Sage Sistahs Brunch & Salon: The Generation X Edition
In Summer 2023, Sistahs Aging with Grace & Elegance decided to break out of our solitary Covid safe zones and return to our face-to-face fellowship with our Sistahfriends’ throughout California. These events were wonderful celebrations of joy, fellowship, and renewal.
The Sage Sistahs Summer Reunion Tour kicked off in Los Angeles where we pioneered our first-ever conversation specifically focused on the perspectives of our Gen-X Sage Sistahs (b. 1965-1980). Our Sage Sistahs Brunch & Salon: The Generation X Edition was an opportunity for Gen X Sage Sistahs (like Co-Founder, Carlene Davis) to come together to befriend, encourage, and support to engage in thoughtful conversations on preparing for the next phase of the aging journey.
Did you know that in 2030 Gen Xers will begin to surpass the Baby Boomer population? Or that Gen Xers are expected to be the second largest voting bloc in the 2024 election? Or that GenXers represent 33% of the current workforce and that new CEO positions are increasingly being filled by Gen Xers? Contrary to popular lore, this is not a “slacker” generation.
Early in the launch of Sistahs Aging with Grace & Elegance, we gave a presentation at a legislative hearing on “Aging and the Sandwich Generation” where we spoke to needs and challenges of women (primarily) who are simultaneously responsible for caring after aging parents and raising children of their own. Many Gen Xers are part of this Sandwich dilemma, as was the case for a number of the Sage Sistahs who attended the Sage Sistah Brunch & Salon.
Our GenX Sage Sistahs participated broad range of salon topics from what it means to age successfully as a Black woman, to describing the Emotional Weather Forecast of their aging journeys, to reflected on the strengths and weakness of their own social support networks.
Through it all, there was so much shared: nuggets of wisdom, expressions of concern, laughter, and tears. Most importantly, however, we affirmed one of the core tenets of Sistahs Aging with Grace & Elegance:
“We must return to our ancestral tradition of honoring our aging journeys as a collective rite of passage, and not as an individual test of mettle.”
