Reclaiming Ugly with Vanessa Rochelle Lewis
Follow Vanessa on Instagram @the.ugly.black.woman
In this episode, Vanessa Rochelle Lewis goes deep into her own story of confronting a world that told her she was ugly and unwanted, and her emergence on the other side as her freest self. Follow as she takes us through the journey of discovering her own desirability and how to build more radical and magical possibilities for our own lives. This conversation is deeply imaginative and honest while challenging us all to look hard at how we treat ourselves and others.
About Vanessa:
Born and raised in South Central, Los Ageles, Vanessa Rochelle Lewis (MFA) is a Queer, Fat, Black, Femme performer, facilitator, educator, writer, activist, healer, joyful weirdo, and Faerie Princess Mermaid Gangsta for The Revolution. Vanessa has danced across many professional and creative stages. She has been a Writer and Co-Managing Editor for acclaimed feminist magazines, Everyday Feminism & Black Girl Dangerous; a community college instructor at multiple Bay Area schools and radical transformative justice programs; a fundraiser and events coordinator for the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project; the Artist In Residence for the Young Women Freedom Center where she facilitated Art Healing Workshops and a Master Class for formerly incarcerated women, trans, and non-binary people; and so much more. She is currently a core team member for Creating Freedom Movements (a year long social education project that supports grassroots visionary leaders to incubate healing and joy projects while learning more about the art, theory, and practice of social justice movements) and a Creative and Programming Consultant for the Positive Results Center (a family run organization founded by Lewis’s mother, Kandee Rochelle Lewis, to create awareness and prevent the trauma that comes from experiencing violence and abuse! PRC specializes in addressing the impacts and source of bullying, sexual abuse, dating, domestic or inter-personal violence and sex trafficking).
Vanessa Is the Founding Director of Reclaim UGLY: Uplift Glorify Love Yourself – And Create A World Where Others Can As Well! Her vision is to co-create a world where everyone knows that they are a safe, welcomed, and valued member of their communities; has the support to dream authentically and exists in their truths; and accepts that there is no face, no body, and no person who is ugly or unworthy of love and acceptance. In 2019 Reclaim UGLY hosted their first Ugly Conference and will be hosting The Reclaim UGLY Healing Retreat and Transformative Imagination Conference in May 2021. In 2020, Reclaim UGLY hosted Solidarity Healing September (an online, month-long, racial justice heal-in/teach-in that was a fundraiser and heart raiser for Black Healing October) and Black Healing October (a month of daily FREE online healing workshops for Black people by Black people).