For many women leaving the criminal justice system is a difficult transition, the journey to rebuilding their lives is full of obstacles; unstable housing, limited job opportunities, and adjusting to the world with a criminal record. Many reentry programs help women with their challenges, but Women Healing & Empowering Women (WHEW, *an exhale
of breath*) does more than that. This arts-based healing program in Houston, TX, works to understand the deeper reasons why women end up in jail. By helping them heal inside and out, WHEW gives women the support they need to rebuild their lives.
On the organizations website CEO Busi Peters-Maughan states “When you educate a man you educate an individual, when you educate a wombyn, you educate a NATION. First they Wombyen heal the Wombyen, then the Wombyen, Heal the MEN.” Reentry is a term that’s used for people who are formerly incarcerated and reentering society. Peters-Maughan spoke with AFRAM News to share insight into WHEW’s mission, the challenges women face after incarceration, and how the organization is helping them rebuild their lives through healing and empowerment. According to the organization’s
website, WHEW’s mission is “USING the ARTS as a HEALING TOOL to address interconnected challenges women face such as former incar- ceration, homelessness, and domestic violence, starting local going global. WHEW’s vision is to be an organiza- tion committed to empowering wom- en globally through economic, edu- cational, environmental, and cultural programs that work to end prison recidivism, homelessness, gender and ethnic biases, inter-generational poverty, the lack of access to adequate, and sufficient education.”
Peters-Maughan is from the “boogie down” Bronx, New York. Born just four days after Malcom X’s assas- sination, she recalled growing up in a pivotal time which ultimately led her to starting WHEW. “I grew up in a family of community that instilled values and urgency that wanted to give back to know that we don’t walk on the streets by ourselves, that we repre- sent our families, our communities.” She wanted to attend a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and moved to Houston, TX to enroll at Texas Southern University (TSU). At TSU she joined the All-African People Revolutionary Party, (a social political party). Over her lifetime she has traveled to 37 countries and states. “All the while, the main reason for me traveling was wanting to see where is it that our people are being treated with some form of love and respect,” she said.
Peters-Maughan began teaching in 1991 and has taught in many African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan. It was in her venture of starting an import, export business where she learned about mass incarceration. “I started an import export business, and I was looking for a way to bridge a gap between Africans in the continent and the diaspora and by way of empowerment of women. When I came back in the country in 2000, after teaching, I learned that there was over a million people incarcerated that our women had been outpacing our men in prison, And that there are very few programs in terms of reentry” she said. Molestation, rape, and incest is the root of why a lot of women are in prison. According to National PREA Resource Center, 86 percent of women in jail are sexual- violence survivors. The website states “86 percent of women who have spent time in jail report that they had been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives.”
While teaching in Kenya, Peters- Vaughn met a now longtime friend Lisandra Ramos who introduced her to Living Stage which was based in Washington D.C., Living Stage was an interactive space that helped people navigate challenges like substance abuse, HIV, and a host of other things. At Living Space, they used the arts as a way of helping and healing people. “Experiencing that space was a huge part of why I knew I wanted to use the arts,” she said. Peters-Vaughn was also inspired to listen to her “guru”, “Your guru is your inner voice. And it’s your God voice. It’s your goddess God voice. Spirit talks to me,” she said. “It was my inner voice guiding me. My God voice that was guiding me throughout this journey of my life and as well as how everything evolves in terms of the work that I was doing with the organization.”
Peters-Vaughn knew from the beginning that she did not want a typical reentry program and focused on being intentional on inner heal- ing. “Spirit told me to not go about doing a reentry program the way a lot of organizations do, which is basically putting a band aid on a gunshot wound…they don’t get to the root of the issues,” she said. In terms of WHEW she is excited about eradicating sexual abuse on a global level through Be A Ripple Movement. “Be A Ripple Movement ‘BEAH’ is in honor of an ancestor named Beah Richards. She wrote a poem in 1951, title, A Black woman Speaks of white womanhood, white Supremacy and peace,” she said. “We are creating spaces for women of all ethnicities to come together and see the way that we have been pitted against each other.
