About

“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” – Dr. Maya Angelou

Ve-nus
1. Roman Mythology The goddess of love and beauty.
2. The second planet from the sun
3. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
Ge-nus
1. (noun) a class, group, or kind with common attributes.
2. (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more species attributing similar characteristics.

Venus Genus is a collective body of phenomenal works by women. VG is just a microcosm of the masses of phenomenal women worldwide and we strive to highlight them. The Venuses featured, tell us in their own words and documentary webisodes how they live their everyday lives above the status quo. The Venus Genus is dispelling myths and transcending stereotypes on a daily basis. We are making our own rules and living with our own purpose. We are making society’s archetype of what a woman is null, irrelevant and void.
Venus Genus also profiles young people living their life in ‘Hi-Def’ in another original web series. Women and men alike deserve a positive spotlight.

Through ‘The Girl Child -The Boy Child’ our comprehensive media literacy and production workshops, VG will be an outreach tool for mentoring young women and men through leading by example. We have a vested interest in seeing women and girls succeed and flourish and have the responsibility to help ourselves by helping each other.

Venus Genus is a project borne one night as my friends and I were discussing and debating on a particular subject. We realized there is truly no woman in the mainstream media, whether on a sitcom, reality tv, movie or otherwise who we could really relate to or see ourselves in. The portrayals, or more accurately caricatures of womanhood was a bit confounding, confusing and maddening to us. Where do we fit in? Well, we don’t fit this, never have, never will and have no interest in playing to the fallacy of womanhood on repeat in mainstream media. This is the place where we live. On Planet Phenomenal.

A note from moi, Dash, Le Founder

Women’s empowerment has always been close to my heart and journalism is in my blood. I have been an active mentor and volunteer since I knew the definition of the word and continue to persevere to positively touching and helping lives. I have a vested interest in seeing women and girls succeed and flourish and I have the responsibility to do so. That responsibility came from being born into a free country with free will. My heart, head, soul and passion for this breathes this responsibility from its innateness. My resolve has been strengthened and accelerated after reading Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof’s ‘Half the Sky, Turning Oppression into Opportunity.’ I said to myself, ANY of the harrowing tales of squalor and ultimately triumph could have been mine, but by virtue of birth and my family foundation, which is just as arbitrary as birth, I was spared the squalor…what makes me so special? Who am I to not take my good fortune and spread the wealth? Why not reach back and help the next generation(s)? It is a blessing to be able to make a difference in this world. I want to use my blessings, my skills and knowledge to make that difference, because not only am I a capable woman. I am a capable human being.

The Phenomenal Team

Latoya, is a special education teacher, and an assistant cheer-leading coach. She is the VG education editor. Latoya has an MS in Education, and MA and BA in Psychology. She believes education is the greatest equalizer. It can give the path out of poverty. If children are given the opportunity they can achieve. She lives her life embodying the mantra “be the change you wish to see in the world.” Latoya urges the youth of today to “take pride in their education because the world doesn’t care if you were born to a single mom, that you are a foster child, parents are neglectful, or whatever your situation you were born into, you are expected to pull yourself up at the bootstraps regardless of your circumstances. You can’t control the life you were born into but you can control your education. Its free, take advantage of it all” because as Nelson Mandela says,”education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Teofilia A. has a BS in health science with a concentration in public health. She is currently working on her MPH (Masters in Public Health) with a concentration in Community Health.
This field is involved with creating and working with comprehensive statictics and reports that highlight health issues within a community and best of all, helping to fix these health issues. Teofilia A. hopes to receive her PhD in Public Health and will do her best to instill in people a proactive ethical responsibility for those who do not have the resources to handle basic quality of life issues. Quality of life and well being for low income people are her passions. She says “it’s important to keep our communities clean, educated and livable in order to keep social organization(as opposed to the idea of social disorganization) and to make at the very least, basic well informed health decisions.” Teofilia A. believes people deserve primary health care which refers to keeping a clean and neat household, keeping your person clean, immunizations, and protecting yourself during sex. Secondary health concerns your physical neighborhood, clean, functional parks, people curbing their dogs, etc. Not having to fall subject to these basic issues that most people do not usually have to deal with greatly affect children being raised in low income communities. There are many people who never have to even think of these things growing up and going to school. Let’s keep our communities clean and healthy!

My name is T Lloyd and this bio has taken me entirely too long to write. I’ve actually written five different ones but none of them felt accurate. They didn’t feel like ME so I’m starting over for the sixth time on my day off. Speaking of my day off, my body clearly didn’t get the memo and still woke up at 7am which is actually considered late if I did have work. On top of that, “alternate side parking is in effect” is NOT a phrase I enjoy. So not only was I up at 7am but I was outside at 8am in polka dot pajamas freezing my lady parts on leather seats. Moral of the story: even if you don’t like how your day started, just be glad that it started. Needless to say, I’m 24 years old and I went through hell and high water to get here. That’s not to say that I have a problem with hell and high water, I have a problem with nobody talking about it. Growing up, life was a map that I had to follow. Go to school, make all A’s, go to college, find a man and a career simultaneously and have some kids. Nobody included the part about not being able to afford school, having the kid with the man and without the career and everyone forgot to mention that love isn’t on the map, it IS the map. Either way, I made it out alive and I have a story to tell. In not so many words, I went to school, made SOME A’s, found a few men, went back and forth about a couple careers and had a really cute baby. The story of what I went through is amazing and finding people who relate to it because of my writing is humbling. I am many things as is every woman but being a storyteller means that I can be ANY woman and do ANYTHING. But for now, the only part of my life that I can describe as phenomenal is the fact that I’m in love and I can’t even take any credit for that. Now that’s a story worth telling.