The Coffy Salon: A Community For Female Life-Long Explorers.
A space where women get to explore all aspects of their personhood.
Around 2 years ago, I decided to quit dating. After my experience with Mr. Erectile Dysfuntion, I decided to only re-enter the dating market once I understood “the dating game”. However, I soon realized that trying to understand the dating game is akin to the trials of Sisyphus and decided that my creative life force energy would be better used in the service of other pursuits such as self-actualization, self-rediscovery, art, music, food, etc. In my attempts to rediscover my inner self, I recognized two things: Firstly, as you all might have imagined, women’s lives are significantly easier and more peaceful without men being in them. Secondly, an overwhelming majority of media dedicated to women focused on either beauty, fashion, or relationships. It is as though mainstream media does not think that women have other interests aside from astrological romantic compatibilities and deplorable fashion trends built on the backs of poor women in Bangladesh. Real issues that affected women globally were often ignored in favor of more clickbait placebo content. I decided to change that.
This newsletter has gone through numerous iterations. Initially named The Huntress, after the Greek goddess Artemis, I finally settled on The Coffy Salon. Why that name? Let me elaborate.
Due to my penchant for psychedelics, I have always been fascinated by things that manipulated our minds. In a society where we are inundated with messages that leave us broken, miserable, and unhealthy, it is almost necessary to use some sort of mind-altering substance to unlearn the programming. However, as regulated and discouraged as psychedelics are, there is one that is readily available in nearly every country in the world and that is …COFFEE.
Coffee was the fuel of the enlightenment and helped shape modern society. Originally discovered in Ethiopia after a goat farmer found his goats behaving weirdly after eating the now-infamous Coffea arabica leaves, coffee has spread to dominate the world. The curious farmer decided to try some of the leaves for himself, and the rest is history. Coffee then found its way into the Middle East via slaves from Yemen. Eventually, merchants from Europe began importing coffee from the Middle East, and the first coffee houses were established in London. These coffee houses were called “penny universities” because they provided a place where men, and only men, could engage in intellectual conversations on a wide variety of topics. Some of the initial coffee houses have turned into today’s largest financial institutions such as the Lords of London. Coffee has a unique psychoactive effect that allows us to engage in spotlight thinking. But you know what is better than coffee, Coffy.
Coffy was the first movie I saw that created an actual female superhero. Coffy (or Foxy Brown) is essentially a female James Bond. Driven not by her spy agency, Coffy is motivated to kill the drug dealers in her community after they sold dope to her sister. Unlike other modern-day superheroes that are endowed with supernatural abilities, Coffy is a regular-degular-smegular black girl who uses her feminine wiles to get over on men who are trying to get over on her.
Coffy is part of a movie sub-genre called blaxploitation that emerged in America in the 70s. This genre ranks amongst the first of its kind to feature black peoples as heroes and protagonists instead of sidekicks, criminals, or victims of brutality. Another popular blaxploitation film is Shaft.
The actress that played Coffy also stared in other popular movies such as Foxy Brown and Jackie Brown. The name “Foxy Brown” was then used by one of the progenitors of the Female Rap Genre.
Also, for those who might not remember, Miss Beyonce herself played a role based on Foxy Brown. Remember Foxy Cleopatra from Austen Powers? She is a combination of Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones (another popular blaxploitation movie).
Now that I have explained the Coffy part and have been briefly introduced you to the blaxploitation film genre, I have to explain the Salon part. While coffee addicts in England were neglecting their husbandly duties and putting coffee beans literally up their asses. French societies were establishing salons where they could having riveting conversations under the authority of women. These salons were literary establishments and played an integral role in the cultural and intellectual development of French society. These Salonnières, the proprietresses of the salons, were intelligent, self-educated women.
With all this in mind, what is the Coffy Salon exactly? The Coffy Salon is a community for women who seeks knowledge outside what is normally recommended to women. This is a location where women get to study and learn about a variety of topics such as History, Music, Film, Arts, Technology, Philosophy, Food, etc. This is a community for women who understand that we are well-rounded complex beings and not the one-dimensional beauty and relationship obsessed women that society wants us to be. Literally, if you have made it up to this point, you have learned about food, film, and history within one essay.
This is important to me because I went to an all-women college and I know the importance of female educational spaces. In all women college is the closest thing that we have in society to space without patriarchy. Our presidents, heads of departments, professors, and staff were all women. Men would come to visit from neighboring colleges but they were in our space. In our space, we had the power and they did not. Girls would go to class looking like they just had a battle with a raccoon and lost. This was a space where women could show up they were and were accepted. I want all women to experience what it means to be powerful.
What to expect? I have a topic list and their execution dates. Also, paying members will get access to a discord server where we can talk about all these fascinating topics. If you sign up, a link will be sent to you within 24 hours. We will have full videos and articles on investing, technology, and cryptocurrency. In philosophy, we will talk about the female quest for heroism, self-actualization, and archetypes. Weekly, we will do a case study on a successful woman in history and what we can learn from her. This first case study will be on “The first black female superstar”. If you know who she is, comment below.
If you would be part of this community, sign up. I want to meet and build a community of passionate women, creative explorers of the world around them.
Topic List and Deadline:
December 3nd: 10 Mindsets That Fail Women and The First Black Female Superstar.
December 6th: Mary Magdelens in History + Mata Hari Case Study
December 10th: Why I Quit Dating Permanently And Highly Recommend It.
December 13th: Frieda Khalo: Life, Love, and Art.