Sisterhood

I reminisce about the young days of being sixteen, giggling with my friends, and feeling free. Our bonds were unbreakable. The loud cackles, the clapping and tears of laughter in my aunt's kitchen with my cousins. Having each others’ backs always. I started to think: what did sisterhood look like for me growing up, and how have I embedded this in my new friendships?

Sisterhood can mean having FaceTime calls or scheduling zoom meetings for catch ups. It can also mean 10-minute long WhatsApp voice notes or getting excited for that Wizkid concert. It can mean meeting up for dinner dressed up looking your absolute best and taking selfies constantly. It can mean coming together for something meaningful and important, like offering solidarity, appreciating each other, seeing each other excel in our crafts, and routing for one another. Or just simply being there.

I remember at one job I had, they kept talking about sisterhood, but I didn’t feel like I was part of the sisterhood they were referring to. Their sisterhood did not relate to me.

I didn't feel included and one of the reasons was because I was a black woman and from a specific class, so their perception of sisterhood was completely different to mine. Our cultures were not the same and our perspectives and values were clearly different. This made me realise that sisterhood looks different for all, and I could ask myself: what kind of friendships and sisterhood do I want to build and create?

Part of the goal of ‘7blackwomen’ is to strive to see more black women leading in front of the camera and behind the camera. We want to see our stories being told through our lenses and our perspectives. And those are different for each individual, because we as black women are all unique and different in our own way. One of our themes is ‘sisterhood’ and ‘friendship’, which are very intertwined, as friends can become sisters. There's something about the word ‘sisterhood’ that brings people together. As a collective, one of our other goals for our current film project is to have the majority of the cast and crew be women of colour. When we all come together it's different and fresh. Generally, especially behind the screens on set, I’m very often the only woman of colour there. What we’re trying to do is bring more inclusivity. This can be through getting involved with projects and representing whatever skill we may have, whether on screen or behind screen, and showing that we are capable of being great at our crafts when opportunities are created and given.

I love the definition from the dictionary where it says sisterhood means ‘the feeling of kinship with and closeness to a group of women or all women’.

ABOUT US

My name is Winnie Imara, I’m the founder of ‘7blackwomen’ a collective of black & mixed black women creating work for Film, TV & Theatre. ‘7blackwomen’ started late last year I was in a questioning state of mind, and I felt like things were going really slow in my creative journey. So I prayed about what was next for me in my creative journey and a few months later, ‘7blackwomen’ fell into my heart. Just as I was feeling a sense of frustration and thinking ‘why are we waiting for people to hand things over to us or make things happen for us? Why can't we do it ourselves?’ From there I messaged a few friends who are actors and asked them if they’d like to get involved with my project. And so ‘7blackwomen’ began from there. We started off as seven of us filming monologues and posting them on social media and in less than two months, it become almost 30 of us. Since then, we have expanded to be collaborating on a small scale with different black female writers, actors and directors.

- Tell us about your team

My team is

Winnie Imara, Founder and Producer.

Kathryn Roth Creative Producer

And we also have Stephanie Boateng one of our directors who has joined the team

- What project(s) are you working on

Our current project is called ‘sisterhood, a series of short stories’ written by 7 black & mixed black female writers. Nikki Iyayi, Britny Virginia, Testimony Ogunrin, Priscilla Krahn, Jazmine Greenaway, Kathryn Roth & Busayo Ige. These are Interconnected short films and we’re currently in pre-production to film these stories very soon

- Let’s talk about representation on screen...

I believe representation on screen is something that just needs to happen and it needs to happen often, intentionally and consistently. Opportunities need to be provided that people from all backgrounds can access without barriers and restrictions.

- 7BW’s mantra is...?

I would say our mantra is ‘Connect & Collaborate’ & ‘ Don’t wait for a seat at the table’

Cover Photo: April Alexander