Abiola Abrams

{{Short description|American author, filmmaker, television personality}}

{{Multiple issues|

}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Abiola Abrams

| image = Abiola Abrams 1.png

| image_size = 240px

| caption = Abiola Abrams in 2013

| birth_name = Abiola Wednesday Abrams

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1976|7|29}}

| birth_place =

| nationality = American

| education = Brearley School
Sarah Lawrence College (BFA)
Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA)

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Author
motivational speaker
media personality

}}

| known for = books, blogging, podcasts

| website = Womanifesting.com

}}

Abiola Abrams (born July 29, 1976) is an American author, podcaster, motivational speaker and spiritual life coach. Abrams has penned three books, including African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy,{{Cite book|last=Abrams|first=Abiola|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1198217780|title=African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy.|publisher=HAY HOUSE INC|year=2021|isbn=978-1401962944|location=Carlsbad, CA|oclc=1198217780}}{{Cite web|last=Abiola|date=2021-03-19|title=Hay House Presents African Goddess Initiation: My New Book Cover Reveal|url=https://womanifesting.com/african-goddess-initiation-book-cover-reveal/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=Womanifest Your Power with Abiola: Spirit, Mindset, Success|language=en-US}} her first book from self-help publisher Hay House, published on July 20, 2021.{{Cite web|title=African Goddess Initiation by Abiola Abrams: 9781401962944 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671881/african-goddess-initiation-by-abiola-abrams/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com|language=en-US}} Her second book, The Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love, won an African American Literary Award for Best Self Help.{{Cite web|title=African American Literary Awards Show|url=https://www.facebook.com/literaryawardshow/posts/698937050182679|website=Facebook}} Black Enterprise included her inspirational podcast in "20 Must-Listen to Black Women Podcasts for 2019"{{Cite web|last=gaynete|date=2019-03-19|title=20 Must-Listen to Black Women Podcasts for 2019|url=https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-women-podcasts-for-2019/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=Black Enterprise|language=en-US}} and in 2020, her podcast was chosen by Success.com{{Cite web|last=STAFF|first=SUCCESS|date=2020-06-09|title=16 Motivational Podcasts by Black Hosts You Need to Listen To|url=https://www.success.com/motivational-podcasts-by-black-hosts-you-need-to-listen-to/|url-status=live|access-date=|website=SUCCESS|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719205644/https://www.success.com/motivational-podcasts-by-black-hosts-you-need-to-listen-to/ |archive-date=July 19, 2020 }} as one of "16 Motivational Podcasts by Black Hosts You Need to Listen To." Essence Magazine{{Cite web|last=Butler|first=Sana|date=July 2, 2019|title=Black Girl-Approved and Operated Wellness Escapes For Your Next Vacation|url=https://www.essence.com/feature/wellness-retreats-vacations-for-black-women-reviews/|url-status=live|access-date=|website=Essence|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702141928/https://www.essence.com/feature/wellness-retreats-vacations-for-black-women-reviews/ |archive-date=July 2, 2019 }} included Abrams' annual Goddess Retreat in their roundup of "Black Girl-Approved and Operated Wellness Escapes." Abrams' website, Womanifesting.com,{{Cite web|last=Abrams|first=Abiola|date=2018-02-14|title=Womanifesting|url=https://womanifesting.com/|url-status=live|access-date=|website=Womanifest Your Power with Abiola: Spirit, Mindset, Success|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209083228/http://womanifesting.com/ |archive-date=February 9, 2011 }} discusses spirituality, personal growth, and entrepreneurship.

Her previous advice columns include Intimacy Intervention on Essence.comEssence.com [http://www.essence.com/2013/07/29/intimacy-intervention-i-need-more-confidence-between-sheets/ Intimacy-Intervention] and Abiola's Love Class on MommyNoire.com.MommyNoire.com [http://mommynoire.com/tag/abiola-abrams/ Abiola's Love Class]

Early life and education

She is a first generation Guyanese-American who was raised in New York City. Abrams attended the Brearley School. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Vermont College of the Union Institute and University.{{cite book |title=Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. International Membership Directory |year=2004 |pages=2}}

Abrams was a featured speaker at NYC Women's Empowerment Summit.{{cite web|last=|first=|date=July 25, 2011|title=NYC Women's Empowerment Summit Electrifies the Big Apple|url=https://famenycmagazine.com/tag/alycia-kaback/|url-status=live|website=F.A.M.E. NYC Magazine|publisher=|accessdate=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809080339/http://famenycmagazine.com:80/tag/alycia-kaback/ |archive-date=August 9, 2012 }}

Career

Black Enterprise magazine named her site one of the top African American lifestyle blogs.Black Enterprise [http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/black-blogger-month-abiola-tv/ Black-Blogger] Her first writing project, Goddess City, an empowerment play produced at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,New York Public Library [http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/sc/sce/1998.htm/ NYPL] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524041410/http://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/sc/sce/1998.htm/ |date=May 24, 2012 }} was published in the anthology Say Word! by the University of Michigan Press.University of Michigan Press [http://www.press.umich.edu/322638/say_word! Say Word!]

Dare,{{Cite book|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dare/Abiola-Abrams/9781416541660|title=Dare|date=2007-12-11|isbn=978-1-4165-7737-9|language=en|last1=Abrams|first1=Abiola|publisher=Simon and Schuster }} Abrams' first novel, was published by Simon & Schuster on December 11, 2007.{{cite web|url=http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Abiola-Abrams/42382996/biography |publisher=Simon & Schuster |title=Abiola Abrams Biography |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716073349/http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Abiola-Abrams/42382996/biography |archivedate=July 16, 2011 }}

Her poem "Groceries" appears in the playwright/activist Eve Ensler's 2007 anthology A Memory, A Monologue a Rant and A Prayer{{Cite book|last=Ensler|first=Eve|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46702/a-memory-a-monologue-a-rant-and-a-prayer-by-edited-by-eve-ensler-and-mollie-doyle/|title=A memory, a monologue, a rant, and a prayer|others=Mollie Doyle|year=2007|isbn=978-0-345-49791-8|edition=|location=New York|oclc=}} alongside work by such writers as Maya Angelou, Edward Albee, Alice Walker and Edwidge Danticat. Essays by Abrams are featured in the anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door (2008),{{Cite book|last=Derrow|first=Paula|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/39721/behind-the-bedroom-door-by-paula-derrow-editor/|title=Behind the Bedroom Door: Getting it, Giving it, Loving it, Missing it|publisher=Delacorte Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-440-33824-6|location=New York|oclc=}} edited by Paula Derrow, and Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex (2008),{{Cite book|last=Sussman|first=Ellen|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/dirty-words-9781596914742/|title=Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex|publisher=Bloomsbury USA|year=2008|isbn=978-1-59691-474-2|edition=|location=New York|oclc=191697286}} edited by Ellen Sussman.

In the New York Times Style Magazine,{{Cite news|last=Schilling|first=Mary Kaye|date=2017-01-30|title=Miranda July Shares Her Vintage Feminist Film Archive|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/t-magazine/miranda-july-joanie-4-jackie-film.html|access-date=|issn=0362-4331}} filmmaker Miranda July referred to Abrams' evolution from experimental feminist art filmmaker as "just one of many inspiring paths that briefly intersected with the video Chainletter that can't be broken." Abrams' short experimental art film "Ophelia's Opera" included in Miranda July's Joanie 4 Jackie Chainletter film series{{Cite web|date=2003|title=Ophelia's Opera – Joanie 4 Jackie|url=http://www.joanie4jackie.com/video/ophelias-opera/|url-status=live|access-date=|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217070233/http://www.joanie4jackie.com/video/ophelias-opera/ |archive-date=December 17, 2020 }} was acquired in 2017 by the Criterion Channel and the Getty Museum Research Institute.{{Cite web|title=Joanie 4 Jackie|url=https://www.criterionchannel.com/joanie-4-jackie|access-date=2021-05-06|website=The Criterion Channel|language=en}}

=Television and film=

File:Abiola Abrams 2.JPG in Manhattan hosting a web TV show.]]

Abrams was a BBC entertainment correspondent from 2011 to 2012 and a former host of The Best Shorts, Black Entertainment Television's (BET) indie film showcase and competition from 2006 to 2008.{{cite web|title=Abiola Abrams|url=http://www.abiolatv.com/media-kit-lifestyle-expert-tv-personality-love-columnist-speaker-inspirational-coach/|website=AbiolaAbrams.com|accessdate=November 25, 2015|archive-date=February 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207061655/http://www.abiolatv.com/media-kit-lifestyle-expert-tv-personality-love-columnist-speaker-inspirational-coach/|url-status=dead}} She has hosted or co-hosted such shows as the syndicated The Source: All Access, Source magazine's hip hop show, and Chat Zone, an HBO interstitial talk show billed as "politically incorrect" for the MTV set, and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a part of his red carpet interview coverage of the 2007 BET Awards in Los Angeles.

Abrams directed the documentaries Taboo: The Controversy of Black/White 'Race Mixing' in America (2005), Knives in My Throat: The Year I Survived While My Mind Tried to Kill Me (2005); and short films Stranded (2004), Ophelia's Opera (2001).{{Cite web|title=Abiola Abrams|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009153/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=IMDb}}{{cite web|title=Abiola Abrams|url=https://www.co-creatornetwork.com/guests/Abrams_Abiola/_bio.htm|website=Co-Creator Network|date=2009}}{{cite web|last1=Sutton|first1=Wayne|title=#28DaysofDiversity: People of color impacting the social web. Day 21 Abiola Abrams @AbiolaTV|url=https://socialwayne.com/2010/02/21/28days-abiolaabrams/|website=socialwayne.com |date=February 21, 2010}}{{cite web|title=CineWomen On Screen - A NYWIFT series|url=http://nywift.org/printarticle.aspx?id=2151|website=New York Women in Film and Television|date=March 1, 2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101009161202/http://nywift.org/printarticle.aspx?id=2151|archivedate=October 9, 2010}}{{cite web|last1=Knight|first1=Magda|title=Abiola Abrams|url=https://www.mookychick.co.uk/reviews/arts/abiola_abrams.php|website=Mookychick|date=3 September 2014}}

Works

African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy (2021)
African Goddess Rising Oracle Cards (2021){{Cite web|title=African Goddess Rising Oracle by Abiola Abrams: 9781401963101 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676137/african-goddess-rising-oracle-by-abiola-abrams/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com|language=en-US}}{{Cite book|last=Abrams|first=Abiola|title=African Goddess Rising Oracle|publisher=Hay House|year=2021|isbn=9781401963101|location=Calsbad, CA}}
Enter the Goddess Temple (2021){{Cite web|title=Goddess Temple Podcast - Motivation, Inspiration, Spirituality - Divine Feminine Goddess Gifts of the Spring Equinox|url=https://www.hipcast.com/podcast/H267S2B9|access-date=2021-05-06|website=www.hipcast.com}}
Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love (2014){{Cite book|last=Abrams|first=Abiola|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/884459838|title=The Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love : The 11 Forbidden Secrets of Feminine Power|publisher=Love University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-9660707-8-1|edition=|location=New York, NY|oclc=884459838}}
Dare: A Love Story (2008)
Goddess City (2011){{Cite book|url=https://www.press.umich.edu/322638/say_word!|title=Say Word!|isbn=978-0-472-07132-6|language=en|last1=Banks|first1=Daniel|year=2011|publisher=University of Michigan Press }}{{Cite book|title=Goddess City|url=https://www.press.umich.edu/special/hiphop/goddess_city|url-status=live|access-date=|website=University of Michigan Press|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031234808/http://www.press.umich.edu/special/hiphop/goddess_city |archive-date=October 31, 2015 }}