- My name is Omisade Burney-Scott and I am the creator and curator of The Black Girls' Guide to Surviving Menopause.

[instrumental music] I currently live in Durham, North Carolina and I have been living in Durham since 1998, I stand for storytelling and the healing that is available to you by telling your story or listening to your story.

[instrumental music] [soft upbeat music] Now is the time for healing, now is the time for healing, whether that's your own individual healing investing in that, investing in the healing that is necessary for you to move in the world as a happy, fully realized person, whether that is healing in your community or healing in this country, now is the time for healing.

Our ability to use tools to help us heal from past hurts and harm, racism and violence is critical for our future.

[soft upbeat music] So I am a seventh generation North Carolinian, I was born in 1967, my sister was born 1968, we are considered Gen X and we are the beneficiaries of the civil rights movement.

So a lot of the ways we moved growing up in the 70's and the 80's was to take full advantage of what our parents went through, and so our parents encouraged us and pushed us to be very active.

I started working at an organization called Public Allies and it was a fantastic way to work for social change.

When you bear witness to the harsh realities of how people who look like you are being treated in this country, it lands on you differently when those people look like you, look like your children, look like your siblings, I was encouraged by a group of friends to take a break and I needed to figure out whether or not I was gonna continue to do social justice work.

I knew I wanted to have conversations with other black women who look like me, who are older, who have navigated menopause and aging and family and career, I wanted talk to them, I wanted to understand their stories, ultimately it ended up that I decided that I'd do a podcast.

Somewhere in those 40 billion Earth-sized planets of the Milky Way and infinite possibilities exist in the Omis.

The Omis that reside on these planets, multiverses and dimensions are sentient beings, the Omis look out for each, they're sisters.

The Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause, 'cause it's a real thing, menopause has been problematized as has aging in this country.

There are truths and realities to getting older, there are, but it is not an illness and I wanted to hear people's cultural, family, societal, thoughts, musings, truths, narratives around aging.

I wanted to know who people were when they were younger, I wanted to know what stories were shared with them from people in their families, and I wanted to know who they are now and how they see themselves changing and growing and evolving, a real sacred space for all of us to share our truths and have that truth respected and held.

[whimsical music] We live in a world that's really, really complex, right?

We know that there are folk who move in the world with more privilege than other people, we also know that there are people who move in the world who have been generationally and systemically marginalized, we have lived through and we're still living through one of the most challenging years we've ever experienced, I know in my lifetime.

[instrumental music] I think that being able to extend each other, care and respect for our personhood, however it shows up, that's the thing that's going to keep us together, moving forward as a people, as a culture, as a country.

- [Woman] PBS American Portrait is.

- A platform where.

- People can go to in order to share their experiences.

- [Man] I took a risk when.

- When I was 18 and joined the Marine Corps.

- And it's been an amazing journey ever since.

- This project can help bring us together.

- To understand what it really means to be an American.

- So join in.

- Go to pbs.

- .org.

- /american portrait.

- Join us and be a part of history.

[gentle music]