In this week’s episode, I sit down with my friend Lakeisha | Temple Priestess— for a conversation that’s sacred and necessary. We’re unpacking what happens when Black women’s creativity, labor, and leadership are constantly extracted, praised, and imitated — but expected to compromise our value and safety. Somewhere in the middle of our laughter and incense smoke, I said:
“I don’t want to hear another motherf***ing thing about women’s empowerment…” and I meant it — but not because I don’t believe in empowerment. It’s because that language often stops short of including us.
I’m talking about the kind of “empowerment” that celebrates women in theory but ignores Black women’s expertise, undercuts our rates, sidelines our contributions, and is riddled with scarcity thinking. The kind that expects our moral leadership but withholds material support.
So when I say I’m tired, I’m not rejecting the idea of women’s empowerment — I’m demanding that it evolve. Because real empowerment can’t exist if it doesn’t fully extend to Black women.
💬 What We Explore
* Why the world is so obsessed with monitoring, mimicking, and managing Black women
* The spiritual and emotional cost of being everyone’s moral compass
* What extraction looks like in creative and professional spaces
✨ From a Recent Note
This conversation echoes something I wrote recently:
“Black women are expected to keep showing up for everyone else while we’re barely holding it together ourselves...Maybe the question isn’t why Black women aren’t showing up this time — maybe it’s why we’re being singled out at all.Sounds less like solidarity, more like scapegoating. It’s giving your guilt is showing.Because when you’re truly doing the right thing from the heart, you don’t need to point out who isn’t. You’re too focused on why you are.”
That’s the energy of this episode. Because if we’re going to talk about empowerment, it has to truly include Black Women and all of our parts.
Reflect:When was the last time you truly celebrated your own labor — not just what you produced, but what it cost you to bring it into being?
💎 Offerings & Ways to Pour Back
🕯️ Get to Know Lakeisha | Temple Priestess: We created a beautiful profile for her inside the Directory on our website — a living altar of black voices who are shifting culture through their work. Take a moment to get acquainted with Lakeisha and explore all that she offers through The Story Temple — her sacred space for writers and storytellers learning to weave the elements (earth, air, fire, and water) into their creative practice. 👉🏾 Meet Lakeisha and explore The Story Temple offerings
🎙️ From The Mediocre Black Woman | with Goddess Theadora
Two ways to pour into this work and this community right now:
* 🎧 Frequency Podcast Workshop: A hands-on experience for creators ready to birth or relaunch their podcast with clarity, rhythm, and authenticity. Learn to craft your trailer, art, and structure your show to last.👉🏾 Join the Frequency Podcast Workshop
* 💖 The Love Offering: If The Mediocre Black Woman has poured into you, this is your invitation to pour back — through gratitude, generosity, and good energy. Every contribution helps sustain the stories and spaces that honor Black women’s voices.
🌸 A Final Blessing: May you remember that your work is not just what you make — it’s what you carry forward. Every time you honor your worth, you heal something that once went unpaid in your lineage.
xoxo,
Goddess Theadora
