Self-love taught at the fourth Women of Color Conference

Do not be afraid to love yourself wholly. That was the message tying together Richmond's fourth-annual Connecting Women of Color Conference held at the Jepson Alumni Center last Friday.

Keynote speaker and Richmond alumna of 1997, Dr. Camille T. Hammond, began the conference as she discussed her struggle with infertility and frustration at her body's inability to conceive.

Hammond and her husband created the Tinina Q. Cade Foundation, a nonprofit organization to help women suffering with infertility, after suffering through the experience herself. "It was the most physically demanding and emotional draining experiences of my life," she said.

After spending thousands of dollars on unsuccessful infertility treatments, Hammond made international news by having her 54-year-old, post-menopausal mother serve as a gestational surrogate for her triplets, she said.

"I never expected to be involved in any paradigm change," she said, "or to be at the center of the national media's glare."

She said if she had not opened up about her challenges with infertility, she would not be the mother of triplets. Hammond encouraged audience members to write down their greatest challenge and then to write three action steps to address the problem. "Faith is not a dirty word, but must be practiced even when things seem hopeless," she said.

Hammond's talk on the importance of accepting challenges and difficulties with her body was the catalyst for this year's conference, which focused on "Politics of Appearance."

About 95 registered for the conference, but late sign-ups and walk-ins put the number in attendance closer to 100, the women at the registration table said.

After Hammond's talk, conference participants were assigned two different sessions based on preference, said Charm Bullard, associate dean for residence life and one of the organizers of the conference. The smaller sessions included: Politics of Hair, Politics of Body Image and Politics of Skin Color.

Kenyada Jones, owner of All Tressed Up salon, and Judy Mejia, director of Civic Engagement and Social Justice at Eugene Lang College, led the discussion on the politics of hair. Mejia shared a video that told her hair story. "I did not understand my hair; I was impatient with my hair," she said.

Jones shared information and a video on the going natural hair movement taking place with women of color in society today. After the video, women in room shared their one word reactions: "Bold," "Wow," and "True." Both Jones and Mejia then organized the women in the room to make their own hair stories.

Dr. Charlynn Small, Dr. Elizabeth Stott and Dr. Elliot Spanier, who work in Counseling and Psychological Services at Richmond, and Tracy Cassalia, the manager of health education and wellness at Richmond, led the session on body image.

One of the topics the women discussed was the role of emotional eating and how outside factors affect the way body image is seen.

Dr. Elizabeth Canfield and Dr. Archana Pathak, assistant professors of Gender, Sexuality and Women Studies at VCU, discussed the fluidity of race and racial theories in the final session on skin color.

The session dealt with the impact of being light-skinned versus being dark-skinned and how it makes people feel about themselves as well as how it makes them feel about others.

The conference served as one of the many activities on campus in celebration of Black History Month this February.

Check in for the conference began at 1 p.m. and the conference ended at 5 p.m. after a networking reception where students from various colleges, such as Richmond, VCU and Virginia Union were able to network with the presenters and fellow attendees.

Contact writer Maria Rajtik at maria.rajtik@richmond.edu