with the hip-hop audience in mind. By December of that year, Vickie founded Triple Crown Publishing, revolutionizing the literary industry as a pioneer of the Hip-Hop Literature genre. She has signed thirty other authors to her publishing house, and has published over thirty-six titles, distributing over one million books to bookstores and libraries worldwide.
The intangibles she longed for from her letter to God were to be at peace and be happy, to hear the voice of God, and to have a clear vision for her life. She paraphrases a Bible verse in which God promises, “I can restore unto you that which the locusts have eaten.” And she gratefully acknowledges that God gave her her life back and then some.
“I’m not afraid of challenges that I am faced with today,” Vickie says, “Because things can and do change with what God is able to do.”
Upon being paroled from prison and returning to Columbus, Ohio, Vickie lived in a halfway house, worked twelve hours a day and performed community service to prove her reliability and to pay restitution for her crimes. She was working tirelessly to demonstrate to the authorities that she was able to parent her son. She wanted to regain custody of him. In addition, she wanted a good father for him.
Vickie has been out of prison for over nine years now. She says her family was willing to support her in not breaking the law. She has a new man in her life, and a new baby. She has custody of her older son, Valen, and in 2004 she founded The Valen Foundation, a nonprofit organization named for her son and dedicated to reuniting and restoring bonds between children and their incarcerated parents.
Vickie Stringer and Triple Crown Publications have been featured in such prominent news media as The New York Times, Newsweek, MTV News, Publisher’s Weekly, The Boston Globe, Vibe, Essence, Inc Magazine, The Washington Post and many others. As an inspiration and motivation to aspiring authors and self-publishers, Vickie has published her advice in How to Succeed in the Publishing Game.
Vickie has much to say to other women. “Divine intervention changes lives,” she says. “Have faith that miracles overcome obstacles.”
She goes on to say, “Trust your gut. The Holy Spirit is your intuition. It never will fail you. I am God fearing and happy to be so. I would also tell every woman to Be Ready! There are so many doors that we don’t go through. Always be ready, because preparation makes opportunity. I have a sense of expectancy and I make sure I’m ready. My credit is good; I’ve taken classes in time management, among other things. I got a speech coach to help me to improve my speaking ability. Look good! Fortify who you are!” And finally, “Be Blessed.”
CHAPTER 3
The Inspirers
For every one of us who succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out. The light doesn’t necessarily have to be in your family; for me, it was teachers and school.
— Oprah Winfrey
African American women have traditionally been inspirational and encouraging to others in their communities. They have been the bedrock of their churches, for example, and have provided spiritual nourishment to their children, grandchildren, and extended families.
Often, in the course of resolving problems or issues within themselves or their own families, they provide inspiration to others to do the same, without even knowing that they are having that kind of influence or that anyone else is observing their process. Helping one another and modeling success is critical to improving the self-esteem and self-confidence of those who are less aware or confident of their own possibilities.
Inspiring women are essential to their communities because they provide hope. They model the attributes of courage, commitment, confidence, and spiritual vitality so essential to successful and meaningful lives.
Inspirers encourage just by their presence. They come from all walks of life, and social and economic strata. They are not necessarily famous, though some are, but they serve as competent coaches and role models, encouraging others to take stock of their own possibilities and to make the most of them.
Inspirers are generous in their praise and acknowledgement of other’s attributes. They encourage lavishly and criticize when they believe the criticism will be helpful in a particular situation. Every woman interviewed for this book spoke of people along the way who had inspired her, with either a personal touch or as a model to emulate.
In the course of writing about inspiring African American women, one of them explained to me the truism that, “Sometimes when I want to be inspirational, I put my backside to the business at hand and push from behind. A tugboat doesn’t always pull, it mostly pushes.” Her statement made me laugh at first, and then I realized that it was a good illustration of the diverse ways in which Inspirers affect others and sometimes effect change.
As I interviewed each of the following women, I was not only personally inspired by their stories, but I could see that they had had broad influence on the people around them because of their ability to be flexible and purposeful, and have courage and integrity. They made others better just by association.
Sonya Lockett
“If you don’t give back, your blessings have been wasted.”
I introduced myself to Sonya Lockett when I was on retreat at Miraval, a wellness resort in Tucson, Arizona. I had watched her and her friend, wearing bathrobes fresh from the spa, visiting over lunch, and asked if she would like to join me for dessert. It took some nerve for me to approach her and I worried that she would think I was rude or too pushy. But, she was really friendly and we exchanged enough personal information for me to learn that she was Director of Public Affairs at Black Entertainment Television (BET) in New York City. She had won an in-house weight-loss contest at BET, as part of their educational initiative targeting obesity in African American girls and women. In twelve weeks, she had shed twenty-five pounds and won a weekend at Miraval as her reward. As I was to learn during the course of the interview I requested of her, this was a great example of her determination in plotting her own life course, as well as inspiring others to improve themselves through making educated choices.
Sonya also exemplified how sometimes when we have to give up a dream we have held onto, in her case, the dream of being an actor, the new dream emerges and turns out to be highly fulfilling.
She was quite modest, telling me that the person I really should be interviewing for my book was not her, but Denise Stokes, who she claimed was a REAL hero in the fight against AID’s. And so, Sonya helped me contact Denise, who is represented in the chapter on Survivors. This is an example of the way in which much of this book evolved. I would contact a particular woman and she would tell me that she was not “the one”; that “the one” was someone much more accomplished than her. It is refreshing to hear women pointing to other women as examples of accomplishment, rather than criticizing them, as so often happens. At the same time, it is critical to understand that most women are inspiring to someone, and that leadership involves claiming one’s own accomplishments, as well as highlighting others.
Sonya’s home life while growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was like Ozzie and Harriet, she says. Her parents, both professional educators, were strict, Catholic, and provided a good foundation for their two daughters. Sonya’s parents taught her that, “no one is better than you, but as a black girl, you will probably have to work harder than others.” She felt mostly protected from racism in her Catholic school environment, even though she was one of only six black students in her class of 120. She says that she loved the structure, the nuns, and the whole experience. “Being black didn’t stop me,”
