April 2, 2024
HERS Alums Meet Authors Series: “Blackwildgirl” with Menah Pratt
Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower
by Dr. Menah Adeola Eyaside Pratt
DATE: April 2, 2024
TIME: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Virtual via Zoom
PRICE: FREE!
REGISTRATION: Scroll down to register
Join us for a conversation where you will not only learn about the life of this accomplished author and scholar-activist, but you will be invited to consider and discuss the ways in which you can (re)discover your own wisdom and embrace your superpowers. Please join us as we celebrate the release of Dr. Menah Adeola Eyaside Pratt’s new memoir and engage in an empowering discussion of the role of reflection and artistic expression in finding and amplifying our voices.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Menah Pratt has written a book that offers the chance to cry, to be empowered, to be educated, to be healed, to be liberated.
Blackwildgirl begins her life as a queen superpower. When she is still a child, however, her parents strike a bargain that leads to her dethronement–and sets her on a forty-five-year journey to become the warrior she was born to be: Blackwildgoddess.
Join an interactive adventure exploring the private life and journals of a young Black girl, beginning at the age of eight, as she struggles and evolves from a tennis player, musician, and college student to become a wife, mother, lawyer, scholar, and writer. Documenting revelations and reflections during her twelve-stage initiation journey in America and the African diaspora, this intimate, introspective autobiography–composed of acts, stages, scenes, and letters to Love–reveals how writing can unearth and give life to women’s powerful, sassy, and willful spirits.
Authentic, vulnerable, and spirit-filled, this captivating and enthralling road map is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the experiences of girls as they seek to become wild women–women who are fierce and fearless; women who are warriors for themselves and others; and women who are committed to excavating and cultivating their spiritual gardens to manifest and fulfill their destiny in the world.
In a generous act, Pratt invites the reader to join her in a personal journey through the inclusion of reflection questions that serve as a guide toward one’s own (re)discovery.
MEET THE AUTHOR
A journey into girlhood, ...Menah Pratt ...invites us to travel with her.
Menah Pratt, J.D., Ph.D., is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity and Professor of Education at Virginia Tech. She has almost 25 years of leadership experience in higher education, with a focus on large-scale institutional transformation. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she held senior leadership positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Associate Chancellor and Associate Provost) and Vanderbilt University (Assistant Secretary of the University, University Counsel, and University Compliance Officer). She is the founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference, now in its 12th year and hosted by Virginia Tech, focuses on supporting, empowering, and connecting women of color faculty, administrators, and graduate students to help them succeed in higher education. She also founded the Black College Institute, a summer leadership program for 600 rising junior and senior high school students, hosted at Virginia Tech.
Nationally and internationally recognized as a leader, scholar, and author of four books on issues of race, class, gender, culture, diversity, education, women’s leadership, and critical race feminism, Dr. Pratt was elected chair-elect for the Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the American Public Land-Grant University Association, a 250-member organization. She has also received several national awards: the 2023-2024 American Council on Education Fellowship; 2023 Top 50 Women We Admire in Virginia; 2023 Individual Winds of Change award by the Forum on Workplace Inclusion; the 2021 Inclusive Excellence Individual Leadership Award by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education; and the 2018 American Education Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award for outstanding scholarship for A Black Woman’s Journey from Cotton Picking to College Professor: Lessons about race, gender, and class in America, a biography about her mother, Dr. Mildred Pratt. Her latest book, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back her Superpower, is a powerful and transformational autobiography of her life journey from Black girlhood to Black womanhood in America. A writer, poet, public speaker, creative artist, scholar-activist, academic advocate, and a blogger at www.menahpratt.com, her life’s work reflects a commitment to helping others actualize their potential to serve humanity.
She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa with a major in English and minors in Philosophy and African-American Studies. She received her master’s degree in Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in Sociology from Vanderbilt University. In addition, she earned her Ph.D. and J.D. from Vanderbilt University. A former federal court of appeals law clerk, she is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Tennessee, with expertise in real estate, construction law, affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, disability, and governance.
