Visible Figures - Vol 25
SVP on Martha's Vineyard, NEW! Show Her Work Campaign & VFMH Privé 🔐Tour
Heyyyy, I’m baaack after 2 months of almost non-stop travel! *whew* 🥴 It all started with 2 weeks on Martha’s Vineyard, my sweet 16th trip…
Martha’s Vineyard hosts ~200,000 visitors in July & August vs ~20,000 residents year round.
A 96 square mile island off the coast of Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard was originally inhabited by the Wampanoag people and allegedly named after 17th century female fund manager Martha (Judde) Golding. Fun Facts: the first Native American graduates of Harvard were from Martha’s Vineyard and it was once regarded as a “deaf utopia.”
For over a century, it has been a ‘Black utopia.’ From the underground railroad to the site of a Judy Blume (summer resident) inspired Netflix series, the Vineyard has been a haven for MLK, Malcolm X, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy West, Spike Lee, Skip Gates…and of course, Valerie Jarrett who is credited with ushering in the Obamas…though you will rarely spot them in Oak Bluffs.
Except Sasha. I be seeing Sasha. Heyyyy Sasha!! 😏
This past August was 🍌 bananas:
A spreadsheet circulated listing ~100 events,
a WhatsApp group swelled to ~1,000 members,
Ralph Lauren launched a campaign,
Forbes covered an awards ceremony,
McKinsey sponsored an executive forum,
and SVB literally did the most.
Here’s My Take:
Them: You goin’ to The Vineyard this year?
Me: Every year ‘til I die and prolly after that.
I have been to Martha’s Vineyard every summer since 2008 (except 2010 b/c of a man 🙄). I even lived there once. Why? Because I’ve never experienced the same freedom to BE anywhere else in the world. It’s inexplicable.
The current gravitational pull of ‘Black August’ as a time to transact💰 is unsustainable. MV will never be like the Hamptons, Sundance, or SXSW. It’s not set up for it. It’s set up for slowing down, cross pollination, rumination, marathon relationships, and rest. The allure of finding money (or mates) may get you there, but the relief from racial caste will bring you back. If you need it.
Shot out to the Visible Figures who showed up and showed love 💜 and support this year: Yemi Adewunmi (Plural), Naza Shelley (CarpeDM), Tolu Adeboyejo (Macys), Dawn Myers (Richualist), Farah Allen (The Labz), Stephanie Browne (Sipping Sense), Mandy Bynum (Sanctum), La Keisha Landrum Pierre (Emmeline), Marla Blow (Skoll) and the 👑 Felicia Hatcher 👑 (Black Ambition) whose fits and events were so lit my camera blurred. Haha. And Big Ups 🙌🏾to Monica Dean (USC) a friend, mentor, and MV homeowner who I love, respect, and admire with all my heart!! 💓
What I’m Reading: Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance by A’Lelia Bundles - We are rarely served full scope, full scoop stories about the 20th century Black bourgeoisie #GildedAge patrons of the arts. A’Lelia Walker, daughter of Madam CJ Walker, cultivated spaces for politicians, artists, and international dignitaries to mix, mingle, and just BE together in her 4-story, immaculately furnished 🤌🏾 Harlem brownstone. A’Lelia Walker loved hard and left nothing on the table! I’m proud to say I purchased this hardback at an independent bookstore in Vineyard Haven.
What I’m Watching: Nikole Hannah-Jones on Cannonball with Wesley Morris - If you’ve never heard of Nikole Hannah-Jones or listened to the NY Times 1619 project, fix it, Jesus! In this interview Nikole speaks candidly about the backlash she’s witnessed and personally experienced since publishing this seminal work. And yes, I saw 👀 her on the Vineyard this year too @ the Uptown Party. Ticket 🎫 Price: $100, Flirting w/a Genius: Priceless.
Love Always Wins,
NEW! Show Her Work 📃
Showcasing the genius of hard-working Americans whose livelihoods are under threat for being on the right side of history.
Proponents of meritocracy as the antithesis of diversity have launched very successful campaigns. For some women being moral or ‘right’ is not enough, so I want to Show Her Work. I want the record to be clear…if not for us, at least for future generations tasked with making sense of this eerily familiar moment in our collective history.
Karen Attiah is an American writer, commentator, editor, professor, and Muay Thai martial artist. In 2016, Attiah founded the Washington Post’s Global Opinions section and was most known for recruiting Jamal Khashoggi. She has worked for the WorldBank, Associated Press, and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Attiah earned a BA in Communication Studies from Northwestern University, Fulbright Scholarship, and an MA in International Relations from Columbia University. On September 11th, 2025, Attiah was fired by the Washington Post. Read more here. She’s brilliant AND she looks like she can break a 🥷🏾’s neck.
Lisa Cook is an American economist, professor, and the first Black female member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Cook has taught at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Michigan State University (tenured). She was senior advisor on finance and development at the U.S. Treasury Department, National Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, Senior Economist in the Obama Administration, and has advised the Nigerian and Rwandan governments. Cook earned a BS in Physics and Philosophy from Spelman College (magna cum laude), a Marshall Scholarship to study at St Hilda’s College in Oxford, and a PhD in Economics from Berkeley where she defended her thesis on the underdevelopment of the banking system in czarist and post-Soviet Russia.🤯 On August 25th, 2025 our president tried to fire her. Read more here.
Claudine Gay is an American political scientist, professor, trustee, and university administrator. In 2022, Gay was selected out of 600 nominees as the 30th president of Harvard University; the first Black president in Harvard’s 386-year history. Gay has taught in Stanford University’s Department of Political Science and Harvard Kennedy School. She has served as the dean of social sciences and Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies at Harvard. As a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, she earned a BS in Economics from Stanford, a PhD in Political Science from Harvard, and won Harvard’s Toppan Prize for the best dissertation in political science. 💪🏾 on January 2nd, 2024, after 6 months in office, Gay resigned from Harvard. Read more here and her recent 👏🏾 clap back here.
A Number to Remember 👇🏾
According to a 2019 McKinsey report, 21% of Black women are currently working in jobs highly exposed to AI-driven disruption. Gender economist Katica Roy highlights this and several other eye-opening statistics in this MSNBC article published on July 17th, 2025.
For Members Only 🔐
The writing is on the wall. It’s time to collaborate and take calculated risks that focus on the future of our work, community, talent, and use of technology. Exclusive invitations to the VFMH Privé Tour forthcoming. Private dining + real talk = solutions. ‘Tis not for the gram.
