Tag: history

Celebrating Women in Tennis & My Tennis Journey

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Tennis has always been a sport I wanted to learn as an adult. It runs in my family too. Check out the photo of my grandmother Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke holding her tennis racket during the 1930s

During the global pandemic, I decided to take lessons and become a beginner player. My soul sistalove Tonya (see in the third photo above) encouraged me. Tonya is an intermediate player and “tennis momma” with many years of experience due to her son’s tennis playing years.

Tennis has always been a sport I wanted to learn as an adult. During the global pandemic, I decided to take lessons and become a beginner player. My soul sistalove Tonya (see in the third photo above) encouraged me. Tonya is an intermediate player and “tennis momma” with many years of experience due to her son’s tennis playing years.

In October 2021, my tennis journey began at the grand age of 56 with the support of my coach Kendall, a Howard University senior and member of the tennis team, on the Banneker courts in Washington, D.C. Kendall coached me for several weeks before the weather got too cold and resumed teaching me during the spring and early summer in 2022 (see two photos of above).

After she moved, she referred me to Jadenn, a coach and junior at Hampton University who was a member of the tennis team. Jaden worked with me on the basics and encouraged me to sign up for the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation’s (DPR) fall tennis classes in August 2022.

During my DPR journey, I learned so much from a great group of coaches including Rich, Richard, Dave, and Kevin, and volunteers Gail and Dan. I also learned a lot from my classmates. When I graduated to intermediate tennis classes in the summer of 2024, I started working with Coach Marian Lang (see photos above). Coach Marian really helped me with dive deeper into tennis and build my confidence as a player. I worked with her until the end of 2025 and plan to continue working with her this year.

In October 2025, I realized I learn better when I am in a small group. So I stopped taking classes with DPR. My friend Tonya encouraged me to experiment with indoor lessons at Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) and Rock Creek Tennis Center and. So I signed up for JTCC’s Learn Tennis Now programs in November 2025. I also gave myself a birthday gift of intermediate lessons with Coach Bianca Eqalite at Rock Creek Tennis Center in December 2025.

Before 2025 ended, I decided to take intermediate winter classes at JTCC and Rock Creek Tennis Center. Unfortunately, I only attended one class at Rock Creek Tennis Center due to the winter snow and my schedule. I may go back in the spring or summer because I really enjoyed Coach Bianca.

My winter intermediate classes at JTCC have been pretty intense which is a good thing for me. I have enjoyed learning from Coaches Ross, Tayla, Eva, and Ale, and practicing with and playing my classmates.

Last weekend, I spent Saturday evening celebrating International Women’s Day and the great tennis legacy of women players like Althea Gibson, Serena and Venus Williams, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Taylor Townsend at JTCC. I had a great time participating in tennis exercises, games, and matches. It was an intense workout that was much needed.

Getting a peach Fila tennis skirt made the event even sweeter!

Special thanks to Marta and the JTCC women coaches for hosting the event.

Februllage Days 16 (Toilet Paper), 17 (Mathematics), and 18 (Costume)

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This week has been a slow one for me. My body has summoned me to rest and sleep deeply. Translation: No digital devices in my bedroom and earlier bedtimes than usual. It’s been dreamy, definitely needed, and delicious to experience!

DEE-LISH-SHUSSSSSSSSSSSS. Yes, I had to spell out the word in all caps and the way I say the word.

And HELL YEAH, it’s EXTRA just like the name of one of my favorite my lip glosses by The Lip Bar. For inquiring minds who might want to know, I am not an influencer for this brand. I just love wearing it cuz’ it is a lovely vegan brand created by an African American woman who was born in my home state of Michigan.

Okay, all that sleep and rest coupled with the Lunar New Year and New Moon Solar Eclipse in Aquarius on Monday created space for me to flow in and out of my ancestral dreams. I don’t remember what the dreams were about. I just have this inner knowing that my loving + wise + well ancestors are reminding me of the power and choice I have to dream, be, live, love, and create freely. They keep telling me they are working on my behalf so that I can relax into a more Jupiter expansive being-ness that opens a portal into my inner truth, beauty, joy, magic, play, and fun adventures.

The Februllage collages I have created for Day 16 (PROMPT – Toilet Paper), Day 17 (PROMPT – Mathematics), and Day 18 (PROMPT – Costume) were born from my journey into this new portal of expansiveness. Check them out below.

FEBRULLAGE DAY 16 (PROMPT – Toilet Paper)

“Pandemic Memories” is the title of my Februllage Day16 digital collage. This collage gave me a chance to make playful art from the rolls of toilet paper and masks many of us kept stocked in our homes.

I started the collage with a photo of a bathroom in the Hackney apartment I stayed in during my visit to London in 2023. I added a photo of myself wearing a mask from 2021 in the mirror. Graphic images of masks and rolls of toilet paper were also included.

FEBRULLAGE DAY 17 (PROMPT – Mathematics)

“Black Mermaid Mathematics” is the title of my Februllage Day 17 digital collage. This collage celebrates the soul sistalove bond I share with my cousin Gail and my childhood and adult passion for numerology and mermaids of African descent. I started the collage with an AI-generated background of numbers and added one of my favorite photos of my cousin Gail and I when we were young girls. I added different mermaids of African descent. The mermaids also represent my connection to Oxum/Oshun and Iemanja/Yemanya, two Afro Brazilian/Yoruba Oxisas/Orishas.

FEBRULLAGE DAY 18 (PROMPT – Costume)

The Costume prompt made me think of Mardi Gras which was celebrated on February 17th this year. I love Mardi Gras and New Orleans art, culture, history, and spirituality. My love affair with New Orleans and Louisiana shows up in my debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One.

“Great-Great-Grandmother Ida Mae at the Mardi Gras Ball” is the title of my Februllage Day 18 digital collage. My imagination took over this collage and explored what my great-great-grandmother Ida Mae Goins Bolden would have looked like if she attended a Mardi Gras ball.

Great-Great Grandmother Ida Mae was born on December 10, 1866, in Michigan. Her birthday is eight days before my December 18th birthday. We were both born in Michigan. She was a daughter of Franklin Goins and Polly Mary Rickman Goins, sister to three sisters and two brothers, wife, mother, aunt, and grandmother.

She married my great-great grandfather William Henry Bolden on December 29, 1887, in Decatur, Indiana. Together, they raised five children, Ada May Bolden McWilliams (1889-1947), Arthur William Bolden (1890-1943), Clyde E. Bolden (1891-1916), Iona Hazel Bolden Johnson King (my great grandmother), and an unnamed child who died early (1899).

While reading her death certificate, I learned she died of cancer of the uterus, rectum, and bladder on March 16, 1917, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). The cause of her death is something I will explore in another collage series.

I used Canva to create AI-generated ballroom background. Mardi Gras confetti graphic images and a sign decorate the entire collage. I added a woman of African descent dressed in a Mardi Gras mask and costume. I included a black and white photo of Great-Great Grandmother Ida Mae as a young woman in her early 20s. I think the photo was taken before she got married in 1887.

YOUR INVITATION

Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter. Also, reflect on the question.

What personality traits or experiences you share with your loving + wise + well ancestors

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 15: Daffodil

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DAFFODIL is the prompt for Februllage Day #15. My collage is entitled “A Tribute to Daffodil Sisters: Mary Etter Bolden and Stella Essa Bolden.” It honors my great-great-grandaunts, Mary and Stella Bolden, the daughters of my great-great-great-grandparents, Sarah Ellen Martin Bolden and John Thomas Bolden Sr. and Sarah Ellen Martin Bolden. They were the younger sisters of my great-great-grandfather, William Henry Bolden.

I decided to honor my great-great-grandaunts Mary and Stella because they both died early in life. Mary was born on June 14, 1877, in Jefferson County, Indiana (estimating the county based on where her family was living at the time of her birth) and died on April 9, 1898, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). She was only 20 years old.

Stella was born on December 14, 1879, in Jefferson County, Indiana (estimating the county based on where her family was living at the time of her birth) and died on June 28, 1899, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). She was only 19 years old.

While designing this collage, I did some research on the meaning of daffodils and learned they symbolize rebirth, new beginnings, joy, and cheerfulness.

When I looked at Mary and Stella’s black and white photo, I imagined they were young women filled with joy, dreams, and hopes for their future. Perhaps, they were very active in their church community and were able to read and write, teach Sunday school, and help organize outreach efforts and social events. I also imagined they loved flowers like daffodils which were known to grow during the spring months in their hometown of North Vernon, Indiana. Maybe they loved to pick them and place them in vases in their home. My imagination also had me visualizing their parents, sisters, and brothers bringing daffodils to their graves during the spring season.

I wanted to create a heavenly background with daffodils to illustrate Mary and Stella’s rebirth as loving + wise + well ancestors. Thanks to Canva’s AI-generated tool, I was able to create the perfect one.

YOUR INVITATION


Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter.

Do you have any loving + wise + well ancestors who died early in life?

Use your imagination to think about what your ancestors might have lived to be and do.