Based on writer and civil rights activist Audre Lorde’s quote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation,” the third annual Sister2Sister Retreat will focus on African-American women understanding the importance of their mental, physical, sexual and emotional health.
Co-sponsored by E.S.T.E.E.M., Luckyday, National Pan-Hellenic Council, the Career Center and Ole Miss Athletics, the retreat will be held from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday in Lamar Hall. In the afternoon’s four sessions, discussion will include sex and the hookup culture, love in the workplace as well as social justice activism and personal identities. One of the event’s goals is to engage and motivate women of color at the university to create a dialogue.
“We know there are many things that drastically affect women of color: higher mortality rate of breast cancer, higher levels of stress compared to other races,” Alexandria White, the center’s assistant director, said. “So, this retreat is a way for undergraduate women, faculty and staff to have an insight into how we can better improve our personal, social and academic responsibility to ourselves.”
White said she has personally known women of color who have died at a young age and seen women putting their needs last.
“You can’t pour from an empty cup,” White said. “As I know, and from working with women of color in the community, many of us are taking care of communities, others, but not ourselves.”
More than 60 percent of the 80 students, faculty and staff registered to attend will be attending Sister2Sister for the first time. Unique this year is that for the first time, a student will open the retreat. Usually, the retreat’s organizers bring in an outside speaker for the opening, but White said the staff wanted to hear the voices of students as soon as the retreat starts.
Taking that role as opening speaker is sophomore A’Mya Jones, a double major in theater arts and liberal studies.
“I was thrilled simply because out of all the people who are far more capable and qualified, in my opinion, to handle this task, Ms. White and those involved with this program saw fit to consider me,” Jones said. “I am very humbled by it all, honestly.”
Although Jones never attended the retreat before, she sees it as an important atmosphere for black women to be a part of.
“Black women, or as we commonly refer to them as ‘sisters,’ need a safe place on a campus, in a state, in a country, in a world forcing them to bend, conform, sacrifice, be silent and break to just simply be, to inhale and to exhale every stressor, stereotype and obstacle set up against them from the moment they are born,” Jones said.
Junior African-American studies major Jasmine Minor is a third-time attendant and said she learns something new each year. She said the retreat consistently challenges her to better herself as a woman.
“This is critical for us as a population because it is easy to feel that no one understands your plight as a black woman,” Minor said. “Sister2Sister is is an opportunity for black women to connect, engage and grow.”
Although the event’s registration is closed, White encourages women, whether they are attending or not, to find a space or other people who understand their walk through life because it helps preserve many areas of health. The retreat, to White, is that open space for women of color.
“As women of color, we know that we deal with different things as we walk through our lives. We deal with microaggressions. We deal with racial battles,” she said. “So, having a safe and intentional space to talk about these problems benefits us all because once we leave this space, we know that it starts all over again.”
