A Black woman from Pittsburgh is making a name for herself in the wellness community. Their unwavering commitment and innovative approach is breaking down barriers and fostering a sense of inclusion and belonging in areas often considered inaccessible to people of color.
The three Black women featured in this story are a short snapshot of women fostering communities of health and healing across the region. There are many others.
Jacqueline Walker FeteFete BK
Jacqueline Walker, a yoga facilitator and attorney, grew up in Garfield. Although she practiced yoga intermittently, it wasn’t until her early 20s that she fully embraced the practice. Throughout her life, her family and village of women in her community provided her with the tools of faith, laughter, prayer, and meditation to define her happiness in her confidence.
“The strength I found in writing down my prayers, being still, and paying attention to my nutrition and health habits guided me,” she said.
Her yoga practice evolved while attending the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and began taking yoga classes with Felicia Savage Friedman at the Kingsley Center.
“It was a really great yoga program,” Walker said. After she moved to New York in 2012, she continued to practice yoga, but she felt that her yoga community was not the same as the one she found in Pittsburgh.
In 2018 she returned to Pittsburgh and resumed yoga classes at the Kingsley Center, where she studied for her upcoming yoga teacher training. She participated in her Yoga Roots On Location, an anti-racism and trauma-informed yoga teacher training.
“Black bodies have experienced so much violence, and Yoga Roots on Location gives us the opportunity to interrogate that,” Walker said.
After the first weekend of training, she began teaching and sharing her practice, but was apprehensive at first.
“It’s important to celebrate Black women who share their gifts,” she says. “Sharing what these practices have done for us gives people space to recognize and identify how they have been invested in other ways. We believe that these wellness spaces We live in a society that suggests it’s not for us. Our healing is always for us, and only you can heal you.”
She emphasized the importance of self-care and community care in the Black community, and the importance of taking healing seriously.
“Yoga is an embodiment that has helped me gain a deeper understanding of how to practice my faith,” Walker said.
A Christian, she said she views yoga as a spiritual practice that complements her faith, linking asana poses into a series of prayers.
“We have what it takes within ourselves,” Walker said. “The key is to find methods and people who help reveal what is inside of you. My practice is deeper and more powerful when I do it in community.”
Practice with Walker in Yoga Motifs and Portal to Power at Family Yoga at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater or at Emerald City on the second Wednesday of each month at noon reset. Walker also conducts private his sessions such as gardening his yoga and practicing yoga at home. She can be reached at fetefetebk@gmail.com.
Nikia Smith – Beauty Mart 412
Two years ago, Nikia Smith was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and three vocal cord cysts. After her surgery, she was prescribed numerous medications that worsened her condition.
“I was told I should start feeling better within a certain period of time, but in reality I felt worse than I did before I had the surgery to remove my thyroid,” Smith said. “That’s when I started researching natural healing approaches and different teas to start drinking to soothe my throat.”
Later in her health journey, she began researching Yoni Steam health practices. Vaginal steam yoni steam is used to cleanse the vagina and uterus. Steaming is said to be effective against menstrual cramps and other unpleasant symptoms, and some believe it promotes fertility.Smith became a certified yoni practitioner
Her business Beauty Mart 412 addresses health concerns with a natural focus. They provide Yoni Steam as a service.
When people come to Beauty Mart 412, Smith talks with them about their health goals.
“I continue to do this because I have been through several illnesses in my life. I had to have my fallopian tubes removed, and I also had endometriosis and uterine fibroids. “Family members and people close to them have told us that they are using traditional medicines that are causing negative side effects,” Smith said. “We want people to know there is another way.”
The store is located at 551 Long Road in Penn Hills.
Rhea Calhoun-Bey, Sovereign Systems LLC
Leah Calhoun Bey, 29, entered the wellness field because of health issues. Ms. Calhoun-Bey, a wealth, health, and sustainability strategies educator, recalls getting sick frequently and visiting the doctor during her childhood. She was consistently on antibiotics without a diagnosis.
“I really didn’t realize how much of a negative impact antibiotics were having just by destroying the gut flora,” she says.
Struggling with side effects from birth control pills and asthma medication, Calhounbey decided to stop taking all medications.
“These drugs are making me sick,” she said. Discovering gluten intolerance through her personal research and conversations with her mother, rather than through her medical guidance, she decided to eliminate gluten from her diet and make her own plant-based tinctures. With emphasis, she began to feel better.
Calhoun-Bey’s business is Sovereign Systems, LLC, based on Instagram. There she offers plant-based recipes and educational content, as well as tinctures and infused oils. She can receive order messages through the app.
Before starting his business, Calhoun-Bey taught in Pittsburgh public schools.
Mr. Calhoun-Bey became aware of the issue of the nutritional value of school meals and its impact on student behavior.
“I started noticing their patterns…for breakfast they would eat insanely sugary foods like donuts and sugary milk cartons with 40 grams of sugar in each carton.” It was like a gimmick, and we were actually able to match their behavior to their eating schedule,” Calhoun-Bey said.
Despite raising concerns with the government, little action was taken. “Everyone should have access to good, healthy food in public schools,” she stressed.
Having her concerns addressed fueled her passion for addressing food inequity, especially in Black communities. Calhoun Bay advocates holistic health practices such as Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel; we just need education, application, and community around this knowledge,” she said.
To contact Calhoun-Bey, call 412-880-1126 or email sovereignsystems@pm.me.
Taylor Clem, Dawa Mama
Taylor Clemm, 30, known as The DAWA MAMA, focuses on uterine health. She started her practice after taking an African history class eight years ago, which ignited a passion for the health of her ancestors and channeled it into learning about plants.
“That trip to the mill was just that for me. That’s when I was really alive,” she said of the transition from working at a credit union to pursuing purpose on the farm.
Later, through pregnancy, I started learning more about and focusing on maternal health, which led to three home births.
“All three were wonderful pregnancies, births, and postpartum experiences,” Clem said.
She became a doula, but she moved away from it because she wanted to break out of the institutionalized system. She discovered her own passion for teaching her maternal nutrition classes to educate people about safe childbirth experiences and empower women.
“I realized we don’t know anything about our wombs…We don’t listen to our bodies,” she said.
Clem started a virtual wellness community to help women respect their wombs and address injustices such as contraceptive access and menstrual pain.
Clem reflected on the recent death of 36-year-old beauty influencer Jessica Pettway, whose stage 3 cervical cancer was misdiagnosed as uterine fibroids. “It’s hard to be in a space like this where our voices aren’t heard,” Klemm said.
Clem is optimistic about women regaining their health. “That’s what I have around me,” she said.
To practice uterine health, Klemm recommends daily uterine affirmations, hot tea, sweet potatoes, and avocados. Throughout the spring and summer, Clem will facilitate training on maternal nutrition training for mothers and baby advocates, funded by Healthy Start.
Monae Findlay, Plants for Skin LLC
Monae Findlay, 26, founder and owner of Plants for Skin, was inspired by the traditions passed down to her by her Jamaican grandmother. These traditions stayed with her because they worked so well for her family. Her island background, which emphasizes plant-based and organic therapies, fueled Findley’s passion.
“Organic ingredients are very powerful,” Findley says. She started her business online in 2020 and opened a store in Lawrenceville in 2023.
“Organic medicine dates back to prehistoric times, and there are many other organic and herbalist ways to properly care for your skin,” Findley says.
“Having experienced flare-ups with various chemicals, I have tried my best to avoid products if I can’t pronounce the name of the ingredient in the product,” she said.
Findlay recommends turmeric and aloe vera gel, which can help reduce blemishes and reduce inflammation.
She acknowledges that historically Black women’s health has not been prioritized.
“That was one of the main reasons I created a safe space for both Black men and Black women to learn how to take care of their skin holistically,” she said.
Community support is her driving force.
“This mission is not just about me, it’s about the entire community,” she said. “This is really needed in the community right now.”
Plants for Skin is located at 5310 Butler St. in Lawrenceville.
Sheila Brown is a TribLive reporter covering arts, culture and communities of color. Sheila, a New Jersey native, joined the tribe in 2023. When she’s not working, she dives into the world of art, health, and the latest romance novels. Contact her at sbrown@triblive.com.
