Wellness That Matters: Black Health News & Community Care
- Black Women for Wellness fellowship highlighted sharing knowledge and explored intersections of environmental and beauty justice.
- The Environmental Justice team focuses on the lifecycle of plastics and educates communities about plastic harms in fashion.
- Synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon contain toxic chemicals that can disrupt reproductive health and shed microplastics.
- The plant indigo evokes African dyeing traditions and is celebrated as a form of cultural resistance and recognition of ancestral knowledge.
- Showcase featured all-Black-woman creatives, including designers like SUAY Sew Shop, Kutula, and Tracey Ambrose, modeling sustainable fashion.
Joint fellowship project
Fashion show
On International Women’s Day – March 8, 2026 – Rovanni and Lukkee hosted a Sustainable Fashion Show for BWW titled True Indigo: Planting Black Resistance in Fashion.
The BWW fellowship celebrated the diverse ways in which knowledge can be shared with community members, and this fashion show was designed to explore the intersections of environmental and beauty justice.
Our Environmental Justice team does ongoing work on the lifecycle of plastic, and a major goal of this event was to educate community members about the dangers of plastics in the fashion industry. Many of our clothes are made of synthetical materials like polyester and nylon – these are plastic-based materials, which contain toxic chemicals that can disrupt health, especially reproductive health.
The event’s title refers to indigo, a plant that has long been used by African people to naturally dye clothing. Throughout history, indigo has been both exploited and celebrated. The knowledge of cultivating and using indigo traveled across continents and generations, yet the people who developed and preserved this knowledge have often gone unrecognized. We chose to celebrate this, as a form of resistance. The fashion show brought together local designers, environmental and beauty justice advocates, and community members at the Museum of African American Art.
In addition to a fabulous runway show, Lukkee and Rovanni facilitated conversations about the current fashion market, overconsumption and fast fashion. The growing concern around microplastics were at the centerfold of the conversation. Attendees learned how synthetic fabrics can shed microplastics that enter our waterways, environment, and most regrettably, our bodies.
The show featured an all Black Woman ensemble of creatives committed to sustainability including Jakia March of SUAY Sew Shop, Gyasi Imhotep, whose work can be found in Leimert Park, Bo of Kutula, and Tracey Ambrose of Tracey Ambrose WRAP. Each designer demonstrated how fashion can be both beautiful and intentional.
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