Sunday Forever is an illustrated newsletter that empowers readers to have a lifetime of wonderful Sundays. Through words, videos, recipes, and interviews, Sunday Forever aims to provide support, inspiration, and love not only to our families and friends but to our entire community.
Sunday Forever is an extension of New Roots Foundation, Incorporated, a self-caring organization established to soothe and provide people of African American descent with the resources to practice loving-kindness towards self, family, and community. The purpose is to empower healing in low-income communities, men and women, or persons recently released from prison for non-violent crimes to build a nourishing sanctuary within so that each participant leads a healthy life of spiritual and personal growth.
We can only contribute to the community by organizing our relationships, diets, lifestyle, work, and pastimes around happiness and spiritual progress. However, I've witnessed people of color must work much faster to survive. New Roots programs include healing + writing workshops and self-love events that inspire emotional literacy for emerging writers and restorative healing for those interested in learning or re-learning how to express themselves. Research shows that 15 to 20 minutes of writing three to five times over the course of a four-month study on the emotional and physical health benefits of writing found improvements in both physical and psychological health. Our healing & journaling, and writing studios will expand on creating consistent serenity in our everyday lives, improve communication, practice stillness, and reduce stress or depressive moments.
Sunday Forever will remind you to invest in yourself. It is a collection of stories that will embody experience, faithfulness, transformation, growth, and celebration through our stories.
This newsletter is a body of stories inspired by my love for storytelling, handwritten notes, art, God’s love, community, nature, and adventure... The newsletter is curated by me, Abeni. By day, I work in film. By night, I’m on to the next adventure, sipping champagne with a splash of tequila with my homegirls, watching Rom-Coms, or visiting my favorite hot springs.
I dream that Sunday Forever blossoms into something bigger - a series of Sunday Forever books, a television show, etc. - to connect women worldwide. Sunday Forever stories are not how-to’s; we invite you into a safe space where you can cherish yourself, share and learn from other experiences, rebuild, blossom, and forgive. This is the very reason I wanted to start a newsletter. I wanted to show how connected we are and capture the richness of our shared experiences through prose. This project evolved when I introduced the concept to Kayla Salisbury. It is her illustrations that bring all of the beautiful words that add radiance to each story.
I hope these stories are like your grandmother’s comfort food after a long day. They make you feel good, like how Al Green’s “Love & Happiness” touches my mom. Or, in the words of Nikki Giovanni, “I hope that this is your cotton candy on a rainy day.”
