{"id":1990,"date":"2026-03-03T23:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/our-kind-of-women-bessie-akuba-winn-terri-j-vaughn\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:48:07","slug":"our-kind-of-women-bessie-akuba-winn-terri-j-vaughn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/03\/our-kind-of-women-bessie-akuba-winn-terri-j-vaughn\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our Kind Of Women\u2019 Bessie Akuba Winn & Terri J. Vaughn Redefine Black Womanhood After 40 With Moving Multi-Platform Project [Exclusive]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are interviews that feel like coverage. Then there are conversations that feel like confirmation.<\/p>\n

Having a conversation with Bessie Akuba Winn<\/a> and Terri J. Vaughn<\/a>, discussing their upcoming project, felt like the latter.<\/p>\n

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Photographer\/Creative Director\u00a0Bessie\u00a0Akuba, Actress Terri Vaughn\/ Source: Bessie Akuba\/ @ourkindofwomen \/ @Bessieakuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s called \u201cOur Kind of Women,\u201d<\/a> a love letter defined as a multi-platform visual storytelling project documenting Black women over 40 in what Bessie calls their era of becoming. Through photography, audio reflections, and intentional questioning, the project captures women not as relics of legacy but as living, evolving history.<\/p>\n

For Bessie, the timing was not accidental.<\/p>\n

\u201cSociety Was Making Them Seem Invisible\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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What was the catalyst?<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, it was several things,\u201d Bessie said. \u201cAs I was approaching 40 about five years ago, I started seeing that Black women that I was witnessing evolve, my mentors, my peers, Black women that I\u2019ve just been admiring from afar, I noticed that they were blooming and evolving in ways, but society was making them seem like they would be invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Instead of accepting that narrative, she decided to counter it with art.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo I wanted to use art to capture them in a not a non performative way, but in the way that I could capture their essence, tell their stories, hold their stories, and document their evolution after 40.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The project was three years in the making before cameras even lifted. Bessie began photographing women last January now she\u2019s at over100.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Media Personality Rashan Ali\/ Source: Bessie Akuba \/ @ourkindofwomen \/ @Bessieakuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is not a trend piece. It is an archive.<\/p>\n

The Shoot That Changes You<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Terri admitted she initially said yes out of instinct.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBeing a huge advocate for us, meaning Black women, and all of our essence, everything that we\u2019re about\u2026 photographs of women 40 and over, celebrating who they are. That\u2019s a yes for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But the real understanding came during the shoot.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\u201cI didn\u2019t really understand the project until I actually went in for my session,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce I experienced the shoot with Bessie and her intention behind it, her love of us, it was so matched how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The experience is carefully curated but not staged. When women arrive, Bessie invites them to choose from handwritten questions that function more like journal prompts than interview cues.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe question in itself is the most important thing, not the answer,\u201d Bessie explained. \u201cBecause the answer will change. The question will linger with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Terri described the vulnerability that followed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou open up, and you become super vulnerable,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel safe, and I get emotional and all the things. When we\u2019re seen like that, and we\u2019re acknowledged like that, and we\u2019re honored and just really embraced like that, it lets us let all our guards down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Our
Journalist Dawn Montgomery\/ Source: Bessie Akuba \/ @ourkindofwomen \/ @Bessieakuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After capturing authentic movement and expression, Bessie shifts to a posed image.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThen we go on to doing a few posed images for their hero shot, which every woman needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Every woman needs a hero shot.<\/p>\n

Let that sit.<\/p>\n

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Redefining \u201cPrime\u201d and Unlearning Boxes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The cultural narrative that women peak early is one Bessie intentionally disrupts. In industries from entertainment to broadcast news, ageism remains a quiet barrier.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Source: Artist Joi Gilliam \/Bessie Akuba \/ @ourkindofwomen \/ @Bessieakuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Terri refuses to subscribe to it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI really wanted to unlearn all the things that I was taught,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no way to be a wife except for the way that you are a wife. There is no way to be a mother or a grandmother, except for the way it is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She cited women who modeled expansive living.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen I think of somebody like Diana Ross\u2026 that\u2019s not the typical image of a mother, but she was her kind of mother.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That distinction matters. Her kind.<\/p>\n

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For Bessie, the idea of becoming <\/em>has evolved alongside the project. After moving back to Atlanta, navigating divorce, and raising two children, becoming initially meant rebuilding. Now it means something broader.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have learned about 92 of those ways to become through every single woman that I\u2019ve met,\u201d she said. \u201cBecoming is spiritual evolution. Becoming is community. Becoming is defining what sisterhood is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She paused.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt has been a divine assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A Love Letter to Be Seen<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When I asked what she hopes women walk away with, Bessie did not hesitate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat she\u2019s seen,\u201d she said. \u201cThat her life is not just a performance, and that she is seen by other women.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then she named it plainly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a love letter. This is an ode to Black womanhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Terri\u2019s answer was just as direct.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI felt powerful. I felt like a bad a**. That\u2019s what I want: every woman to watch and see all of this and experience like they are the s***\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She laughed, but she meant it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCan you imagine if we all walked around this earth knowing we are the s***? We\u2019re not in competition. We\u2019re not in\u2026 we are just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a climate where Black History and Women\u2019s History is debated, minimized, or erased, \u201cOur Kind of Women\u201d stands as visual proof. Photos cannot be argued away. They cannot be rewritten.<\/p>\n

They simply bear witness.<\/p>\n