A Quick Thank You.

As I approach Better to Speak's fourth birthday this Saturday, July 24, I'm reflecting on how far the platform and I have come.

I've tried to remain consistent and courageous in bringing my ideas to my small corner of the world and – in the words of Audre Lorde – speaking and sharing what is most important to me, "even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood." 

I'm sharing this to make public my journey with navigating the expansion from being a 19-year-old chasing an idea to now being a 23-year-old young woman with a bigger dream and vision. Particularly for other young Black girls and women working to overcome fear or reservation in the pursuit of their own ideas and dreams.

This is getting a tad dramatic, so I just wanted to share that Better to Speak will take an official hiatus until 2022 – effective August 1, 2021.

I'm sharing this publicly for two reasons: (1) Logistically for partners, interviewees, clients, and community members that have contributed to this platform and my journey to whom I couldn't be more grateful, and (2) to publicly practice treating my projects/work/contributions to the world with the same level of care that I aim to treat myself with personally.

That said, this decision simply comes from a place of my ideas outgrowing my little body, from four years of operating in a mindset of needing to overcome fear in getting my ideas out into the world rather than from a place of abundance and opportunity in getting to do really meaningful work with really dope people. 

I owe it to myself to give Better to Speak the time and space to properly flesh out and invest in my ideas and its initiatives, which is what I plan to do in the next few months. 

I'm super hopeful for its future – so much so that I'm happy to share that we'll be returning with The Book Drive in 2022 with our next partner already committed. 

In the meantime, please continue to support The Period Project, specifically as I rollout information about our partners, and look out for the final episodes of Better to Speak: The Podcast.

I'm hoping to also bring back additional physical copies of Your Silence Will Not Protect You on its one-year anniversary in November, the proceeds for which will support Better to Speak as we relaunch.

Thank you to everyone who has liked, shared, followed, listened, donated, attended an event or contributed time and energy to Better to Speak. I appreciate y’all more than you know.

– Kési Felton, Founder of Better to Speak