We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jackquelina English a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jackquelina , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The story behind the mission for AfroReelz Productions comes from a personal place of deep appreciation for the art and science of wellness and personal self care. During the pandemic I found solace and relaxation going to the resort, the beach, the lazy river, getting therapeutic massages and picking seashells at the beach at some of my favorite vacation spots in and around Florida.
Self care is not a complicated concept, it just involves a consistent commitment to self care practices that promotes the health and wellness of women as an essential practice to healthy living. The flip side of not making your health and wellness and emotional health a priority can be found in some of the hashtags centered around the conversation and. hashtags regarding surrounding the topics of “I do not dream of labor”, “Struggle love” and “Black women deserve luxury”.

During the pandemic and over the last 2 years my emotional and physical wellness became a priority and I began to condition my mindset to embrace the concept that all women deserve wellness, relaxation, and contentment in areas of relationships, career, social and family life. I began to envision creating a business concept that embodied my respect and admiration for the afrocentric style of health and wellness coaching that embodies the essence of being an African American woman in Atlanta, Georgia.

I began to become comfortable with feeling good and I resisted the habit of making excuses for living well and taking care and even protecting my mindset. During the last two years of living through a pandemic I found myself thinking about how I could change the quality of life for African American women and all women who subscribe to the belief that we offer no apologies for choosing a sound mind, plenty of rest, relaxation and choosing healthy intimate relationships verses choosing a life style of struggle and resistance to self care.

Jackquelina , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Jackquelina The Coach is the CEO and Founder of One Voice One Child Advocacy Center a ADHD coaching practice that was created in 2014 and located in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jackquelina the coach has been a professional consulting and testifying expert witness with Juvenile court, forensic mental health services, Georgia foster care system and various different community based agencies providing family services along with facilitating therapeutic services and assessments to address domestic violence, substance abuse, child abuse and mental illness for 15 years.

The Voyage ATL CanvasRebel editor reached out to me for a feature. I thought this feels like divine timing for me to use this creative platform to debut my new startup AfroReelz Productions. During the pandemic I was challenged with facing my own plight as an African American woman while having to make difficult and challenging decisions for not only me but for my family’s future and so many other families just like mine. It was during this time that I began conceptualizing what sustainable health and wellness coaching services provision looks like for African American women like myself.

My creative vibes shifted into overdrive and I created a pink haven and safe space of serenity in my home that I affectionally call the #ThePinkRoom and #PinkNoirBeauty. The concept behind the creation of the pink room was to bring together women and friends for meaningful conversations and socializing. The pink room would inspire us to focus on our uniquely different personal challenges and triumphs. however the Covid-19 Pandemic would have its way and often times I would find myself alone in my pink sanctuary.

My pink space is very therapeutic for my mind, body and soul. Not only is the space pretty in pink but it pays homage to the afrocentric vibes of pink girl power. My pink room has artwork and inspirational black fashion art that embodies me in all of my shades of pink noir glory. This infatuation with everything pink became my happy place and from there AfroReelz Productions has continued to come into fruition.

The future plans for AfroReelz Productions is to create high quality fashion apparel and merchandise with a focus on health and beauty products while networking with afrocentric women business owners. AfroReelz seeks to create social media and content creation that focuses on creating podcasts, documentaries, and highlighting the HBCU culture.

AfroReelz seeks to combine this with offering afrocentric and multi-culturally relevant personalized coaching services to address the generational patterns of the post slavery syndrome. My curiosity and research led me to the understanding that not only is it essential and critical that African American women and all women of diverse backgrounds aren represented properly culturally, globally and personally. To go a step further AfroReelz Productions believes in the importance of creating a platform where black voices are respected given a seat at the table with working capital and access to resources and solutions for sustainable success. This movement is a bigger part of the conversation of inclusion for black women in business.

I found that sustainable wellness and self care is rooted in the 4 pillars of wellness that include but are not limited to: nutrition, exercise, relaxation and adequate sleep. My intense love and mission to solve problems plaguing the African American community and somehow always finding myself being curious about how women function from a mental health, emotional and holistic perspective is how I entered the field of helping and advocating for underserved women, children and families.

My professional discipline is afrocentric focused wellness coaching. However, my mission is to heal women in Atlanta, Georgia and around the world. My craft is to bring a creative and afrocentric vibe to the types of services and products that AfroReelz will offer to the community virtually and in person.

AfroReelz Productions mission is to provide a plethora of creative social media content, film production, and afrocentric research combined with offering world class holistic wellness and coaching services and solutions that will increase the quality of the lives of women and like minded individuals in the pursuit of self care.

What sets AfroReelz Productions services apart is a deviation from the traditional business mindset that services are limited and in a box. AfroReelz Productions provides customized and personal services for women and individuals that gives them a voice and promotes cultural and holistic wellness from within.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The mission that drives the creative journey of AfroReelz Productions is to engage the global and local business community stakeholders, and small minority owned businesses leaders, and social media influencers by creating a business vibe and sustainable business model of services and products that can meet the social, emotional and holistic needs of all generations of women and individuals in the present and future.

AfroReelz Productions seeks to contribute to the eradication of what recent research and epigenetic studies have shown how stress oppression, socio-economic deprivation, institutionalized racism and traumatic experiences of our ancestors can play a part in turning on and off certain genes in our DNA. Research reports that trauma such as the post traumatic slavery syndrome can be passed on trans-generationally. The eclectic and diverse lives of African American women is always a production in the making.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The creation of AfroReelz is a game changer and signals a paradigm shift and pivot towards sustainable business and coaching services that are inclusive, multi-culturally sensitive and focused with an Afrocentric creativeness that will educate and promote wellness for generations to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.afroreelz.com
• Instagram: @PinkNoirBeauty
• Facebook: @afroReelzProductions and @JackquelinaTheCoach

Image Credits
Photography- Jackquelina English Hair Stylist- Gabrielle English Make up- FacesbyJac Content Creation- AfroReelz Productions AfroReelz Logo- Mynecia Steele [email protected]