence to speak in different spaces,” Blaire G. Harvey, the series’ creator and motivational speaker explains,  “It’s almost like practice, so we have our rehearsals where we get ready and get [statistics]...and when we go into the world we are much more prepared so that it doesn't matter if we go into a white space or a space that looks like us [because] we are armed with information and experiences that can help us grown and help the people around us grow.”