Introducing: Matriarch

Last spring, I met my parents, great-aunt, and a cousin in Wortham, Texas, where my maternal grandmother and her siblings were raised. I did not know that by the end of 2021, my great-aunt, her sister, would perish – and that this trip would be her final trip back home.

So when I recently found myself with a finished book and no publisher to keep it in distribution, I knew that when I regrouped to self-publish Peace by Piece: Unlearning Racial Bias, I would do so under the only name that I knew would pay tribute to my mother, her mother, her mother’s sister, and all the aunts, cousins, and grandmothers who have made me who I am and given me the confidence to use my voice: Matriarch.

Matriarch is a tribute to the women who raised me, and a service to the woman I am becoming. My hope is that through Matriarch, I will be able not only to tell my own stories, but also to amplify the stories of other Black women, like those I’ve profiled in my Undaunted series, whose names you may not know.

Through Matriarch Publishing, I will soon launch the second edition of Peace by Piece: Unlearning Racial Bias, with a new preface, a renewed sense of purpose, and building on the lessons I learned from the publication of its first edition.

I look forward to sharing this new journey with you as it unfolds, and to continuing to facilitate healing and conciliatory dialogue by telling our stories.