How Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors Practices Self-Care & Finds Balance
In xoNecole's Finding Balance, we profile boss women making boss moves in the world and in their respective industries. We talk to them about their business, their life, and most of all, what they do to find balance in their busy lives.
Login, class is now in session with Professor Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and Founder of Dignity and Power Now.
Patrisse, an activist, artist, and organizer is taking her experience in leading an international social movement for justness, to the collegiate level, as an adjunct professor at Prescott College in Arizona. As part of the college's Social Justice & Community Organizing Masters program, Patrisse is advancing her BOSS status by teaching how art intersects with fairness in justice advocacy. Her online course educates adult students on the complexities of these topics. For Patrisse, this work is needed. "One of the big things in our movement is the lack of understanding of creativity and culture and the role it plays in shifting societies," she explained. "I think the biggest issue I have with the art world is how disconnected they can be towards what is happening in the everyday world, so this class is a merger of the two."
In 2013, Patrisse, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi created Black Lives Matter. The movement is an example of women rising up for their community in the name of injustice. Within this divisive political climate, Professor Cullors is striving to stay centered as a shot caller who leads from the top with compassion.
Juggling a new role in academia, recently penning the New York Times Bestseller "When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir," and appearing on BET's Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, Patrisse shares that finding balance while wearing many impactful hats requires implicit self-care. "I'm just in this space where I'm re-engaging how I take care of myself as a priority because I have a family. I have a child," she said. "I also just want to spend time with my friends and this becomes really critical."
In this installment of xoNecole's Finding Balance, we spoke with Patrisse on how she finds balance as a college professor who still works to let the world know that 'Black Lives Matter.'
You’re an artist, organizer, activist, and now a college professor. How did this collaboration to teach a digital course come to fruition?
I was invited into the program to teach about organizing in the art world and Prescott College in Arizona has a social justice program. They asked me if I wanted to be a part of their online program. I was very honored to join. It's a program of mostly all-women professors, which I thought was amazing.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I'm teaching about what I love, which is organizing and art, and I want it to be felt by the students. It's my first time teaching an online course so I guess I feel like, is it going to be as impactful and [are] they going to feel as moved? It's a masters program. No one is forcing them to be here and so in that sense I'm really excited!
How do you stay grounded with all that you’re juggling?
One of the ways I'm newly learning is how to build better boundaries with myself and with my colleagues –setting the parameters around what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
I'm a very loving and caring person. When I work with people, I really consider them family and I think doing a better job at holding what is for me and what is for other people [is crucial]. I think sometimes that blends and that can be really messy.
"One of the ways I'm newly learning is how to build better boundaries with myself and with my colleagues –setting the parameters around what is acceptable and what is not acceptable."
How does a peaceful day begin for you?
I wake up every morning and I try not to get on my phone as a first thing! I make sure that I eat breakfast. I pray in the morning. I hang out with my child before he goes to school.
I really try to start my day by what I need to do for myself and spend time with my child. I just reestablished a workout regimen as part of my everyday, whether it's walking or going to the gym. Just really trying to be in my body.
How do you find balance with:
Friends?
This is critical and I'm not at the best in this area. I think as I've grown in my own leadership and my own visibility. I'm realizing that not everybody's intentions are good when they are trying to be in a relationship to you. This becomes really hard and really difficult and discernment becomes key for me.
Work?
Discerning when I'm working with someone on a project, I don't need them to be my family. They are working on a project and they can work on the project that they are here for. I have my family and I have my community. Those are the relationships that I really need to be cultivating.
How do you break through with moments of uncertainty or feeling stuck, how do you handle it?
It depends. Sometimes, I try to control the situation. Lately, I've been saying the serenity prayer. That prayer is such an important prayer because we can't fix everything. We literally can't.
And honestly, what does success mean to you?
I think it's meant different things in different moments. I don't see success primarily as a work goal. I've been incredibly successful on paper with what I've done and with the accolades I've received. But accolades don't equal healthy relationships.
The healthier the relationships, whether it's my family or my friends or my community-that's really important. At the end of the day, I'm not going to die with a bunch of trophies at my funeral. It's going to be about the people who love me and who I care for.
Press forward Professor Cullors! Press forward and teach us!
Follow Patrisse as she fights for freedom on Instagram and Twitter @osopepatrisee. Learn more about her new courses at Prescott College.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Featured image by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Erica Ayisi is a freelance international journalist who covers the Black global experience. She's filed numerous feature news reports from the United States, United Kingdom, Jamaica, and Africa. Go global with her @akosua0906 on Instagram & Twitter.
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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Rihanna Talks Shedding Expectations And Finding Balance As A Mother
Since becoming a mother in 2022, Rihanna has defined parenthood by her terms and hopes to pass that sense of autonomy on to her children.
For Vogue China’s April cover story, Rihanna shared her perspective on raising her two sons with A$AP Rocky, and how she hopes to preserve her children’s uniqueness, devoid of societal expectations.
"The most beautiful thing...is that [children] come into the world with their own individuality and sincerity, without any logic or conformity,” she told the publication. “Which usually makes you feel that you must fit into a certain group."
The “Work” artist, known for her trendsetting style and captivating persona, expressed her desire to support children in fully embracing their individuality and encouraging them to be whoever they want to be. "It's really beautiful to see and I want to continue to help them navigate that and make sure that they know they can be whoever they want to be,” she says.
She continues, “They should embrace it completely, because it's beautiful, and it's unique. I love them just that way."
From shattering music charts to shaking up the beauty industry, Rihanna has forged a path that has since created the “dream” life we see today. One that she says has made her parents proud of.
“I’m living my dream,” she continued. “My parents were very proud of that because they just wanted me to be happy and successful. So, I think the key thing is to find some kind of balance. Yes, balance is important. Do this and you get the best of both worlds. You can write your own life the way you want, and it will be beautiful. Sometimes, you just need to let go of everyone’s expectations and start living your own story.”
Rihanna, who shares sons, RZA, 23 months, and Riot, 8 months, with rapper A$AP Rocky, recently shared her vision for expanding her family in the future in Interview Magazine.
When stylist Mel Ottenberg asked about the number of additional children she hoped to have, Rihanna replied, "As many as God wants me to have.”
"I don't know what God wants, but I would go for more than two. I would try for my girl,” she adds. “But of course, if it's another boy, it's another boy."
Featured image by Neil MockfordWireImage
