Sip 1–
Our Secret Strength
A tea kettle is whistling on a hot stove with the call of our…
ancestors to preserve our legacy,
sexual health experts to protect our bodies,
and inner wisdom to support our wellbeing,
It’s RoyalTea time.
This table has been set for Black women of all ages and backgrounds to sip on the hottest tips for sexual empowerment.
Thirsty? This type of tea hasn’t been served in our community…until now.
It’s tea because the message is classified. It’s Royal because we are Queens.
The secret? Black women are super…powerful.
Despite the attempts to marginalize us, we have a power, a royal force within us made from love and laughter, sweat and tears, the blood of our ancestors, plus secret spices that give us a profoundly original flavor.
Black Girl Magic is not just a hashtag; it’s our DNA.
And RoyalTea is not just a hot drink, it’s also a reminder that anywhere Black women sit is a throne.
Our power is not only founded in our physical and intellectual strengths, but our hope and resilience to overcome weaknesses.
Black women are attaining education and career milestones at incredible rates, but also have epidemic rates of maternal mortality, HIV, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
While our grandmothers saw the enemy in hoods and our mothers witnessed the enemy in suits, today’s racism is a casual, but calculated terrorism on our health. The lack of medical resources provided to Black women is a modern-day conspiracy against our right to live.
From the sexual violence on the plantation,
to today’s use of our curves as exploitation,
that has been used as a justification,
for our sexual abuse, assault, and great infection,
Black women have been fighting for ownership of our bodies, our sex, and our health for over 400 years. We are in the age of the Sexual Rights Movement for the Melanated and we need everyone reading this Tea to march because this unresolved history continues to impact our sexual health today.
We know you came here for “12 Steps to Healthier Sex” more than “12 Years A Slave,” but like the proverb says, “We must learn from whence we’ve come, in order to know the way that we must go.”
Created by Black women, for Black women, Upspoken turns the past whisper of our power into a present-day tea kettle whistle to alert Black women that it is our time to win this fight and reclaim our health.
RoyalTea takes the innate power of Black women and brews it with sexual empowerment to pour protection and pleasure tips into our community. Sipping this Tea will equip us to:
- MAKE decisions for and about our bodies without shame, stigma, or guilt
- TAKE control of our sexual health and speak up for our needs loudly and unapologetically
- DETERMINE our path for reproductive choices and STI prevention in a healthy way
- IMPROVE the way we show up for ourselves in love, sex, and relationships
We’re here as a resource for Black women to refresh the relationship with our bodies (she misses you), at our own pace (we are not all the same), and create tactics to enrich our sexual health, sexual care, and sexual pleasure (yep, that’s important too).
No longer will Black women have the highest new cases of HIV and levels of mortality for every major cause of death. Powered with RoyalTea, we’ll be armed with hot tips to sip on for our proper care.
Sisters, let’s sip together and amplify our power because like Nikki Giovanni said, there is a reason for our Ego Tripping.
I am…
so perfect
so divine
so ethereal
so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
except by my permission.
I mean . . . I . . . can fly like a bird in the sky . . .
EXERCISE:
Tonight, write three of your strengths on a post-it and put it on your bathroom mirror. When you wake up, you’ll be reminded of how powerful you are before taking on the day. If your partner tries to take it down, let them know they need a reminder of your power too.
Check out the resources section to go deeper on this topic. Meantime, continue to the next chapter to sip on more of the latest self-care and health care methods.