Hi Reader,
In the Everyday Artist Community we have themes that guide each month and for November, the theme was Betting On Yourself.
And on November 1st, I took a gamble and bet on myself by launching an all black women’s beach volleyball community.
A little backstory, back in July I attended the yearly 6 Man Beach Volleyball tournament in Manhattan Beach.
For those who don’t know, I played indoor volleyball for many years - middle school, high school and a year in club in college.
Ya girl was even the team captain 🏐.
Anyways, I’d been missing it and wanting to play again but at 36, I wasn’t confident about them knees and not injuring myself with indoor volleyball.
So I went to this tournament and first and foremost I felt extremely competitive and I was very clear I wanted to play again.
The other thing I saw and felt, which wasn’t surprising, was that it was very white.
It’s Manhattan Beach so I wasn’t shocked but I was extremely…….motivated.
Because while I was there all I kept thinking about and picturing was playing with a team of black women out there - killing it, having fun and adding a pop of color in an otherwise sea of white.
By no means am I motivated by diversifying “white” spaces but I am very committed to black folks having access to possibilities and opportunities that may not always be presented as readily available.
This vision of an all black women’s volleyball team was so visceral in my body that I immediately shared it on Instagram (a rarity) to put the call out to see if any teams existed that I could join as well as being open to building one myself.
In the meantime, I shared this vision in The Everyday Artist Community to a room full of support and encouragement and I used a few of the sessions to allow myself to dream about what this could look like.
For me, a core tenant of creativity is simply being a bridge or a channel for our imagination to land in the 3D realm - however that takes shape.
So, I absolutely believed that this vision that was coming through to me was just as creative as me doing a watercolor drawing or reading a script.
And as I received more and more comments, feedback and direct messages from my IG post from black women I knew and also didn’t know who had been looking for something like this, it became very clear that the path was leaning towards building this vision vs. trying to join a pre-existing one…….
…….Because from what I could tell in all of my internet searches, it did not exist.
And if there’s anything I’ve had to get comfortable with in my almost 8 years of entrepreneurship, it’s building things that have never existed.
So, that’s what I did.
I assembled all of the people who had reached out to me, put us all in a WhatsApp group, chose a date and on 11/1 we had our first event / meet up.
And it was absolutely as magical as it looks / sounds.
Because in all of those years that I played volleyball, for the most part, the bodies I was on teams with or competing against, did not look like mine.
Who and what was glorified and put on a pedestal was often extremely…….palm-colored 🤚🏻.
And seeing people who looked like me playing beach volleyball? Virtually non-existent.
But I believe in creating the world I want to see.
So, to see this group of black women come together and take up space in a place that was absolutely not used to us doing so was extremely healing.
We bumped music, we laughed, we joked, we played, we had fun and we did what black women do best - supported and encouraged each other.
The palm colored men next to us couldn’t stop staring lol.
And you know what made this possible?
Having a creative container where I could voice this vision out loud, work through my doubts with EFT tapping, and practice trusting that creative impulses - even ones that look like sports events - deserve space and action.
That container is The Everyday Artist Community.
In our weekly Creative Corners, I dreamed about what this could look like, processed my fears, and got support from folks who understood that this vision was just as valid as any painting or poem.
Whether your creativity looks like organizing sporting events, starting a podcast, launching a new business, or finally giving yourself permission to rest... it all requires the same things: space to dream, tools to clear the blocks, and community to hold you accountable to your visions.
Speaking of, we're playing again this coming Saturday, December 6th at 10am. If you're a black woman/femme (trans women, nonbinary folks and all queer identities welcome!) and you've been wanting to play, you can sign up here.
And if you've been wanting to nurture and expand your creativity in community, The Everyday Artist Community opens its doors again on 12/12.
You can join the waitlist here.
Bianca