Like clockwork, something physically comes over me every late July. There’s nothing I do to bring it on, I just feel it in my bones, and in my spirit. Then I look at the calendar to confirm that what I call the Leo rising is in effect. It’s when I feel the most brilliant, powerful, strong, beautiful and creative. It was then, last year, when Black Mental Health Today magazine was born.
I remember sending a LinkedIn message to Constance Brossa, an editor I worked under several years ago when I was a freelance magazine writer. I told her about a crazy idea I had for a magazine and asked if she would serve as its editor. “I read scholarly journals for work, but I love Essence. I want the magazine to be both. Will you help me launch it?” I asked. Like every idea I have, I knew it was farfetched and I expected Constance to reel me back in, or at least give me a more sensible idea. Instead, she said yes! I wonder if she’s a Leo, too. Together, we found an amazing team of writers and we stretched my husband Nathan’s graphic design skills to include magazine layout. What you’re seeing is the culmination of an idea, an ask and support. For many of us, ideas come a dime a dozen, but the courage to ask and gather support isn’t so easy to come by. I hope this issue inspires you to grab hold of your ideas, ask the right person to help bring them out of you and find a team of people who can help you keep them going. Please enjoy reading this issue where we quash the Black-people-can’t-work-together claim in “How to Build a Business as a Couple” (page 17), about couples in business together. We also explore phenomena that impact our mental health: Black adult children staying home longer than anticipated in “Back Where They Started” (page 9); the pros and cons of white allyship in “A Primer for White Allies,” (page 25); and our cover story, “Public Bliss, Private Hell,” (page 23) that shatters the Black-don’t-crack myth.
First published in Black Mental Health Today, Summer 2022 (Vol. 4).