Black women in Pittsburgh are making a mark in the wellness community. Their unwavering commitment and innovative approaches are breaking down barriers and fostering a sense of inclusivity and belonging in a realm often perceived as inaccessible to people of color.
The five Black women in this story are a brief snapshot of the women cultivating wellness and healing communities throughout the region. There are many others as well.
Tayler Clemm, The DAWA MAMA
Tayler Clemm, 30, known as The DAWA MAMA, focuses on womb wellness. She began her practice eight years ago after taking an African history class that ignited her passion for ancestral wellness, which parlayed into learning about plants.
“The plant journey was it for me, I was really alive then,” she said of her transition from working at a credit union to pursuing purpose on a farm.
Then, being pregnant sparked her learning and focus on maternal health, leading to three home births.
“All three were beautiful pregnancies, birth and after-birth experiences,” Clemm said.
She became a doula, but stepped away from that because she wanted to leave the institutionalized systems. She realized her passion for educating people on safe birthing experiences and teaching maternal nutrition classes to empower women.
“I realized that we don’t know about our wombs … we’re not listening to our bodies,” she said.
Launching a virtual wellness community, Clemm empowers women to honor their wombs and address injustices such as birth control prevalence and painful menstrual cycles.
Clemm reflected on the recent death of Jessica Pettway, a 36-year-old beauty influencer whose stage 3 cervical cancer was misdiagnosed as fibroids. “It’s tough being in these spaces where we are not listened to,” Clemm said.
Clemm is optimistic about women reclaiming their wellness. “That’s what I am surrounded by,” she said.
To begin womb wellness practices, Clemm recommends daily womb affirmations, hot teas, sweet potatoes, avocadoes and more. Throughout the spring and summer, Clemm will be facilitating a training on maternal nutrition training for those who are advocates for mothers and babies, funded by Healthy Start.
Upcoming Local Events
Jacquelin Walker, FeteFete BK
Jacquelin Walker, a yoga facilitator and attorney, grew up in Garfield. Though she practiced yoga off and on, it wasn’t until her early 20s that she fully embraced her practice. Throughout her life, a village of women in her family and community provided her with tools like faith, laughter, prayer and meditation to confidently define well-being.
“The power I found in writing prayers down, stillness and mindful nutrition and health habits helped guide me,” she said.
Her yoga practice evolved while she attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and began taking yoga classes with Felicia Savage Friedman at the Kingsley Center.
“It was a really awesome yoga program,” Walker said. After moving to New York in 2012, she continued her practice but felt the yoga community was not the same as the one she found in Pittsburgh.
In 2018, she returned to Pittsburgh and resumed yoga classes at the Kingsley Center, where she learned about the next round of yoga teacher training. She participated in Yoga Roots On Location, an anti-racist and trauma-informed yoga teacher training.
“Black bodies experience so much violence, and Yoga Roots on Location gives us the opportunity to interrogate that,” Walker said.
After her first weekend of training, she began teaching and sharing her practice, something she was at first unsure about.
“It’s important to celebrate Black women who are sharing their gifts,” she said. “When we share what these practices have done for us, it gives people the space to recognize and identify how they have been poured into otherwise. We live in a society that implies these wellness spaces are not for us. Our healing is always for us, and only you can heal you.”
She stressed the importance of self-care and community care in the Black community and the significance of taking healing seriously.
“Yoga is an embodiment practice that helped me better understand how to practice faith,” Walker said.
As a Christian, she said she sees yoga as a spiritual practice that complements her faith, connecting āsana postures as a sequence of prayer.
“We have what we need inside us,” Walker said. “The key is to find ways and folks to help reveal those things inside of you. My practice deepens and gets stronger when it’s done in community.”
Featured Local Businesses
Practice with Walker at Yoga motif and Portals to Power, for family yoga at the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre and at Emerald City for the midday RESET every second Wednesday. Walker also does private sessions, including gardening yoga and building an at home yoga practice. She can be reached at fetefetebk@gmail.com.
Nikia Smith, Beauty Mart 412
Two years ago, Nikia Smith was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and three vocal cord cysts. Post-surgery, she was prescribed numerous medications that worsened her condition.
“They said you should start feeling better within a certain amount of time and I actually was feeling worse than before I had my surgery to remove the thyroid,” Smith said. “That is when I began looking into a natural approach of healing, different teas that I would start drinking to help with my throat.”
Later in her wellness journey, she began looking into the practice of yoni steams — vaginal steaming, which cleanses the vagina and uterus. Steaming is said to help with mensuration cramps and other uncomfortable symptoms. Some believe it promotes fertility — the practice dates back to ancient Greek practice known as fumigation.
She began going to 412 Yoni and became a certified yoni practitioner. Her business, Beauty Mart 412, addresses health concerns with a natural focus, including yoni steams.
“It made me understand that there are a lot of things that I can do in a natural, non-invasive way that I can get myself back,” Smith said.
Smith decided to only continue taking the absolutely necessary medication.
“I started taking vitamins, monitoring my vitamin B and D and calcium, eating clean and drinking at least one gallon of water,” Smith said.
Smith talks with her clients at Beauty Mart 412 regarding their health goals.
“I continue to do this work because I have been through several conditions throughout my life: I had to have a fallopian tube removed, endometriosis and fibroids. I have had family members and people close to me that they were using traditional medicines, and those were producing negative side effects,” Smith said. “I want people to know there is another way.”
The store is located at 551 Long Road in Penn Hills.
Upcoming Local Events
Rhea Calhoun-Bey, Sovereign Systems LLC
Rhea Calhoun-Bey, 29, also entered the wellness space because of health challenges. As an educator in wealth, wellness and sustainability strategies, Calhoun-Bey thinks back to childhood and frequent illnesses and doctor visits — she was on consistent antibiotics without a diagnosis.
“I didn’t really know how bad antibiotics were just destroying your gut flora,” she said.
Struggling with side effects from birth control and asthma medication, Calhoun-Bey decided to stop all medications.
“These meds are making me sick,” she said.
Discovering gluten intolerance through personal research and a conversation with her mom, she eliminated gluten from her diet and began to feel better. She became focused on being plant-based and making her own tinctures.
Calhoun-Bey’s business, Sovereign Systems, LLC, is based on Instagram. There, she provides plant-based recipes and educational content and offers tinctures and infused oils. She can be messaged through the app for orders.
Prior to Sovereign Systems, Calhoun-Bey taught in Pittsburgh Public Schools, where shenoticed issues with the nutritional value of school lunches and their impact on student behavior.
“I started paying attention to their patterns … they have these insanely sugar-filled foods for breakfast — donuts, sugary milk cartons with 40 grams of sugar in one carton. It was like clockwork, I could actually match their behaviors up to their eating schedule,” Calhoun-Bey said.
Despite raising concerns to the administration, she said little action was taken. “Everybody should have access to good, healthy food in a public school,” she said.
The dismissal of her concerns drove her passion for addressing food inequities, especially in Black communities. Calhoun-Bey advocates for holistic wellness practices like Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel — we just need education, application and community around this knowledge,” she said.
To connect with Calhoun-Bey, call 412-880-1126 or email sovereignsystems@pm.me.
Featured Local Businesses
Monae Findley, Plants for Skin LLC
Monae Findley, 26, founder and owner of Plants for Skin, was influenced by the traditions passed down from her grandmother in Jamaica. Those traditions stuck with her because of how well they worked for her family. Being from an island that emphasizes plant-based and organic remedies fueled Findley’s passion.
“Organic ingredients are so powerful,” Findley said. She launched her business online in 2020 and opened a storefront in Lawrenceville in 2023.
“Organic medicine dates back prehistorically … there are more organic and herbalist ways to properly care for your skin,” Findley said.
“As someone who has had flare-ups from different chemicals … if I can’t pronounce the name of the ingredients in a product, I’ve tried my best to stay away from it,” she said.
Findley recommends turmeric and aloe vera gel for their ability to lighten dark spots and reduce inflammation.
She acknowledges the historical lack of prioritization of Black women’s health.
“That was one of the main reasons why I created a safe space … for both Black men and Black women to learn how to holistically take care of their skin,” she said.
Community support is what drives her.
“The mission is not just about me, it’s about the community at large,” she said. “This is really needed in the community right now.”
Plants for Skin is located at 5310 Butler St. in Lawrenceville.
Shaylah Brown is a TribLive reporter covering art, culture and communities of color. A New Jersey native, she joined the Trib in 2023. When she's not working, Shaylah dives into the worlds of art, wellness and the latest romance novels. She can be reached at sbrown@triblive.com.