You're Beautiful, Woman! 2010

On 7th August, I was fortunate to be at the 3rd You're Beautiful, Woman! www.yourebeautifulwoman.com held at Highgate Newtown Community Centre, London N19. This was a constructive annual event celebrating black female beauty in all its forms: fashion, hair, beauty and more. The day was packed full of seminars with a range of speakers and a vibrant market place, which is where I spent most of the day.

I was there in the name of Shangwe to promote my 3rd anthology Hair Power Skin Revolution and I thoroughly enjoyed the interest received about my writing journey and of the concept and journey of my book. The networking was particularly powerful as I met not only some beautiful women, but exchanged business cards with a lot of inspirational women, who are a great representation and testimony of the way black women are aspiring and achieving in their own right.

For example, I met:

Amina Whittey, of Cohort Learning, http://www.cohortlearning.org/ a teacher and training consultant working to ensure that our children of colour receive the best education, particularly regarding our history;

Regina Jere-Malanda, Editor of New African Woman Magazine http://www.africasia.com/ who is doing a fantastic job with the magazine. The word depth truly comes to mind; great articles, serious and thought-provoking subjects are particularly engaging and satisfying to indulge in as well as some vibrant and groundbreaking fashion;

I exchanged books with Alison Husbands, author of The Afro Hair & Beauty Bible http://www.theafrohairandbeautybible.co.uk/ a lovely book to own with secrets of how to achieve and maintain beautiful healthy Afro hair, including skin care tips and make-up brands that work best with black skin, and excellent photographic images;

Angel Smith's recent achievement in setting up The Natural Lounge, a UK website for those who wear their hair natural http://www.thenaturallounge.blogspot.com/ was a rare treat and I look forward to attending one of her forthcoming events. Her article From Relaxer to Natural is particularly inspiring as she reveals in an honest and open way how she made the decision to take out her braids and leave her hair natural. She sums it up when she says, "...I realised that most of the fears about going natural are in our own heads and not the outside world...' You can read the full article on page 29 of Lime Magazine's Caribbean Fever Edition: http://www.comelime.com/

Rosa Garman, a student at Edinburgh University who is currently writing her dissertation on the politics that surround Black women's hair in Britain, specifically looking at the motivations behind hair relaxing. More about her in a future blog posting;

Olumide Solanke, Managing Editor of ninetynine magazine, launched in March 2009. The magazine features poetry, music, relationships, health & fitness, people in the media and much more. Do visit: http://www.ninetyninemag.co.uk/

Oh and I also made sure to capture the moment with those all important photos - in ascending order, Patsy Antoine, (anthology contributor), me and Jacqueline Reid; Patsy Antoine & Jacqueline Reid.