Season of Orisii: The Burney Girls

Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the ⁠Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause⁠ podcast: the Season of Orisii.

Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individuals and as Orisii. We, as people capable of menstruation, understand that each experience is unique and impacts both ourselves and the connections we have with our loved ones.

For our final interview for this Season of Orisii, our producer and BGG2SM Creative Director, Mariah M., interviews our Lead Menopause Cartographer and Founder of BGG2SM, known to us as Omisade but known by their sister, Georgette, and close family as Wilhelmina aka Billie. Together, they are affectionately known as “The Burney Girls”.

Two fiery daughters were born to a Cancer mother and a Scorpio father who has passed away. They were raised by a Cancer stepfather who adopted them when he married their mother. They spent their time growing up between North Carolina and Maryland, and they spent summers in New York.

Now, both mothers of boys and grandmother (Georgette) of boys, we discuss motherhood and auntieship and the tenderness of Scorpio Season. Autumn invites us to slow down and embrace letting go. Scorpio is the sign of transformation, death, and rebirth, and this season holds a special place for The Burney Girls as November holds both their mother’s day of ascension as well as their father’s birthday, now passed. Within this mourning of what was, a new relationship and way of connection to their parents was birthed. Wilhelmina and Georgette, each named after their late father, have used their grief as a path to deeper connection as sisters in adulthood.

Produced by Mariah M., Managing Editor of Hippolyta’s Journal by BGG2SM | hippolytasjournal.substack.com

Interview conducted by Mariah M.

Mixed by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio

Theme by Taj Cullen Scott

Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM

Season 6 of the BGG2SM podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Co.

More about the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com