Madison’s own Sabrina “Heymiss Progress” Madison is one of Essence Magazine’s ‘Woke 100 Women’ and is highlighted in their special May edition, which hits newsstands this Friday. For the second year in a row, Essence is honoring the women across the United States who “are proven change agents, shape-shifters and power players across the nation and beyond.”
“I am beyond estatic. To have Essence Magazine include me in a list like this … I am in tears right now,” Madison tells Madison365. “To include me and the 99 other women in their work, that is very empowering for us. And it’s not just empowering for us women, individually, but it’s empowering for our families and everybody we are working for.”
The women on this list represent a vast spectrum of excellence: From #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke to Black Panther costume designer Ruth Carter; from corporate women shattering glass ceilings to the countless women dismantling white supremacy.
Essence had this to say about Madison:
She goes by the moniker “Heymiss Progress” and now award-winning entrepreneur Sabrina Madison is putting her name to the test.
During a gathering of the Urban League in Madison, Wisconsin, the entrepreneur and motivational speaker announced the establishment of a new Progress Center for Black Women backed by a 150 thousand-dollar fundraising initiative. The goal of the center will be to construct new professional development opportunities and cooperative spaces for women of color.
Madison, who is also the creator of the annual Black Women’s Leadership Conference, Black Excellence Youth Conference and Black Business expos, believes that bringing each of her organizations under one umbrella will help to expand her efforts to empower Black women and their families.
“I am thankful. I feel empowered. I feel supported … and I feel loved!” Madison says. “I’m sitting here in Madison, Wisconsin reading this on my computer and I feel like I’m in a room with those 99 other women. I feel really good. It’s a blessing.”
