Go Where You Are Loved – Black Women Amplified | Empowering Women Through Media, Podcasting, And Storytelling

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Good day, Reader

I hope your week has been great and you have enjoyed our conversation about purpose. This week I interviewed with Stephanie Perry. When her publicist reached out, I was elated to have her return to the podcast. It is uploading to YouTube now. Our conversation reminded me of the first time I traveled overseas with my brother. I wrote about it on the Black Women Amplified blog and wanted to share it with you today. Traveling outside of America changed my life forever. I was able to see myself in an entirely new way, not only on the inside, but Paris is where I began to recognise my beauty on the outside.

When I first heard Kimora Lee say those words, I didn’t know they would echo through my life. I understood them the moment I stepped off a train in Paris, tears streaming down my face, feeling a freedom I had never known before.

But my story started long before Paris.

My mentor once pulled me aside and told me it was time for me to see the world. She said my ideas were too big for America. At the time, I laughed it off. I thought travel like that was for other people. When she passed from cancer, her words landed differently. To honor her, I booked my first trip abroad.

London was our first stop. We found tickets on Virgin Atlantic, boarded with excitement, and touched down in a city that looked like every movie I had ever seen. Big Ben. Parliament. Black cabs. Notting Hill. I could not wait to take it all in.

But the excitement shifted quickly. I was in my Afrocentric era then, wearing braids, dashikis, cowrie shells, copper, and brass. I loved my look, but Londoners did not. Their stares carried a weight I knew all too well. The racism was sharp, and only when I opened my mouth and they heard my American accent did their energy soften. That was the first and last time I visited London.

Then Paris called my name.

A friend told us to hop on the train, and we did. The ride felt like possibility itself. When we arrived at Gare du Nord and stepped into the city, something inside me broke wide open. Tears came before I could stop them. I felt as if I had been there before, as if my spirit already knew the streets. I had never seen so many cultures living, laughing, and loving together. It felt like home. A home I’d never experienced.

We had no hotel and no plan. What we didn’t know was that it was Fashion Week. By grace, we ended up in a three-bedroom penthouse right in the middle of it all. That week, I walked red carpets, mingled at the biggest parties, and saw the city come alive. For a girl from St. Louis, it was nothing short of magic.

Paris shifted me. It wasn’t just the beauty of the city, it was the way I felt inside of it. One day, I walked the streets for eight hours, stopping in shops, soaking in the light, and realizing that no one was following me, no one was questioning why I was there. For the first time in my life, I was seen as a woman, not a color. That feeling healed something deep in me.

That marked the beginning of 25 years of traveling the globe. I went from thinking travel was a luxury for other people to realizing it was a doorway into my own healing. Each trip gave me more than sights and stamps. It gave me back pieces of myself that America had chipped away.

And now, something even bigger is happening. What I once thought was out of reach has become a movement.

Stephanie Perry and Roshida Dowe have built a global community of thousands of Black women who are saying yes to freedom abroad. Through the Exodus Summit, now in its sixth year, they are teaching women how to generate income, design new lives, and root themselves in countries where they are valued. Together, they are showing us what is possible when Black women build with and for each other.

The world has opened in ways our mothers and grandmothers could not imagine. Information that was once hidden or gatekept is now shared openly, and communities like Exodus Summit are guiding the way.

If you have ever dreamed of more than a vacation, if you have imagined building a life with more ease, joy, and possibility, this is your invitation. The Exodus Summit takes place October 10–13 with speakers including Rachel Rodgers and Arlan Hamilton, women who know what it means to create abundance on their own terms.

Learn more at www.blackwomenamplified.com/freedom​

Reflections on My Journey

Travel continues to teach me how I want to live. Every arrival reminds me that I do not belong inside boxes I did not build. I am meant to expand. I am meant to show up fully.

Travel was never just about seeing new places. For me, it has been a process of reclaiming joy, truth, and purpose. It taught me how to rest, how to expect better treatment, and how to build with women who will show up for me and help me rise. That is the gift I want every Black woman to take for herself.

Love and light,
Monica Wisdom

PS: When the podcast episode with Stephanie Perry is complete, I will share it. Let me know what you think.

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