Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

"The calabash is a domesticated plant that depends on us for its survival, like wheat or almonds. Its closest wild relatives grow in Africa. When people domesticated the gourd, they bred a rugged, light-weight shell that could hold up for years. Archaeologists have found pieces of calabash dating back 11,000 in East Asia. In the New World, people were using calabashes at least 10,000 years ago. For over ten thousand years, people have used the calabash (known also as the bottle gourd and formally as Lagenaria siceraria) in all sorts of ways. They’ve eaten it as food. They’ve used it as fishing floats, as pontoons for river rafts, as goblets, as pipe stems. And around the world, people make music with it. Scientists have long been impressed by the triumph of the calabash. Among domesticated species, only the dog has spread further. But the global journey of the calabash was actually two great trips, one taken by humans over land and another taken by plants, over the sea."  National Geographic

How is it that a plant that is so ancient with origins in Africa and Asia still persist in modernity? How can it be both a musical instrument and bowl...a water vessel and medicine? It persist because it is not just one thing and it has been cultivated to adapt to the needs of the user. The artist, the fisherman and the medicine woman all know that the calabash is more than a hollowed out shell. It is evidence of the beauty, power and healing in the mundane should you open your eyes wide enough to see what's in front of you. Dr. Sunyatta Amen, the owner and operator of Calabash Tea and Tonics knows that our plant world holds the same power and as a trained 5th generation herbalist, she is committed to cultivating healing through ancient African and Caribbean technologies. She is a quintessential market woman shapeshifter who has learned from the adaptability of the calabash gourd of Africa how to adapt, taking the shape necessary to heal her people and community with beauty, resilience and practicality---just like her ancestors. 

Dr. Amen is the founder and Tea-EO of Calabash Tea & Tonic in Washington D.C. Amen is a Cuban/Jamaican 5th generation master herbalist, naturopathic doctor, and vegan chef. She grew up vegan, the daughter of activists (her mother was a Black Panther) that owned a health food shop, Pyramid Tea & Herbal, in New York City. This was the prototype for Calabash Tea & Tonic and where she learned the medicinal value of global teas, foods, and spices. Later, she would study biology and other sciences, combining her ancestral and western knowledge that she now uses to help heal city dwellers. Calabash’s extensive tea menu is the result of Amen’s schooling and the time-tested formulas belonging to her Jamaican grandmother. In this episode, she shares with us her journey as a healer, business owner and community activist. 

To learn more about Dr. Amen and Calabash Tea & Tonics, check out their website: www.calabashtea.com. When you purchase an item from their online market place using the "BGG2SM" code, proceeds from the sale will be donated back to support the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause! 

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