We have been engaged in intergenerational community programming since 2019, beginning with our first storytelling event in Washington, DC, held in partnership with Dr. Sunyatta Amen of Calabash Tea and Tonic and veteran community organizer and Black sexuality and pleasure coach, Aja Taylor.
Our programs are intentionally co-created with individuals and organizations across disciplines, including storytellers, mental health professionals, cultural workers, reproductive justice leaders, and community health advocates
Each gathering centers the first-person stories of participants—from menarche to menopause—using a Popular Education approach and dialogical tools such as the Say More deck, co-designed by BGG2SM and Kindra.
Valued Partnerships
As our work to normalize menopause through culture and narrative shift expanded, we noticed a gap in how the media represented the full breadth of our community. Too often, mainstream outlets, magazines, or podcasts focused solely on our work with Black women—while overlooking our deep engagement with genderqueer, nonbinary, and trans people. Our approach, our team, our partnerships, and our programming have always aimed to include all Black menopausal voices. We remain committed to centering and honoring first-person experiences across the gender spectrum
This gap led us to step more intentionally into the role of writers and cultural critics—offering op-eds, blog posts, and critical essays that reflect the full complexity of our community. It also inspired the launch of our digital journal on Substack, Hippolyta’s Journal, a multimedia platform for storytelling that also serves as the home of our newsletter.
During the pandemic, and in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, we created Messages from the Menopausal Multiverse, a self-published zine that emerged as a balm and a portal. Through this project, we collaborate with local artists, folklorists, poets, and writers to offer wisdom, care, and hope from across the multiverse.
Expansive Resource Library
We've carefully curated a multidisciplinary, multifaceted, and grounded in social justice—drawing from art, activism, spirituality, and lived experiences.
To date, BGG2SM has contributed articles to:
Conversations about menopause have moved beyond clinical and medical spaces into the broader cultural realm—through dialogues, convenings, podcasts, books, and documentaries. Menopause is having more than a moment; it is becoming a movement. And yet, the movement around menopause care, equity, and advocacy is still young—emergent, expanding, and often uneven.
Center those most impacted
As more voices, businesses, and organizations enter the menopause space, we recognize a critical truth: if advocacy work is not grounded in justice and shaped by the lived experiences of those most impacted, it risks replicating the same gaps and exclusions that have long defined health inequity.
Rooted in Black Feminism
At BGG2SM, our advocacy work is rooted in Black feminism, Reproductive Justice, and Healing Justice. When we are invited to contribute to policy and advocacy efforts, we bring these frameworks with us. They shape how we engage, how we advise, and how we imagine change.
First-person storytelling
We believe in the power of first-person storytelling to influence and inform policy. We also believe that the communities most impacted by menopause must be at the table—not just as subjects of research or beneficiaries of change, but as shapers and leaders of the movement itself.
We’ve brought our strategic advisement to initiatives like:
