Inaugural Black Women’s Conference, promoting healing, awareness, empowerment, to be held in October in Chicago

Courageous Access, a Black woman-led nonprofit organization, will host its first all-day conference, starting at 6 a.m. on Oct. 10, at the Q Center in Chicago, Illinois.

The Courageous Access Black Women’s Conference (CABWC) is the first iteration of Courageous Access’s efforts to bring Black women from across the country together and encourage collective healing, connection and understanding among one another. The organization is rooted in aiding women who have experienced domestic violence, as well as their children and families. The conference will serve not only to aid women in these situations but also to allow all Black women to find support together. Courageous Fire, founder of Courageous Access and emcee, explains the idea behind the conference.

“Black women always have to be ‘on’,” Fire said. “At this conference, during these 24 hours, don’t be on. Be whatever. Just be,” Fire said.

The speaker lineup of healers includes: Courageous Fire, Lauren Collins, Claudine Cheatem, Orisha Bowers and Zakiya Jenkins.

Throughout the conference, attendees can engage in holistic healing events, including activities such as meditation, writing and painting. All of these will be held in a single shared room where everyone can listen to and absorb the words of the speaker lineup, composed of Black women healers and practitioners. One of the main focuses is Black women’s health and how it is often undermined or diminished. The conference intends to shed light on this issue by encouraging physical therapy, breathwork and creative reflection as ways of helping women within themselves.

“The thing I have come to understand in doing this work is that the trauma, the stress and the crisis that we continue to live under as Black women, domestic violence or not, is absolutely tied to our poor health outcomes,” Fire said.

She continued. “If we are putting Black women in culturally healing and safe spaces, then we are giving them the opportunity to take that information so they can implement it in their lives.”

The participating speakers show that arts and culture serve as a way of healing deep wounds. Sanaa, event coordinator, says that as an artist, she has seen firsthand how much of an impact art can make.

“There’s a lot of creativity that goes into healing, and I feel like that’s what art is. A part of creativity,” Sanaa said.

The conference is expected to have approximately 150 attendees, who will receive tickets that include a one-night hotel stay on Oct. 9, so they can be prepared for the event the next day. Breakfast and lunch are also included. The conference offers the Standard Pass ($500) and the Executive Pass ($575). Scholarships are available to attendees who need financial assistance, funded by the event’s sponsors. To apply, click here. #CABWC2026