This episode of “Out & About with Antionette” is my interview with Nyemade Boiwu.
Nyemade Boiwu is an award-winning writer, speaker, and digital content strategist who is passionate about using her talent for communication to encourage people to see things from the perspective of others. Nyemade uses her Instagram Lives, YouTube series and podcasts to raise awareness about important issues and to entertain others.
She currently has a fellowship with the National Alliance on Mental Illness Delaware as their Diversity and Equity Fellow. In addition to being passionate about the topic of Mental Health, Nyemade has a business where he helps provide anti-racism and other training for businesses and organizations.
She also volunteers with I am My Sister’s Keeper to help young girls and teens build their self confidence. She’s a Social Media Ambassador for the ACLU-DE, the Social Media Director of The Academy for Peace, and a member of MWULYP.
“I am My Sister’s Keeper” is a program for young girls that she is really proud of as it provides a safe space for young ladies to connect and talk about their issues and concerns because it’s tough being young, especially in today’s world with suicide rates that are increasing.
Nyemade Boiwu
Nyemade started the Delaware Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness as she is really trying to do as much as she can to a create a safe space for people to go and share. On the last Thursday of the month, members come together to talk about different topics. She tries to always have a therapist with them as well as someone with lived experience about whatever the topic is and the sessions are uploaded to their YouTube page to be viewed by those who couldn’t make the session.
She is also working on creating more mental health informational series and programs because sometimes the reasons people aren’t getting help is due to the lack of resources and she is working hard to change that.
Nyemade is really a much more private person than people realize, but has found that when it comes to mental health she likes to speak up and others have appreciated her open candidness. She has truly been blessed with the talent of being able to speak to people as well as listening by giving others a platform that is safe for them to use their voice, which is why she loves doing interviews.
The pandemic was very tough on Nyemade for a myriad of reasons including an injury and her anxiety attacks caused a phobia which made it difficult for her to leave the house. However, when she opened up about it others shared their stories as well and it made them all feel better.
She has found that when given an opportunity to open up and be honest with others, the feedback is positive and healthy for both women and men. For men, when given the safe space they really want to talk because they deal with mental health and mental illness but don’t want to seem weak. We live in a society that says things like: “buck up…suck it up and just get back to work” But for men that are doing that and much more which includes providing for their family, the stress really weighs on them and they feel the impact of mental health struggles just as much as women do.
She also wants people to also know that it’s okay to be happy! We don’t always have to live that struggling life, it’s okay to be doing things that make life feel good and we shouldn’t feel guilty when we don’t have the same struggle as others do.
She wants to let people know that it’s okay, to find ways to just be happy and find joy.
“If you make the decision to find your own happiness, and then trust that the right people will be part of that tribe for you…go for it.”
Please listen to the entire podcast episode to learn more about Nyemade and NAMI and if you or someone you know needs support or a experiencing a crisis, please text 741-741 or call 988
To learn more, please head over to the website https://www.namidelaware.org/ or send an email to Nyemade @ [email protected]
