Despite being introverted and shy, Beverly Bond, founder of Black Girls Rock!, shares her story on finding HER voice and what she is doing with it to help other Black women find theirs who feel they go unheard. Now this isn’t some love story that she romanticizes, and her journey to finding her truth will probably be very different than yours, but what she has shared and IS actively sharing with the world holds inspiration for all Black women. She has made it clear that Black women don’t just roar like the angry stereotype that often proceeds them. BLACK GIRLS ROCK!
You started off in the industry as a DJ, did you always want to be a one? What inspired you?
I’ve always loved music, but I never desired to be a DJ. I actually prepared myself to be a DJ organically. I was a record collector and was raised and groomed on many different genres and generations of music through my mom. I had a lot of friends that were DJ’s as well, so when I decided to be a DJ I was really prepared for it. It was a hobby for me when I started, and it was going to be just something that I did, as just another thing to do. I was living in California and I thought this would be my “social hobby thing” and I didn’t even realize that it was a good paying job. At the time I was a model, so I wasn’t trying to leave modeling to become a DJ, but it just happened.
Having also modeled for Wilhelmina, are they any designers that you worked with that we know or recognize?
I worked for Nike and Diesel to name a couple. Everyone adds Super to my modeling career, and I was never a supermodel! I was just a regular old model. I don’t know who ya’ll mixing me up with (laughing). On a game show, they asked the question, “Which supermodel created Black Girls Rock?”, and I was like that’s why you tricked the guy because you said, supermodel. I was a $2500-day rate model (laughing)! Not a supermodel! I was not Naomi Campbell! (laughing)!
What moved you to start this awards show? What defining moment did you have that inspired you to do this?
It started out as an idea for a t-shirt. It was a really cool idea and I immediately became obsessed with it! I started writing down my first thoughts about what the t-shirt should look like and my first idea was writing down all the Black women that rocked. I started thinking about who the women were, and are, that have been rocking over the years and this was in 2005. As I started writing down the names I kept running out of paper. It went from Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Beyoncé, and on and on and on…all these incredible women who have done so many things, through so many different careers, and have contributed so much to this world.
Suddenly it occurred to me that we don’t even see OUR stories, OUR history, OUR heroes! It was almost like these women were talking to me from those pages when I was writing their names down! I knew it in the moment that this was bigger than me. I can’t just keep this to myself, it’s not for me, it’s for us. And that was really the defining moment. I thought that we had to have an award show where we are honoring Black women. In the diversity of those names, I knew that I had to have it. I was looking at the variety of women, past and present, and all that they have done, and I knew we had to have something that cultivates these stories for our young girls… They have to be able to see these types of heroes and have something to aspire to.
That thought pattern was up against what I was watching in the media, in the music industry in particular at the time and really the media in general. In the music industry, where we were objectified, hypersexualized, and stereotyped, and there was nothing else. On the outside of that, in mainstream media, we were not present. We were not on covers, not in magazines.
Our beauty didn’t matter, our natural beauty didn’t matter. In my agency, on a personal note, when I was working with Wilhelmina, there was also this issue about my hair. On the cover of my book that’s my hair, my fro, and that was always a battle. I was told to “calm it down” and “don’t wear your hair like that”. The clients loved my hair, so it was always weird to me that they would decide to subdue me or hold me down. I’d go on set and it was like, oh we already have our Black girls.
I think my unique position as a model, as a DJ, as a music connoisseur…I was paying a lot more attention to media messages. I had a mother that made sure that I was very conscious about my Blackness and tuned in and passionate about justice for all people, and especially for people of color. I think that combination of who I was is what made me birth this incredible movement that has created something magnificent. It’s amazing that I knew that this is what I was supposed to do.
Do you have any suggestions on how to combat colorism within our own race?
When we were in white spaces, we had to mask our Blackness. And when we’re in Black spaces we were divided by it, based on our hair and our skin. I think that this is something that has been passed down from generation to generation, and sometimes it’s amazing to me that it’s gotten worse than what it was or is just as prevalent. When I saw #teamlightskin and #teamdarkskin, I was like What the Hell?! What is this? I think it’s partly social media, but we can definitely combat it.
We just have to continue to use the platforms we have, with all the people that already do this work like Essence Magazine, Ebony, The Root, Blavity, etc. I mean all these content creators like Ava DuVernay, Issa Ray, the movie Black Panther…With everything that’s happening, and with everything that is changing, our presence is being brought to the forefront with all of our magnificence! Whether we are chocolate or super vanilla, the fact is we are all so diverse!! My mother and I are two different complexions, but what she made me realize is that we own ALL OF IT! From the top to the bottom! All complexions!! And I think that THAT is the beauty or at least one of the beautiful things about being Black. Your blackness doesn’t come in one size and I think that we need to start early. I did have colorism issues with one of the girls in our program.
She was very depressed over being dark and she thought that being born Black and with dark skin was a curse for a girl…she tried to bleach her skin with Clorox and was cutting herself. This was in 2010, and we had commercials on TV for Black Girls Rock!, and she saw it and thought what is this? She went to our website and she was like OMG! I’ve never seen or heard this message, and she wrote us this long letter about how we empowered her and that what I had done was change her thinking about Blackness and she started researching Black Beauty and started getting all these images and making collages.
Eventually, she came to the BGR program and we ended up doing a documentary about her called “Imagine the Future” and now when you see her, you can tell she’s glowing, she’s shining! If she has issues it has nothing to do with her complexion. We took her to Africa and I love her transformation. But this type of transformation doesn’t have to happen with such elaborate effort, I think it can happen with us just seeing us.
When I see little Black girls, and they say, “Black Girls Rock !!” and I think “OMG, our kids are growing up now knowing that there is something special in their melanin and that their existence matters as much as everyone else’s!” The content the image makers create is very important but we also have to pay attention to things that become trendy. Because when they become trendy, they can become watered down. When you have people that are profiting off us and they don’t necessarily have the best intentions, they are just trying to sell something. It could be that they’re supporting music that they’ve never supported before in their lives or it could be a company that tries to change all their packaging to Black Girls Rock. I mean we want some of that to happen, but we got to be careful with how we are accepting it.
What would you like to see more of in Black communities? Black Homes? What can we do for each other?
We have to reevaluate what our educational system and make sure our kids are being educated. I think that we have to continue to do village work and we need all-hands-on-deck. Like if you see something, say something!
It doesn’t mean that it has to take a lot to create change. Black Girls Rock! created a movement that shifted the way Black Girls were accepted right? But I was just a shy quiet DJ. But what mattered so much to me was the way we were being portrayed. And I used the tools and knowledge that I had to elevate this platform. It doesn’t have to be as grand; however, we have to use whatever we have, everyone has something to different to offer. As human beings, we are all responsible for each other and some people just don’t get that memo. Some people don’t think that it is their problem, but we are all each other’s problem. And I think that that’s the BIGGER Picture that we all have to think about.
Yes!! Which brings us to your book, Black Girls Rock! Tell our readers what they can expect.
It came out February 27th, and I had a book signing March 3rd at the Brooklyn Museum. We had a panel of guests, including Micheala Angela David and Tamika D. Mallory who are both featured in the book! I believe that we are all authors to our own stories. So that’s the key to my book!
Now Wait! I’ve done some research, so I know that you interviewed over 60 people! So, I must ask you about one interview in particular… Ms. Angela Davis! Please tell us about the ANGELA DAVIS EXPERIENCE!
I’m so glad that you asked me about this! So, I’ve already honored Angela Davis on BGR! So, I already met her. I really didn’t think that she was going to say yes, so I was so surprised when she did. When she agreed to do it I was already in such a state, so the day I was interviewing her, I was like ok, I gotta put on my black leather pants! I had a black turtleneck! My hair was in a ponytail, but I still put a pick in it! My husband looked at me and was like, “What are you doing?!?!” And I said you don’t understand I am about to interview Angela Davis!! He was like, “Are you going on a march? What are you doing?” And I told him you don’t understand I have to feel this way! (laughing)!
But she was marvelous! She was so wonderful, and so giving. She’s super intelligent and so humble. With everything that she has offered to us, she is so incredibly humble. It was like I was in awe. Her interview was great!! Her narrative in the book will resonate! You learn from these people! SO much humility! They tell you how they’ve tapped into their magic!
How they survived through their magic! How to survive in this Black woman shell that we are in, and it’s so very special. And it’s not just the shell, it’s the core of who we are and it’s something very connected. Very sisterly. Very spiritual and very old and ancient. We are connected back to the Source!
I am super excited about this book and I think that the people that have read it already are raving about it! There are approximately 60 people that I interviewed, and it took 2 years to do so! There were a few people that their schedules wouldn’t permit them to do the interview, so we put their awards acceptance speeches from the BGR award show in the book. One of which was Michelle Obama! My friend Michaela Angela Davis said that I DJ’d this book! One of my friends said that I was the Angela Davis of DJ’s! And what’s so important about this book is that whatever happens, as time goes on, it will always be there!
Tangible, live and in color, Beverly Bond’s book Black Girls Rock! will serve as a resource guide for Black women. And when they are feeling like life has beaten them up and they have nothing left to give, they can look to this book as a source of inspiration. Because even when words escape us, most of us are in search of our voices. Not the voice that can necessarily be heard by others, but the voice that comes from deep within the core. People in general struggle with finding their voice; however, Black women seem to face this challenge the most because of the influence of white patriarchal society. With organizations like Black Girls Rock! and people like Beverly Bond, Black women everywhere are finally starting to know their worth. Thank you Beverly Bond, for keeping your word. #HERWORDISBOND
– Dakari Eli
