The 39th Annual Empowering Womxn of Color Conference (EWOCC) was held in-person on March 16th, 2024.
Commissioned Artist: Sylvia Blalock
Born In San Francisco and raised in the eclectic San Francisco Bay Area including Oakland and Contra Costa County, Sylvia is a purpose driven artist who has worked in paint, charcoals, pixels, words, music, business and love- she adds creativity, vision and purposeful action to the projects that she undertakes, sometimes handing them off to others to maintain focus on her current project- The Queendom Network. Sylvia Blalock is extending the reach of the online poetry community through promotion on her websites, www.queendom.network, www.voicesthatcarry.org , www.sblalock.com and the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/authorsylvialblalock/. Her vision is to use poetry and art to counterprogram negative rhetoric.
Keynote Speaker: Tracie Collins
Tracie is the Founder of the National Black Doulas Association®, a company that helps fight the Black Maternal Mortality rate in America. The foundation provides education, certification, and matching for Black doulas and families. Tracie has become one of the nation’s leading voices of midwifery, Doulas, and at-home birthing to empower Black women. Tracie has been published in publications such as Parents, Rolling Stone, Essence, Milk Drunk, and contributor on Black Love, CNN Health, NBC Today and many more. Her career expands over 23 years in the realm of women’s holistic health and healing. Tracie also has an online school to develop entrepreneurs. After seeing the fundamental knowledge gap in business development and structure, Tracie felt the need to launch the TC Business Development program applicable to any industry, from entry-level to advanced. Here she shares her high-level expertise and skillset in business development implementation. Tracie’s passion is seeing women of color succeed through their creations and living their life they desire and deserve.
In 2015, the mayor of Oakland, California deemed March 14th as Tracie Collins Day in honor of her work in Arts and Entertainment and calling attention to the human trafficking epidemic in Oakland, California. Tracie has been published in publications such as The Grio, Rolling Stone, Essence, Washington Post, GMA, and contributor on Black Love, CNN Health, NBC Today and many more. Her career expands over 23 years in the realm of women’s holistic health and healing. In 2023, Tracie released her autobiography, Special Delivery, a triumph story of how one woman overcame a series of hardships and traumas to succeed in life while revolutionizing the birthing industry for Black and BIPOC birthing professionals. It is a book written to “the everyday Black girl,” regardless of age or background, to encourage them to never give up their dream but to continue to pursue their passion until it intersects with their purpose and leads them to their destiny. She also had three successful seasons of the Healthy Black Girl Podcast, which was voted among the top Black podcasts of 2022 & 2023. Tracie explores women’s rights and social injustices by moving to creative works in television and film. Her main driving force is to explore black culture’s taboos, dispelling those myths through art and entertainment. Tracie is currently developing multiple projects across film and television.
