The Final Call
100 compliments. 7 days. Let's go.
Dear Worthy Woman,
#ComplimentABlackWoman Challenge week starts in 2 days.
February 22nd through 28th. Seven days to compliment 100 Black women publicly because we’re done waiting for someone else to say what should have always been said.
Here’s your game plan
Choose your Black woman (or women).
Decide how you’ll compliment her: words, money, or time.
Post with the hashtag #ComplimentABlackWoman.
Invite one more person to do the same.
That’s it. That’s the plan.
Why 100?
Because five years in, I want to see what happens when we move from individual posts to collective momentum. What happens when 100 voices say the same thing at once: Black women deserve to be celebrated, not just during attacks or debates, but always.
We are creating an archive of care. A living record that says: we saw you, we named you, and we meant it.
What this challenge has always been about
Every February, amidst ongoing attacks, policy rollbacks, and bad-faith debates, this challenge quietly insists on something:
Black women’s wisdom, labor, and love are not up for public debate.
They are facts to be named and celebrated.
For five years, hundreds of people have used this challenge as a way to say what needed to be said. To reconnect with someone they’d lost touch with. To shine a light on work that deserves more visibility. To tell someone, directly and publicly, what they mean.
Now we’re building toward 100 compliments in one week so that we can experience this collective action together.
What I need from you
Post your compliment anytime between February 22-28.
Use the hashtag #ComplimentABlackWoman so we can all see each other.
Tag me if you’re on Instagram (@toyagavin) so I can amplify you.
And invite one more person to join in. Forward this email. Text a friend. Make it easy for someone else to participate.
You don’t have to wait
You don’t have to wait for February 22nd to think about who you’ll name.
Start now.
Who’s a Black woman who has shaped you?
Whose work deserves more visibility?
Who needs to hear what they mean to you?
Write her name down. Let yourself sit with what you want to say. Notice what comes up when you give yourself permission to tell the truth about what she’s meant to you.
100 compliments. 7 days. Let’s show what five years of values-aligned action looks like.
Challenge starts February 22nd.
I’ll see you there.
In power and solidarity,
Toya
P.S. — If you grabbed the templates on February 9th, pull them out now. If you didn’t, you still can. Here is the link.