Dear Sister,

Did you know it took nearly two full years for the news of emancipation to reach our people in Texas? That delay—that long, aching wait—is the origin story of Juneteenth. And it teaches us something sacred:

Delay is not denial.

“Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” — Habakkuk 2:3

We are reflecting on this part of our history today because we, too, are experiencing a delay. Today was the day we had planned to release The Underground—our new app uniting our million+ members to walk, talk, and solve problems together.  It is ready. It is powerful. It is ours. But the Apple and Google Play stores are still finalizing their reviews. And so we pause—not in defeat, but in deep faithfulness.

Our team has been working tirelessly. We’ve poured so much into building this tool. So yes, this delay frustrated us. But we trust the timing. Sometimes, God slows us down on purpose. To let us catch our breath. To feel what we’ve just walked through. To honor the healing already underway. To make space for the joy that’s rising.

So today, we breathe. We give thanks. And we prepare. Because tomorrow, thousands of women will complete 10 weeks of Self-Care School, and all 10 badges earned will be available tomorrow as physical keepsakes in the GirlTrek store!  This is a journey worth pausing to reflect on. And this weekend, many of us will walk in Juneteenth parades, wrapped in superhero blue.

If you are near any of the cities below, please come out and represent:

Montgomery, AL – Jun 21
Centennial Hill Festival with a walk for legacy and joy.
RSVP here »

NYC – Jun 21
Peloton x GirlTREK walk at Jackie Robinson Park. High-energy healing.
RSVP here »

Lawrenceville, GA – Jun 21
Freedom walk and community gathering at Rhodes Jordan Park.
RSVP here »

Baltimore/Annapolis, MD – Jun 21
Maryland’s Juneteenth Parade—walk with us in legacy.
RSVP here »

And whether you are joining a parade or reflecting on Juneteenth quietly at home, we have a sacred offering for you. A movement meditation prepared by Morgan. A Blessing for the Body

Listen today, while at home or on a walk. Breathe deeply while you listen.  Celebrate your wholeness while you walk. Honor what is. And honor the body that has brought you this far. We’ll be doing the same. While also working with the app stores to move our release along. As soon as we have an update, we will share it with the community.

In the meantime, walk like you’re celebrating the freedom of your ancestors; Happy Juneteenth!

Dear Family,

This week, in Self-Care School, we walked for the caregivers. We walked in the footsteps of Sojourner Truth—abolitionist, preacher, nurse, truth-teller, and one of the fiercest caregivers our country has ever known. A woman who said, “Aren’t I a woman?” and forced the world to answer. She fought for the dignity of Black Women and the value of our labor—seen and unseen.

If you walked five times this week? High Five! You embodied that same unstoppable spirit. You’ve earned your Sojourner Truth Badge.

Take the Quiz & Get Your Badge

And now you can wear your badge of honor.

The official Self-Care School T-shirt just dropped!

It’s soft, bold, and made to remind the world: You Never Walk Alone.

[Click here to get your shirt before they sell out!]

And if you missed a walk this week. No worries!

You can still listen and catch up this weekend. Here’s what dropped this week:

Day 1: How to advocate in medical spaces 

Day 2: Receiving the care you give 

Day 3: Adoption and Kinship Care 

Day 4: Death & Dignity 

Day 5: Care for the caregivers 

Listen now at MySelfCareSchool.com, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

After you listen, don’t forget to sound off and tell us about your experience 

[Leave us a voice note here.] Your story might be the one that sets another sister free.

And before you join us on Monday for the final week of this beautiful 10-week Self-Care School experience, you can join us in the streets across the country this weekend and next as we step out in solidarity with our communities to celebrate Juneteenth! 

From Atlanta to LA, we want and need you out there walking with us in the parades, festivals and celebrations that are planned. Help us show the world what this sisterhood looks like. 

With you in every step,

Team GirlTrek

RSVP to a Juneteenth Walk Near You:

Atlanta, GA – Jun 14
Marching down MLK Blvd, ending at Piedmont Park. Peace up, A-town Down! 
RSVP here »

Los Angeles, CA – Jun 14
We’re walking through Pasadena for a day of California love, community, and celebration.
RSVP here »

Aurora, IL – Jun 14
Food, music, kids’ activities, and a vibrant community celebration at MLK Jr Park.
RSVP here »

St. Louis, MO – Jun 14
Join the city’s Juneteenth Parade and the STL Festival at Soulard Market Park.
RSVP here »

Cleveland, OH – Jun 14
Downtown Freedom Fest at Mall C with music, vendors, and more.
RSVP here »

Miami, FL – Jun 14
Beach Bash at Virginia Key. Sun, music, and movement.
RSVP here »

Denver, CO – Jun 15
Juneteenth Music Fest at Manual High School—come walk, dance, and celebrate.
RSVP here »

Chicago, IL – Jun 19
Pullman Porter Juneteenth Parade—honoring Black labor and South Side pride.
RSVP here »

Philadelphia, PA – Jun 19
Block party at the African American Museum. Freedom, right through Philly.
RSVP here »

Augusta, GA – Jun 19
Celebrate at Augusta Fairgrounds with music and sisterhood.
RSVP here »

Montgomery, AL – Jun 21
Centennial Hill Festival with a walk for legacy and joy.
RSVP here »

NYC – Jun 21
Peloton x GirlTREK walk at Jackie Robinson Park. High-energy healing.
RSVP here »

Lawrenceville, GA – Jun 21
Freedom walk and community gathering at Rhodes Jordan Park.
RSVP here » 

Baltimore/Annapolis, MD – Jun 21
Maryland’s Juneteenth Parade—walk with us in legacy.
RSVP here »

Sister, you can listen to this message while you walk here, or read it below. 

“The very function of racism is distraction.” – Toni Morrison

There’s a boycott being planned for Friday.

The information has come through my inbox and across my newsfeed several times. And I’ve been conflicted about sharing.

Not because I don’t believe in boycotts.

Montgomery is now GirlTREKs new headquarters, and Bricklayers Hall—where Dr. King and the Montgomery Improvement Association organized—is now the staging ground of our movement, for a reason.

Boycotts, work, and collective economics are our power.

But I was conflicted about sharing the boycott because, last week, I did not share with this community the beautiful photos and stories from the walk we organized in San Francisco in partnership with the NBA for All-Star Weekend. I didn’t share the photos of the walk last week because last week was joyful. It was fun. There were celebrities, laughter, and sunshine. It didn’t feel like the anger or urgency of a boycott—and I wasn’t sure if sharing that joy would seem out of step with what people are feeling right now.

I wasn’t sure if people had the capacity for our stories of healing in the midst of so many necessary stories of rage.

I wasn’t sure if people had an appetite for the joy and levity the hundreds of women who came out to walk with us in Golden Gate Park experienced.

I wasn’t sure if people would understand the power and significance of so many Black men coming out to support us—NBA superstars, the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, the partners and spouses.

Would that feel revolutionary enough for people? Or would they be looking for GirlTREK to organize a boycott or a protest instead of a walk.

The questions around our strategy are daily conversations with our team:

• How do we stay true to who we are and what we know works, without simply reacting to what is happening around us?

• How do we build from a place of vision and abundance for what is possible?

Those questions have intensified as we’ve been on calls with our attorneys—navigating what can be said, what can’t, and whether speaking truth to power could threaten what we have spent years building. They’ve intensified as we gear up for Harriet Tubman Day and our annual membership meeting on March 10th.

You see, we decided pre-election that, regardless of the results, the most important thing we could do was to make sure every woman in this movement was walking to save her own life—and that you never feel like you are walking alone.

It’s why, at the end of last year, we took our mobile app, The Underground, off the market.

Just another fitness tracker didn’t seem critical. You already have every gadget and app imaginable.

But what you don’t have is a reminder that you don’t walk alone—and a way to connect with the women in this movement so we can walk and talk together.

So, we’ve spent the past couple of months with a dope team—working from deep inside the diaspora—to reimagine the app as a simple tool that will:

• Show how many women are walking at any given time.

• Allow women to walk and talk with us from wherever they are, right from the app. (We can’t tell you how many of you have said Black History Bootcamp saved your life or that the Saturday walk-and-talks were your lifeline.)

• Let women record their own walks and track weekly streaks—not as sport, but as resistance training.

Because we know that walking five days a week, 30 minutes a day, adds seven years to your life expectancy.

And the strategies and solutions we teach while walking can lead to lifestyle changes that add an additional three years.

That’s 10 more years of life.

And what better form of resistance is there than to live longer?

On March 10th, we’ll invite you—our trusted members—to be the first to use this new tool: a beta version that will be built out in future versions to lets us celebrate wins, track collective participation, and easily welcome others into the movement.

But as we’ve been preparing for this launch, the world has caught on fire—literally and figuratively.

We’ve had to practice discipline.

We’ve had to stay steadfast in what we believe.

And that’s not easy.

Yesterday, as I prepared for a Sunday outing at the Black Joy Parade in Oakland, I logged online and saw that one of our members in Dallas had posted a picture of a white nationalist group trying to recruit at the park where they gather. 

I assume the men who put it there wanted her to believe she wasn’t safe or welcome.

But she replied that she wouldn’t be intimidated—that she’d be back to walk.

Her crew said, “Bet. We’ll be there with you.”

Is that the right response? I wasn’t sure.

Until I arrived at the Black Joy Parade and saw a gleaming Cutlass Supreme on rims.

And the intricate braid patterns on Black girls in the crowd.

And heard Not Like Us bumping from the boombox of a crew of kids on bikes.

And ran into a crew of women wearing shirts that said “Nah – Harriet Tubman,” who told me they’re West Coast Trekkers and said, “We can’t wait for March 10th.”

And for the rest of the night, I experienced a Black resistance movement that was both covert and loud, ancient and brand new, effective and beautiful.

It reminded me that walking is resistance.

That a parade is a protest.

That a Black man on skates is a boycott.

That Black families coming together in the unapologetic, beautiful Black way that Oakland did yesterday is the answer.

Have you ever enjoyed something so much that you couldn’t fully enjoy it because all you could think about was how much you wished everyone you love could experience it too?

That was me—thinking about all of you.

There was hella love on the streets of Oakland.

A love that sustains.

A love that heals.

A love that will overcome this moment in time.

It reminded me of two of my favorite quotes, saved years ago in my drafts folder, written by Black folks whose names you might not know—but should:

“And yet, Black joy remains. In the words of Terrance Laney, ‘Undead, unchained, and fearless.’ It dances in the face of armed officers, sings in the presence of death, and shouts down systems of terror.” — Broderick Greer

And this, from Cherrelle Brown:

“Don’t let anyone separate your self-care from your liberation work. Black self-care IS liberation work. How wonderfully revolutionary is it, that in a world constantly telling us we are not worthy of life and joy, that we go on living anyway? That we dance, love, kiss, sing, rejoice—anyway? It is resistance. We can hold church at 2 a.m. in a bar, dancing across altars and freeing ourselves through radical acts of self-love. The personal IS political. So may our summer be full of baptismals on the front line, braiding battle plans into our Bantu knots while listening to Badu… or UGK. Just don’t forget that when you see us dancing in the middle of war, it’s not because we lost our way—it’s because we’re finding it, over and over again, in each other.”

Those quotes—and what I experienced yesterday—are the confirmation I needed.

Confirmation to keep moving forward.

To hold fast to a vision that has nothing to do with who the next cabinet appointee will be.

No, our steps are ordered by the ancestors.

By Huey P. and Fred Hampton.

By Too Short and every beat that moves our feet.

Our steps require us to keep moving forward.

To focus on what we know matters: uniting this movement in solidarity, supporting our members in walking, radiating joy, and expressing it boldly.

That’s what we plan to do.

Here’s what’s next:

• The membership meeting is March 10th. On Friday, we’ll share a link for you to RSVP and invite your friends.

• Throughout March: We’ll ask all of you to host Harriet House Parties—because what could be more radical right now than stepping away from the scroll, stopping the online conversations, and connecting in real life with the people we love and who love us?

It’s the recipe passed down from our grandmothers—and theirs before them.

It’s the antidote to the isolation many of us feel right now.

And it’s a solution they cannot touch or infiltrate.

If you don’t believe me, check out the Black Joy Parade’s Instagram.

Look at those faces.

See that joy.

Dear Sister, 

You are not alone.

Ten years ago, 500 organizers boarded buses bound for Selma, Alabama, to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. 

Remember this? 

Since then, we have grown from 20,000 Black women walking to 1 million sisters who are changing the very systems that made us sick in the first place.

We are the critical mass. 

We are powerful because we are loving. 

Our members can be found feeding the homeless in Richmond and organizing refugees in Rwanda. We walk in halfway houses and the halls of Congress. We are rowdy students on college campuses and tambourine-thumping churchgoers. 

Gay, straight, rich, poor. Born here, been here, came here. Daughters, mothers, elders. 

Black women, you are welcome here. 

Our shared history, our collective trauma, and the wars waged against our families and communities since 1619 have created a perfect storm of sickness. 

 …but we walk for wellness. 

 We are sisters. 

 We are soldiers…

  “…in the army, we have to fight, although we have to cry…”  

Ooo that’s an old James Cleveland song that some of our younger members might not know? 

Just know this—there are bloodstained banners across every Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. in this country. We walk for our cousins who are locked up. We walk for our aunts who died too soon. We walk for our partners who lost their minds. We walk for our parents who didn’t have time. For the veterans. For the workers. For those medicating their sadness with substances. The banner is bloodstained. 

And through it all, we have worn our signature blue, knowing that we would have to be the superheroes of our own survival. 

For a decade, there has been a sea of superhero blue at every significant social movement. Aerial shots of the 50th Selma March? A sea of superhero blue on that bridge. On the front page of The Washington Post during Obama’s inauguration, one of you was wearing a GirlTREK shirt. We’ve marched on the National Mall, climbed Alpine peaks in the Rockies, delivered votes to the polls, held vigils on campuses, supported the Women’s March, healed ourselves in wellness revivals, won seats on school boards, and told our stories around the world – on Good Morning America, CNN, BET, and TED. 

But the true love of this movement happened in the quieter moments. When we walked by ourselves—but never alone. When you knocked on your neighbor’s door. When you wore your GirlTREK shirt to the grocery store. The deepest discipline and love of GirlTREK is found in these everyday acts—when we choose to walk in the streets of our own neighborhoods to heal from heart attacks and heartbreak. 

The past 10 years were worth it. We worked so hard because we love you. And together we were wildly successful. You are so important to this movement. Thank you, we respect you and we need you. 

We are starting something new. 

Over the next 10 years, we will step up our own healthy behaviors – making sure that every single one of us establishes the life-saving habit of daily walking. It’s simple: 15 minutes in one direction, then come on home. It will save your life. 

And more. We will level up our storytelling—across the globe. Pictures of you at bus stops. Quotes of our foremothers on billboards. Radio ads. Broadcast shows. We will become an undeniable voice at advocacy tables and bring a bullhorn to the streets. GirlTREK will become a household name. 

And here’s what’s new: Over the next 10 years, we will turn our power toward caring for one another at scale – building villages and new systems that serve us. We are powerful enough to do it. And our love is unshakable. Do not be distracted. Do not be confused. One million Black women walking in the same direction is the answer.  

What happens next? 

On March 1, the first day of the GirlTREK season, we will provide dates and details for the year ahead. By then, this cold will start to ease up. We’ll open our windows, let the light in, and get ready to step outside. 

Here’s what to expect in 2025: 

March 10 – Harriet Tubman Day Our first official meeting of the year. And this year, it will be special. Wear a denim shirt if you have one – because we’re about to get to work. 

Imagine being in a room with the most brilliant organizers in the country. The seriousness of the state of our union requires a different kind of membership meeting. Do not miss it. 8 PM ET.  Stay tuned for more information. We won’t be hosting house parties that day. Instead, we’re asking you to log in, listen, and participate. 

At the membership meeting, you’ll receive a toolkit to host house parties throughout the year – a classic organizing tactic to build power. 

Spring Training (April–June) We’ll kick off monthly walking challenges that center on caring for you. We want you strong, healthy, and connected before summer. Vanessa and I will check in with you every Saturday. We’ll open the lines and hold space for you. 

Summer of Solidarity (July–August) As we walk, we will support organizations making our communities healthier. We’re securing sponsors to fund this work, so that every step you take on Saturdays will directly power urgent solutions. The theme of the summer will be Joy and Justice – including weekly experiences to amplify these concepts.

Training for the Revolution (September) Level up your skills. We want you prepared. We will have an in person trainings the week of Labor Day. You will have the opportunity to specialize and get certified in content areas such as:

•  Emergency rescue 

•  Self-defense 

•  Mental health first response 

•  Nutrition 

•  People’s Gardening …and other vital skills.  

Fall Service (October) 

We are organizing the biggest ground game ever. A Care Crusade across America. It starts in the South and spreads—community service, canvassing, organizing walks, and forming powerful partnerships. We will go door to door, offering care to our neighbors. 

Celebration (November) We have a big surprise for our end-of-year celebration. We’ve already said too much. Please stay tuned. 

Until then, unplug. 

Rest well knowing that you have a whole sisterhood waiting to turn up.

Mark your calendars for March 10 and stay tuned for registration details.

Happy Valentine’s Day,

Morgan and Vanessa 

How ya’ll doing this morning!? 

I woke up like, whoa!! “What if we all showed up like Kendrick showed up last night?”

Chaaaaa.

I was inspired by Kendrick’s half time show – there was something about how relaxed his shoulders were and his jeans.

His squat. 

…his shiny 1987 black GNX

…his army of men, stepping out.

…his Luther-inspired offering to women.

The coordination of it all.

And how patriotic the whole thing was.

Who do you want to be right now?

…under the crushing threat of separatism.

Joyful?

I want to be joyful.

Just?

I want to uphold justice.

…the soft and the hard of life. The vibrancy and dynamism of life. This moment is giving Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing at Langston’s funeral. It’s Fannie Lou Hamer singing This Little Light of Mine on the back of Freedom Ride buses. It’s the sister in the cover photo who threw her hands up to try something new in a circle of sisters she trusted.

This thing we have sends glimmers of hope into the darkest caves. 

Last year, we set an agenda for joy and justice. A 7-point plan. A clarion call. In it, we said we want healthy bodies and sound minds. We want land, economic freedom, and food sovereignty. We promised to preserve our culture and to power our communities with a million energized citizens. 

Power can look different.

Kendrick showed us that.

“You can’t fake influence.”

He ain’t lied.

So as we gear up to start our season – the membership meeting is always Tubman Day, March 10th, stay tuned – I ask you to ask yourself, “Who do I want to be right now?”

Me?

I want to be healthy and happy. 

I’m on day 11 of a 100 day walk for my uncle. And if you’re counting my receipts, I missed one day. Yesterday. …because I went to the beach with my friends. I was ashy, sun drunk, and happy when I got home. So I I rested. My day 11 will be today. Not gonna try to make up a day or go hard in the paint. It’s my own promise and my own rules. I invite you to start thinking about your personal walking or exercise  goals for the year. We will help you in weeks to come. 

In the meantime, it’s Monday, a new week, and I want to invite you to take a special walk with me today. At GirlTREK, we started something called a “Manifestation Mile.” 

It’s simple. 

Remember when we were in high school and a mile was 4 laps around the track? 

Imagine you are back there on your high school track. As you walk each imaginary lap – about 5 minutes in any direction from your front door – asked yourself one of four questions. 

First lap, first question:

1. How am I?

How are you doing? Feeling? Moving? How are you, sister?  You don’t have to answer with words. Just keep walking. Repeat the question. “How am I?”  If your mind starts racing, thinking about work or grocery lists, silence it by listening to the sound of your feet touching the earth. Listen to the wind created by your own momentum. As you walk, repeat the question, “How am I?,” over and over until you feel the answer of the truth. You may have to soften the way you ask and pretend that you are your own best friend. “Girl, how are you really doing? The answer is in your inhale. The stillness of your mind. The softness of your gaze. The opening of your chest the deepness of your breath. The release of your hands. All may hold an answer. Or you may weep. The question may overwhelm. Either way, listen. Keep walking. How are you?

Second lap, second question: 

For the next five minutes of your walk reflect on the following questions:

2. What am I walking away from this week?

Take an honest assessment. What is harming you. Social media? Working overtime? Waiting for love? Sugar addiction? Pessimism? Sitting all day?

Decide to leave one thing behind for just one week. Name it. 

Third imaginary lap. For 5 minutes of your walk, explore question three: 

3. What am I walking towards?

See it. The life you desire. The family you want. The community you crave. The country you pray for. See it on the horizon – a vision of your very best life – and walk towards it.  

For the last lap of this manifestation mile, ask this:

4. Who can I ask for help?

This may be your weakest muscle. Asking for help. Maybe it was easy feeling on lap one. Perhaps you knew exactly what to say “no” to and how to imagine and walk towards your “yes” life, now you have to ask for help. Community matters. Helping one another is the only way toward. 

What do you need help with this week and who can you ask? Maybe it’s your neighbor whose dog is keeping you awake? Maybe it’s your coworker who knows a software that is stressing you. Maybe it’s your friend who is on a roll cooking vegetables in the air fryer. Or maybe you need help from your council member or congressman. You decide. To get where you have decided you are going, you will need people on your team. You don’t have to walk alone. Ask others to conspire with you in living your healthiest, most fulfilled life. 

High-Five!  That’s how you do a manifestation mile – a new tradition for Mondays. Recap for a screen grab, before you open your front door:

Manifestation Mile. 
Walk 1 mile or 20 minutes.

As you begin the week, ask yourself: 

5 min: How am I?
5 min: What am I walking away from?
5 min: What am I walking towards?
5 min: Who can I ask for help?

That’s it. Decide who you want to be and how you want to show up this week.

Kendrick was courageous last night at The Super Bowl. As was Ledisi. My friend David told me that courage causes a cascade of other courageous acts. I believe that. So I am asking you to be courageous today by dreaming of your best life and walking toward it.  

There’s a crew of friends of Mississippi who called themselves “Zero Dark 30” because they have consistently walked before sunrise every morning for years. They know who they want to be. How they want to feel. They know the discipline they must have and the community they need to sustain. I am inspired by them.

…and by you. 

All of you who still feel inspired. …who still have faith through all the distractions. I am inspired by those of you who know your power and your influence. 

What if the future is bright? What if we are, in fact, the bearers of light?

I am holding fast to my own vision of a new kind of army rising up. One that loves. 

Sincerely,
Morgan