Blog Posts
Advocating for the World’s Untouchables”:…
Read full article with citations and links at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advocating-worlds-untouchables-lessons-learned-from-india-menah-pratt-xrcwe/ Excerpts below: I have returned from visiting India for a week. As […]
“We are not guys, gents,…
The first time it happened, I’m sure I was a little girl. I do remember being slightly horrified and embarrassed. As children, […]
“Hell, No!”: The Color Purple’s…
I have purple African violets in my house. They are delicate but powerful and resilient plants. I love when the seem to […]
Misogynoir: Carrying the weight and…
Misogynoir: Carrying the weight and hate of black womanness. Misogynoir: “the particular f***ery Black women face” Dr. Moya Bailey https://web.archive.org/ web/20141115094029/ http://www.thevisibilityproject.com […]
We are not ok. We…
I am reminded of this book by Antija Allen and Justin Stewart. We’re Not OK: Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies […]
“I am not a symbol,…
Just over a year after Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination, Coretta Scott King wrote a book about his life and her life […]
Dr. Claudine Gay: Let Us…
Today, President Claudine Gay resigned. This story is not on the home page of Harvard University. https://www.harvard.edu/ It is almost as if […]
Blackwildgirl’s New Year’s Resolution: I…
This year, in less than 100 days, my autobiography, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower, will be released. (The […]
Decolonizing education: Senegal Study-Abroad Reflections
Song for Senegal Where European and African collide, the colonizer and the colonized; Where French and Wolof exist separately and together, like […]
I AM A #SURVIVOR: Finding…
“Domestic and intimate partner violence always leaves its mark. Those of us, including me, who are lucky still have our lives. For […]
What is Your Renaissance?: Lessons…
The image for this post is drawn from the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art exhibit in Atlanta that just ended. The […]
Lessons Learned: Love, Loss, and…
I just finishing watching “Love Again,” a movie that came out in 2023 with Celine Dion and Priyanka Chopra, on a flight […]
On “Qualified Women and Minorities”
I am a descendant of African-American slaves. One of my ancestors is my great grandmother – Rose Hubbard Thirkill – from the […]
It’s Time for Women Warriors…
Ethiopia. The only country on the continent that was not colonized A place of fields, Plains of grains, Expansive yellows blending […]
Simon Says, “Take Two Giant…
This post is dedicated to President Joanne Epps, interim president of Temple University and Dr. Orinthia T. Montague, President of Volunteer State […]
A Summer of #BlackGirlMagic
I played professional tennis after I graduated from high school. My dad was my coach. I had tears running down my face […]
You say you want to…
You say you want to be an ally, but do you really? Original post, July, 2020. Updated August 2023. You say you […]
Looking for Justice: Metaphors, Children’s…
Chronicles of ACE: Volume 1, No. 1 I am starting my ACE Fellowship bootcamp tomorrow. Before descending into non-stop conversation about leadership […]
The Chief Diversity Officer (CDO)…
Originally written in 2020, updated in 2023. I originally wrote this post in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. Many Chief […]
Freedom, Affirmative Action, and the…
I was eleven years old when I learned a new word – Bakke. I wasn’t sure what it was – a person […]
Formidable Woman Magazine Interview
May 2023 Interview in Formidable Woman Magazine Over the course of an almost 30-year career as a Black woman lawyer, professor, and […]
On this Day, Black History…
Today was such a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me at Virginia Tech. The African American chair of the Board of Visitors’ Nominating […]
What is your lighthouse?
Every now and then, I need to step away and regroup, remember, and recall why I am in the world, what I […]
A Commencement Speech: Never Stop…
My daughter, Raebekkah, graduated from the University of Illinois at age 19, in 2018 with a 3.98 GPA, and was top 3% […]
The New Portrait Of Leadership:…
Honored to have an interview on leadership with Karen Mangia at Medium. She wrote: “We are living in the Renaissance of Work. […]
Gender and Race: Intertwined and…
When it is about gender, it should also be about race As the founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the […]
A Letter to Mama
May 14, 2023 A Mama’s Day Letter Dear Mama, I miss you! But, I’m out here in the world doing my thing, […]
When a Black Woman Walks…
Two years ago I wrote a poem, When A Black Woman Walks Into a Room in honor of my mother, Mildred Pratt. […]
A Black Woman’s Blog Posts
“A Black Woman’s Blog Posts: Writing for Personal and Social Empowerment and Healing is a book chapter in Writing for Wellbeing: Theory, […]
From Harlequin to Hallmark
I don’t remember when it started… My absolute love and obsession with Hallmark movies. Well, maybe it started when I was young, […]
Seven years ago
I started working at Virginia Tech, 7 years ago on this date, February 1, 2016. I started reflecting on how far we […]
Reflections on the 1619 Project
I recently read The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It’s a book that has generated legislation in Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi to prohibit schools from […]
The Circle of Life: Birth,…
(rewritten from original post at now inactive website, menahprattclarke.com) I have been thinking about the circle of life: the miracle birth from […]
New Beginnings
My old website, menahprattclarke.com just died, literally. A “fatal error.” Ironic in a way. I just wrote a blog post on the […]