@Charlia Acree just launched Capital M, a multimedia public humanities project documenting the lived experiences of DC mothers across all eight wards and multiple generations — and we are SO proud! She recently presented the project at its launch event in Penn Quarter, and this thing is moving. From oral history interviews to a culminating community art exhibition, Charlia is using her voice and her story to honor the women who hold Washington, DC together. This is exactly what Main Character energy looks like — vision, heart, and execution on full display. Using our voices & our confidence to serve the communities that matter to us most! Go show her some love and check out the project at https://www.capitalmdc.com/ !

Man, going through these exercises is really helping me to think in a different way about public speaking or presentations for young adults (my audience). How I can empower them, not just inspire them.

Here’s my 60+ second video introduction for the week 1 challenge.

Hi, community! I am Rachel Davis and glad to be here. I want to be a grounded and connected person and my communication skills have never been trained. I speak in big rooms with confidence and I am also a mom who wants to be softer. Already I am learning a lot about myself and glad I am not alone in these behaviors. I crave growth for myself, my career and -of course-mostly my babies. I need to work on my tone and I look forward to growing my awareness. I can't thank you enough @Genesis Be 🙏

In following the HW i'd like to share a note. When I first started as an author visiting schools and classrooms I volunteered. I had experience as a teacher in the classroom so I knew how to get their attention, but I also knew that schools seeing me as a speaker was "NEW" so I volunteered for the first 2-4 times. I did this before I even had a finished children's picture book done (my goal). Why? I wanted to stop waiting and start. Messy and all. That's my note:) I'm in the purple shirt. These kids were in Sacramento, CA circa 2012.