We Made Lemonade with the Howard University #HU21 Class
Can I tell you how dope our young black females are?! I've come to find that we can learn from and be inspired by people from all walks of life and ages. And, that's exactly what happened when The Everyday Lemonade kicked off a project highlighting a few students from the #HU21 freshman class of Howard University.
We sat down and talked with these ladies about everything from sisterhood, being a black female, pursuing your passion, and becoming leaders and changemakers in the world. Then we ended each interview with a mini photo session. The end result was nothing less than pure magic -- and this, my friend, is what we call The Everyday Lemonade.
Video by: Tye Coffey, The Everyday Lemonade
It all began with a hashtag -- that's right! The Everyday Lemonade was born as an idea in June 2017 after I stumbled upon several #HU21 social media posts of soon-to-be college freshmen expressing their excitement about attending one of the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), Howard University (HU).
I decided I wanted to tell their stories visually and through interviews because we need to capture and tell our own narratives -- that's so important but I'll save the 'telling our story' piece for another post. So, I reached out to over a dozen students and told them what I wanted to do. They were all excited to participate in the project. So, let's roll right?
Okay, honest moment here -- as an artist (yes, I'm blaming it on the art), I was inspired and started to envision what I wanted this project to be but hadn't quite thought through everything it would take to actually bring it to life. Once I got out of idea mode and put my planning hat on, I quickly realized the amount of work I needed to put into the project to bring it to life. Over the last few months, I spent my time doing just that.
In October, we held our first round of interviews and photography sessions with the students. Over the next few months, The Everyday Lemonade will share their stories -- our stories. May they inspire you the way they inspired us!
During the session we interviewed and photographed about 11 females from the Howard University #HU21 freshmen class.
The interviews and photo session took place at Howard University (Washington, DC). Photographers included Gina Lancaster of Leanila Baptiste Photograhy and Makeila (Kei) Nevette of Rose Petals jpg. Videograhers included Jean Margarette and Tye Coffey. Interviews were conducted by Christina DeShazo and Misha Bucknor. Special thanks to Maia Regman of 150 Bison for collaborating on the project.
