Our mission is to support, connect, and uplift black women and girls through social gatherings that unite and inspire.
exhale. is a community building initiative ignited by black women for black women. Our mission is to support, connect, and uplift black women and girls through gatherings that unite and inspire. We curate social spaces for black women and girls to breathe easy, to come and just be, in an environment where they alone are enough.
We are healers, dreamers, and creators, among other things. We make space for you, in your truest form, whomever you are.
why exhale.
exhale. was birthed out of a desire to celebrate the joy that is black womanhood.
Our name is inspired by the science of breath and the impact of racial weathering on black women's bodies. Without exhalation, stressors can remain in the body – setting forth a cycle that makes it difficult to resource new air. As black women we shape and we shift into countless roles and responsibilities. We are sisters, teachers, providers, healers, partners, mothers, spiritual guides, humans -each role with its own weight. Black women carry families, trauma, institutions, restoration, justice, and nations.
exhale. hopes to create social spaces where black women and girls are emboldened to release -even if just momentarily- and allow themselves to be nourished, inspired, and united in community. We believe that such release and restoration enables us not only to heal and revive, but also build collective power as black women. Only when you exhale fully can you achieve an optimal absorption of oxygen, our life blood.
We invite you to breathe easy with us.
about us.
ARIEL WARD | FOUNDER, CO-CREATOR
Transportation planner + engineer by day, and all things creative by night, Ariel is driven by the idea that connection can change lives. Inspired by Mahogany L. Browne’s poem “Black Girl Magic” Ariel decided to host her first Black Girl Magic brunch to honor the black women in her life. Her passion for creating space for black women and girls to celebrate and hold one another in uninhibited joy – and the communal desire for such spaces, has grown ever since.
CHRISTINE BOARD | CO-CREATOR
A South Los Angeles native, Christine was planted in the Bay Area and currently works in healthcare. A pursuant in integrative health and holistic healing, she believes that the ability to share our stories, have our voices heard, be seen and valued, is an integral part of our health and healing. In love with the art of dance, she finds it another way of coming to love oneself, one’s body and reclaim space through movement and emotional expression. At the crossroads of health and sisterhood she fell in love with exhale.
