BIN Exclusive: Kwamara Thompson Talks Black Sisterhood

In an exclusive interview with the Black Information Network, Kwamara Thompson talks about founding her Miami-based organization, "I am a Black Woman, Yes I Matter," which promotes Black sisterhood through angel investing and education.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Luvi. It is to behold.My mother is effervescent, a big enough
splendor. I'm Terry McCready on theBlack Information Network. The Black Information Network
partners with a variety of local civicgroups and businesses around the country to raise
awareness and support for important issues affectingthe Black community. From time to time,
we take a moment to spotlight thoseorganizations that serve their local communities in

(00:22):
partner with us. Black Information NetworkAnchor Mimi Brown recently talked with one of
the leaders from our local advisory groupabout the amazing work her organization is doing
to support Black women and black mothersin Florida. Here the Black Information Network,
we are shining a spotlight on Quamara, a powerful movement driven by the
initiative I Am a Black Woman,Yes I Matter. This organization is dedicated

(00:45):
to promoting sisterhood and building community amongblack women through various means including angel investing,
education, creating platforms, and more. Their main goal is to empower
black women to become leaders in theircommunity and beyond. And today I am
joined with the organization's fearless leader,Quamara Thompson. Thank you so much for
joining us. How are you?I'm good. Thank you so much community

(01:07):
for having me here. I'm justso excited to talk about what is near
and dear to my heart. Beinga black woman in the space value in
this world. Absolutely. So let'sjust have a conversation about all that you
are doing in your community. There'sso much to cover. Honestly, you
know, I follow you on socialmedia. It's how do you do it
all? What inspires you? Well, I kind of think I like to

(01:27):
think of myself as a walking ecosystem, and that's really what we're trying to
create. I'm a black woman,Yes, I matter. We want to
create ecosystems of collaboration, of empowerment, of partnership. We want to disrupt
the narrative that women, especially Blackwomen, are angry, we can't get
along, but we're catty, andthat we don't have any unity within our

(01:49):
community. We want to disrupt allof that. And so it is so
important to a be there, makesure that you're in the spaces and which
decisions are being made, and thatyou're being represented. And so when opportunities
present themselves, especially opportunities to engagewith our upcoming talent, our youth,

(02:09):
that is also what extremely drives me. I love what's going on with the
youth. They give me energy,they give me hope, they give me
inspiration, they are my aspiration.I love interacting with our youth and with
our local talent, not only herein Miami, but just across the United
States. And so that's what reallygives me energy, gives me drive,

(02:30):
having these conversations with you, meme, having conversations with other dope sisters,
and seeing me amazingness every day whenI am interacting with our community,
when I'm interacting, especially with ourblack women, I am always in awe
of the strength that we exude,our creativity, our talent, our fearlessness,

(02:51):
and then also our joy, ourability to laugh with one another,
our ability to keep key with oneanother, our ability to just hug on
each other when we need to youand say, my sister, I see
you, I feel you, Ilove you. That's what always gives me
energy. I love that. Whatinspired you to What was the catalyst that
said I need to start something toempower the black woman. Yeah, so

(03:15):
I'll talk a little bit about myhistory, and obviously we'll start with the
obvious. I am a black woman, was raised by black women. I
am the oldest of four daughters,so surrounded by black women my entire existence,
and really leaned into that sense ofsisterhood and that foundation that my mother

(03:35):
really set forward to ensure that allof her daughters get along with one another,
that we loved each other, thatwe have great connections with one another.
And the additional connections that I hadwith my grandmothers on both my mother
and father's side. So just froma child, I was always covered in
love and that maternal love, andit just always gravitated towards that. So
I think like it's important to justknow a little bit about that foundation.

(04:00):
I started off my career as ahigh school English teacher, and based off
of the success that I did there, we were able to start a education
and consulting company. And because thateducation consulting company was so successful, we
had I had disposable income, andI said, what can I do with
this money? And what's so importantto me is giving back. You know,

(04:20):
I've had opportunities. I've been ableto open up doors, I've been
able to sit at certain tables,I've been able to create certain tables.
I want to make sure that Ipay it forward. I always think about
the sand Cofa Bird, you know, always looking back at your ancestry,
looking back at your history, lookingback at those that are coming after you.
And so I decided that we weregoing to take some of these this

(04:43):
extra additional funds that we had andinvest back into black and brown communities.
And so we started to give outMichael loans into some angel investing to businesses.
And as a part of that work, we had the honor and privilege
of working with two black women sisterplaywrights out of New York City, and
we started producing their plays off Broadwayand in the East Village. And then

(05:05):
the pandemic happened, and so wehad to like stop some of the live
broadcasts, and I was getting phonecalls left and right from black women who
are like, Hey, I'm missingthat sense of camaraderie that we had,
those happy hours that you did,the plays that you used to put together,
the town halls that you had.What can we do? And I

(05:26):
was like, Oh, no,let's just a happy hour on zoom.
I don't know so what people aredoing. And literally from that our YouTube
channel started, and from our YouTubechannels, the brand I'm a Black Woman,
Yes I Matter was born in twentytwenty. You know, I wanted
to to kind of stay there fora minute because one of the biggest challenges
that black women's face is kind ofbeing being seen by others, and so

(05:50):
so talk to me about, youknow, what are some of the ways
or some of the challenges that wedo face when we when we step up
and we do say that we wantto be leaders in our own community.
Well, you obviously, we getso much pushed back. There's the angry
black woman trope. There's the ideathat we can't play nicely in the sandbox.
There's the belief system that we cankind of do it all and we

(06:13):
should and we should do it allfor free. I was leading a conversation
a couple of days ago about blackwomen and the workplace, and something so
resonated, and it was we havea history of being enslaved in this country.
Is actually important when you think aboutthe work that we do, because
there's an entitlement to having our laborfor free, whether that's our creative energy,

(06:36):
whether that's our physical labor, whetherthat's our mental and emotional load that
we have to go through that wehave to think about. And there is
a army of ourselves before we goout into the streets into those world right.
And I don't even think that werealize that we are putting on that
arm because the microaggressions are just comingat you like bullets, like risen By

(06:59):
and were like the matrix, likeyou know, dodging and weaving. And
that's what we've been taught to doour whole lives, right, And we've
talked to like, hey, whydon't you be quiet? You know,
don't rock the boat, you know, don't be seen, don't be hurt.
And you've got so many, somany of us that are afraid to
boldly step forward into who we areand what we're doing. And that's a
little bit about why I'm a blackwoman. Yes I matter really exists.

(07:23):
I love all of that, youknow, and talking about I am a
black woman, Yes I matter.What are some specific strategies or steps that
can be implemented to help black womenovercome some of the barriers and succeed as
as leaders? And you mentioned there'sso many things that we go through with
the microaggressions, But what are somesteps that that black women can take sometimes
to overcome those things? Well,I think belief in yourself. There's number

(07:46):
one, understanding your value and yourworth. I did, and I made
a post about it in a ina group chat that I'm in about how
I sort of did this. Istopped and I'm always on the go.
You made a point like how areyou doing all this? But I made
an intentional point to just like stopper day and actually like reflect and be

(08:07):
like, hey, uncle marrow,like you're doing it out here. Here
are some amazing things that you've done. Because all of this energy comes from
within. And so I think thatif we as women were always on the
go, we accomplish something and thenwe're moving on to the nets without ever
taking a bread. And if you'rea parrot, that's compounded, right,
And so it's like, yo,let's let's stop. Let's thinking our silence

(08:28):
and be intentional about it. Andthe point about this silence is to hear
yourself talk about how amazing you are, so you understand what your worth is.
And I think that once we trulybelieve in our worth, then we
walk through the world very very differently. I think that we as black women
are so good at harnessing our strengthto give away to other people. But

(08:50):
actually, let's harness our strength forourselves so that we can be better for
not only our family, our communities, but most importantly, we can be
better for our self. Love andunderstanding our self work such good advice.
Can you talk to us now,give us some examples of the programs and
things that you're implementing now post COVIDand how you're you're gathering all the women

(09:13):
in your community together. I currentlylive in Miami, Florida, so that
was really helpful with my own mentalhealth and wellness. And so one of
the things that I did was toyour point in private offer zoom and back
in person, and I decided,and I never had done anything like this
before. I did a three dayretreat that was sold out. It was
called the Relaxed Relate Release Retreat forthirty black women across the United States to

(09:35):
come and hang out on the beautifulbeaches of Miami, and it was all
about how could we love ourselves?And so that was one of the things.
And that's coming back again this summerand August. Definitely follow me on
social to find out when that's comingback, and you can join our wait
list. It was, like Isaid, it was sold out within two
weeks, so I would not waitthis time around to get your ticket.

(10:00):
Another thing that we're doing is thatwe are doing a series called Black Women
in the Workplace. So I alludedto that we just kind of started at
but that actually is going to bea larger research topic that we're gonna be
doing. We're gonna doing actionable stepsso that we can take back our workplace
so that our workplaces work for us. As we know that black women are

(10:22):
generally speaking, the primary bread winnersfor a community, so we need to
make sure that the place that wemake our money is a healthy place for
us to be. So that's whatBlack Women in the Workplace is for.
We have a podcast that actually youall were so generous to help sponsor the
preseason and now season one is goingto be launched, which is Parenting for

(10:43):
Us by Us? What does itmean to parent black and brown children?
You know that as a hot buttontopic right now. We know that our
society I adultifies our children very young. What does that mean to be a
parent of children who are being adultifiedand thought of as adults when they're actually
still children, and so thinking aboutthat, that's that our Parenting for Us

(11:05):
BIA we're also coming out with amental wealth app. And so to the
point of sometimes it's hard for usto give ourselves positive speak. So,
but isn't it great if you couldhave a friend who could give you positive
speak about how awesome you are?And so that is an app that will
literally two or three times a weekremind you of your awesomeness and your dopemaes.

(11:30):
So it'll be inspirational quotes, aspiration, and all of that content is
curated by me. So those aresome of the newer programs that we are
doing so that we take a veryholistic approach to ensuring that we are pouring
into our community. That is amazing. I know. Another important aspect of
what you do is angel investing.Can you talk to me about what inspired

(11:52):
you to get involved in the angelinvesting space. Well, as we know,
black and BROWL founders don't often geta lot of the money. As
I tell people, there are trillionsof fun tillions with dollars out there and
there should be no reason why wedon't why none of us can all access
some of that. And since Ihappen to have access to a certain capital
personally, let me use the socialcapital network that I have in order to

(12:18):
use it back into our community,especially into black women. And one of
the things that I always say,and maybe it's funny at least I think
it's a little bit ironic and alittle funny, is that you know,
you're our white male cattle parts canliterally have an idea and write it down
on a napkin, and because theyare have access to a particular sphere of

(12:39):
influence or affluence, they can raisea million dollars off of that. Meanwhile,
when you're you know, black andbrown and these communities, you are
often having to put together like athirty page business plan and have your pitch
checked together, and like rehearts yourpitch like for months on end for like
a five thousand dollars check one thethings that we are doing so we've done

(13:01):
it, like I said, youknow, just on an ad hoc basis.
We are now doing it in asense that we're going to be your
family and friend. It's called YourFamily and Friends Fund, which will hopefully
launch publicly in the next two tothree months. And the idea is that
we are your sphere of affluence.We are your family and friends who can
give you some of that pre seedfunding that you need without so much of

(13:22):
the rigor morale that is happening.The other great thing about your Family and
Friends Fund is that it's also partlycrowd funded. The way that we are
structuring this particular fund, we areallowing people who have some disposable income but
not up the two hundred and fiftythousand dollars level of disposable income to come

(13:43):
in and also be an investor insome of these early start businesses, so
they can start understanding for themselves whatit's like to be an angel investor,
what it's like to be in theVC market. Wow, so many great
things, And I bet there's alot of people listening right now who are
wondering how can they get involved insupport your mission. So please please follow
me. I'm new to the socialmedia game, but please follow me on

(14:07):
IG. I am a black woman, yes. Our YouTube is I'm a
Black woman yes. So those arethe best ways to get in touch with
me. I'm Ami Brown for theBlack Information Network and we've been in conversation
with Kamara Thompson and she is doingwonderful things in her community in Miami.
Thank you so much, Kamara fortaking the time to talk to us.

(14:28):
Thank you so much, Mimi forhaving me. I really appreciate you all.
As part of today's Mother's Day coverage, Black Information Network podcast host Ramsas
Jaw sat down with author and educatorAnnamalikah Tubbs to talk about her best selling
book, The Three Mothers. Howthe Mothers of Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm X, and James Baldwin shapedthe Nation. Doctor Tubbs also shares her

(14:50):
insight on some of