Breonna Taylor was 26.

Here, 26 Black women in their mid-20s talk about everything from motherhood to protesting, gun ownership to Afrofuturism, Netflix to being the boss — and aspirations for life beyond 26.

Photos by Charlee Black

Props and styling by Katie Lee Jones

Photo assistant and digital tech: Demi Gardner

Makeup by Cierra Porter

Interviews by Nikayla Edmondson, Adrienne Hamilton, Cassia Herron, Faith Lindsey, Christian Lucas, Ebony O’Rea, Tawanda Lewis Owsley, Attica Scott, Cynthia Lee-Stewart, Toetta Taul, Katina Whitlock and Lorraine Wilbur. Read about the interviewers here.

This story originally appeared in the 2020 No. 6 print issue of Louisville Magazine. Interviews edited for length and clarity. Read how this piece came to be here.

Click each cover to read the full interviews. And please let us know who we should talk to next.

JOHNIQUE ISON

“I knew I was just going to shake up this world.”

ANASTASIA KLEIN-JOHNSON

“It loosened the soil for us to blossom on newer grounds.”

SHACOBI KIRBY

“My child brings me joy. Seeing her become friends with little white children brings me hope.”

JESSICA “JIGG” SAYLES

“Louisville is great at taking bad experiences and creating something beautiful out of them.”

DESTINY MBACHU

“I’m trying to really take up space.”

MICAH WILSON

“And then I went to Target with no agenda, which is a very dangerous sport to play.”

MILLICENT CAHOON

“It’s like my alter ego comes alive.”

TALISHA NEAL

“It really literally could have been me.”

INDYGO RAY

“I sometimes say one of my main purposes on Earth is to become a mother.”

SENOBIA THOMAS

“Life is short, and I ain’t seen enough of it.”

NAILAH WILLIAMS

“What does being Black and liberation look like to you in the future?”

MAYA BLACK

“It’s just messed up, not to see the beauty in our lives.”

ALI GAUTIER

“I don’t necessarily call it a miscarriage of American justice because it’s exactly American justice. Justice in America isn’t for us.”

ZATALYA HAMILTON

“It just takes me a second to let down any type of barrier.”

MERCEDES HAMILTON

“It’s hard to bite your tongue at some things because I want you to hear me.”

DAZIA KAREY

“This is our time to show what we can do.”

RENIECE MASHBURN

“I just want to prove that a young Black woman can come from west Louisville and do anything.”

GABRIELLE DEMEARY

“I just want to be happy. All the way around. Just happiness.”

KEONNA MILLER

“What gives me hope is that I have a daughter coming into the world.”

NIKAYLA EDMONDSON

“I’m most passionate about my voice. I feel like it’s important for Black women to be heard.”

BRIANNA WRIGHT

“I probably will never relax until I’m too old to move.”

NANNIE CRONEY

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘I’m the boss. I’m leaving town. I need a mental-health day.’”

CHESEREA DURHAM

“We can’t even be at home sleeping without having to feel scared.”

ERIN WAINWRIGHT

“I don’t think I’d rather be anybody but a Black woman still.”

ADRIENNE HAMILTON

“I will take it every day because being Black is everything to me.”

JASMYNE JONES

“I’m sad, but I’m not my feelings.”

Read more about photographer Charlee Black, the interviewers and how this project came to be.

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