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Joi Donaldson

Joi Donaldson is a 10x published author, sexual assault & mental health advocate and all-around creative.    She has bylines with Blk Crwn, Raising Mothers and Midnight & Indigo.

The Joi Element •

How to Cry like a Boss Bitch — The Joi Element

I’ve had a lot to cry about over the last 4 years. From Covid to job loss to my mom passing away, crying is the thing that makes me feel human again. Black women have shed tears over these years when we thought we couldn’t anymore. When we were dehydrated and stuck to our mattresses. When we literally had not a drop left, we cried. So I write from the future remembering this blog and its intent to teach us how to cry at every level of our lives. From boss bitch to bad bitch to sad bitch, let’s cry about it. Because we deserve.
Amazon •

Resilience Rising: Stories of Miscarriage, Infant Loss, Infertility, and Finding Joy after Pain

Joi Donaldson - Editor

More than five million people in the United States experience some type of infertility, miscarriage or infant loss. Although this type of trauma is widely acknowledged as something that affects millions of families, many families still feel ashamed, hopeless, and isolated. Resilience Rising is an intimate compilation of stories by families living with infertility who have experienced pregnancy and infant loss. These are stories of families overcoming grief so deep and no longer being silenced by shame and guilt. We're choosing to live, be Resilient, and share our experience with celebrating our moments of joy through this process.
Amazon •

The Unvoiced Pain: Releasing Depression and Anxiety

Joi Donaldson - Co-Author

In The Unvoiced Pain: Releasing Depression and Anxiety, eight women bravely share their journeys of surviving grief, infertility, molestation, low self-esteem and postpartum recovery. They courageously share their truths of struggles with depression and anxiety, what they did to overcome and how each day they continue to take one step at a time towards continuous healing. After reading The Unvoiced Pain: Releasing Depression and Anxiety, you will be inspired to release the pain that’s holding you back from fulfilling your purpose. You deserve to live life abundantly!
The Joi Element •

Are the Destined Ever Allowed Rest?

I wish people allowed the proper room for grief as they do joy.

I was laid off on July 1st. Leading up to the day that cord was severed, the lump in my throat grew harder. I was tired. Tired of having my work and worth dwindled down to whether the boss was too busy. Tired of leaping over microaggressive landmines. Tired of being watched, dissected and laid bare in the mind of a few against the actions of many. It's a soul tired: a burned-out weariness that only a wailing cry can begin to soothe
Photo by behrouz sasani on Pexels
PrepMatters •

How to Adult, Part II

When does adulthood start? Right on your 18th birthday? A little before, or maybe even years after? Where is the line? And why does that line have to be so dreadful?

Other generations, Gen Z especially, have taken to making fun of millennials and our seemingly incessant need to “kidify” things. Even the term “adulting” has taken a hit for allegedly being too juvenile. Many millennials had to grow up faster than we wanted, thus leaving us to honor our leftover childlike tendencies as adults.
Sacral Ground •

The Historical Hate of the Clitoris

As far back as the 1500s, men were fighting amongst themselves over who actually discovered the clitoris while also hating its existence. The clitoris was viewed as a vile thing, not unlike the vulva itself, but the vulva could be controlled. The clitoris, however, could not. The clioris was powerful in that the bearer could control their own pleasure, therefore there’s was no need for any outside assistance. People with vulvas being able to bring forth their own orgasms was an affront to mankin
Sacral Ground •

Why Pleasure Matters

Pleasure is too often relegated to the guilty side of things. Something to be hidden, shielded from the eyes of the pure and easily offended. Because of this, many of us leave our pleasures underneath the bed collecting dust, refusing to bring it out even when it’s most necessary. So how do we carve out our own definitions of pleasure without feeling like we’re simply going through the motions? By breaking down what it means at its core.

What do you like to do when it’s just you? Cook naked? Si
Temple Indigo •

Honoring The Shadow: Healing Our Inner Child

How to support your inner child

Most kids love making messes. Getting into the dirt, knocking over block towers, seeing how far the milk will drop from the high chair. Get into the dirt with yourself and your inner child to uncover the roots of codependency, projection, fear that have sprouted into the spoiled garden you may currently have. There is no judgment here. We all have some roots that don’t belong to us that are taking up space and choking off seeds we’ve planted. Let’s prepare to rip
Temple Indigo •

I Hug My Fupa At Night: On Body Love After Trauma •

The relationship I’ve had with my body has always ebbed and flowed. I grew up an athlete: tall-ish and awkward, a tomboy creature with no fear of bruised legs and scratches. The trees outside my great aunt’s home went climbed every summer with scrapes of my skin dotted along its trunk. The scar on my left knee that seems like a rite of passage for nearly every Black girl has is a part of my armor. I don’t even think about it – it’s simply part of me.

My story goes as follows: I went to college
The Indie Tube •

I Should've Caught You - Short Film

What would you do if the past fell back into your hands?
Samuel was just waiting for his food when Rainah steps back into his life. While trying to keep up the small talk, what he's been holding in for years comes out.

The directorial debut of Joi Donaldson

Executive Producer: Roger Tyler

Starring:

Samuel - Roger Tyler

Rainah - Brickell French

Director of Photography - Sean King/The King Image

Patron: Ty Jones

Key Grip: JJ King

Special thanks to Michele Wilson of Ma
Private Client •

To Avoid Fighting the World at Home

Has there ever been a moment when you’re reminded of how your partner looks? Even at
surface level, the mind forgets what is routinely in its focus, lighting up when something or
someone new comes into our line of sight. We can see our person without fully seeing them,
and that vision can tend to fade, unintentionally and otherwise, over time. Things for your
partner may have changed recently. The stress of this new livelihood may even have them
looking at themselves in a new light. One of the most powerful acts of love that can be done in
this time is seeing, truly seeing them, where they stand currently.
The Joi Element •

How Black Women Save Our (Sex) Lives

I didn’t know just how pivotal sex therapy would be until my second session.

Unpacking can be brutal. It requires that you hold a scalpel, constantly at the ready to slice yourself down the middle. Shit needs to pour out that’s clogging up the pipes, especially the sexual ones. Much of my sexual life is a blur. My anxious, lizard brain doing me the solid of blocking out a good chunk of memories - not solely due to the act, but the person wielding the pleasure. In this, I’ve been learning how to
midnight & indigo •

Dr. Tubman: The Universe Sent Me a Black Woman Therapist

I sat on the couch of a woman who decorates her office to make it feel like a home outside your own. She has locs dipped in watercolors. She has a favorite lamp that went missing once before our session, and I watched her get mad as a coworker returned it. I’ve watched her laugh and tear up with and for me. At our first meeting, after I emptied out my chest to her, then a stranger, she looked me in my eyes and said, “I see you.”
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels
PrepMatters •

Goal Setting with Minecraft

My kid loves Minecraft. The t-shirts, the wallpapers, watching videos on YouTube. On days they’re free to do nothing on purpose, it’s their go-to game. As an outsider, watching the lead-up to Minecraft is like watching someone prepare for an outdoor excursion. There’s a bowl of something: cereal, popcorn, sunflower seed shells, juice, a pillow, a blanket — all required items as they curl up to play this game. “I’m doing caves today,” they’ll say in my direction but mostly to themselves.
Raising Mothers •

Parenthood is the mountain: 13 mothers define parenthood

“Parenthood is the mountain. A mass of matter with seemingly insurmountable peaks and cold, deathly valleys. I question still, 10 years later, why I chose this trek. The body dysmorphia and muscles still numb to the touch from c-section scars oftentimes match my numbing depression. I try to find pockets of happiness in waves of regret. I don’t regret my daughter; I regret bringing her into this family with these ails and all this shame. She comes from pain; a fiery preteen mad at everything and everyone while I, her mother/greatest cheerleader/harshest critic, works to mother her and myself in real-time. Parenthood is a wildfire. And in my prayers, I bake in the hope she and I will rise triumphantly from our respective ashes.”
This Is My Brave, Inc. •

Joi Donaldson Shares The "Ashiness" of Her Anxiety & Depression in Our Arlington Show

Joi Donaldson Shares The "Ashiness" of Her Anxiety & Depression via poem in in our Arlington show on March 18th at The Gunston One Theatre.

This Is My Brave, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (http://thisismybrave.org) is the leading platform for individuals to share their stories of living successful lives despite a diagnosis of a mental health disorder through artistic expression (spoken word poetry, original music and essay readings) on stage in front of a live audience. We're opening up the conversation about mental health disorders in communities all across the country and beyond via our YouTube channel.

We're shining a light on mental illness because it has been in the dark too long. We're ending mental illness stigma, one story at a time.
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