For Dreamers, Thinkers and Achievers
By Cheryl Mattox Berry This Mother’s Day my daughter, Jasmine, flipped the script and surprised me by saying how proud she was of me for fulfilling my dream – writing “Memphis Blues,” my first novel. For the last 27 years, I’ve been her biggest cheerleader for everything she’s done – from her championship tennis days […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry Whenever there’s too much publicity about a movie, I question whether it will live up to the hype. Nor am I a fan of Marvel superhero movies, but I went to see “Black Panther” because I like Chadwick Boseman, who plays the Black Panther and King T’Challa. I must say that […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry Now That’s a Smart Mom I’d like to commend the Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., mother who turned in her 14-year-old son after his photo was aired on TV as a suspect in the carjacking of an elderly woman. It shows that mother had confidence that the police wouldn’t harm her son. I’m […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry The controversy over clothing giant H&M using a black child wearing a hoodie with the words “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” reminded me of an encounter I had with an opthamologist in the 1990s. When I took my 7-year-old daughter to see the eye doctor, he walked into the exam room […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry As the number of sexual assault cases rises on college campuses, it’s incumbent upon us to make sure young women don’t put themselves in a position to be victimized. There are public awareness campaigns about the perils of drinking and doing drugs, but sometimes the target audience overlooks the unwanted sex […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When a woman wants something badly enough, she’ll figure out a way to get it. She’ll plot, negotiate and sacrifice until victory is hers. Ladies, it’s time we took up the mantle of leadership for tougher gun laws. We can’t sit around […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry To people fighting injustice and oppression in the United States and around the world, I heard the perfect song to serve as your anthem when I visited Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis. The song is “Make Them Hear You.” It’s from the Broadway musical “Ragtime,” which tells the story of […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry I feel sorry for people who say they don’t need friends. I can’t imagine my life without them. Friends make life more fun, interesting and bearable. The importance of friendship was driven home recently with two poignant stories in the media. In one story, an elderly woman wrote a letter to […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry I was one of the lucky ones. I snared a one-way plane ticket out of Hurricane Irma’s path and headed to my mama’s house in Memphis. After 25 years in Miami, I couldn’t live through another hurricane. Hurricane Andrew was bad enough in 1992. I remember huddling in bed with my […]
Continue ReadingBy Cheryl Mattox Berry A man opens his home to strangers with two young children. Volunteers rescue a family stuck in the attic as floodwaters swirl a few feet below. Good Samaritans pluck drivers from flooded cars. These acts of kindness by ordinary people in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey don’t surprise me. During the […]
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