Our vision is of a world where Black women are rested, well-resourced, and living their liberation now; they fully express their gifts to drive transformative change in their lives and communities.
The brilliance of Black women nurtures new worlds and creates new possibilities. We lead each other towards freedom like Harriet, we write ourselves into new worlds like Octavia, and, like Alicia, Patrisse, and Opal, we speak truths that you can’t unhear. We have mothered movements, put our bodies on the line for progress, and turned our oppression into global rallying cries for collective liberation.
We tend the seeds and soil of liberation past, present, and future.
We are exhausted from centuries spent making the impossible possible without recognition or resources. The reality that less than 1% of philanthropic dollars are invested in Black women is just one of too many data points that underscore how our society and philanthropy has continued to fail Black women.
What could be made possible if Black women had the time, space, connection and capital we deserve? The Octavia Fund wants to discover what phenomenal futures we could live into when Black women are rested and resourced.
We strive to create a space that is welcoming for folks who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, womxn, and other identities beyond the binary.
Black bodies deserve rest – to be centered, supported, at ease, and in abundance. Our deservedness and need for rest has nothing to do with our job title or what we produce for others. We have produced, created, and innovated more for this world than can ever be returned to us. Rest and restoration are the birthright of all Black women and we at the Octavia Fund are ready to claim it.
When we rest we unravel the idea that our body’s sole purpose is as a site of production and extraction. Rest moves against the grain of a world focused on keeping us exhausted, disconnected, and in a state of scarcity. At rest, we can awaken to our boundless power and sacred sovereignty.
At rest, we remember we are free. Unhooked from the dominant culture, we attune to the miracles of our bodies and our lives. Resting together we reclaim our collective memory of our inherent wholeness and strengthen our commitment to living our freedom now.
The Black Radical imagination - the audacity to see beyond the horizon to new visions of justice and collective liberation - is one of the beautiful gifts of Blackness. When we rest we tap into this portal and invite the past and present to emerge and show us new possibilities for our liberated future.
Milicent has found her calling in this work: creating sacred space for Black women to remember, reclaim and embody their truest selves in service of collective liberation. Her own awakening to the power of rest, woven together with her Black lineage’s gifts of radical imagination and prophetic visioning, guide her towards imagining, creating, and ritualizing the practice of living our freedom now.
Milicent spent nearly two decades before The Octavia Fund working towards systemic change through direct service, policy, advocacy, urban planning, and philanthropy.
In all of her work, she is guided by a deep desire to nourish community, build bridges, heal divides, and advance equity and justice for all. She works in service of Spirit, is guided by her ancestors, and prays that all that she does will be a blessing to her descendants.
