By Angela Helm, The Root, June 14, 2019.
What Taraji P. Henson has been able to do with her first Boris L. Henson Foundation benefit and conference last weekend was nothing short of a revelation—and right on time.
The Empire star and Oscar-nominated actress is a native Washingtonian and Howard University graduate. So, it was only fitting that her inaugural foundational event, named for her father, who navigated addiction and mental health issues, be in the city where he lived and worked.
Aptly named, “Can We Talk?” the three-day conference and benefit raised more than money. On Friday, Henson echoed a word many repeated throughout the weekend, as it highlighted mental health and the black community’s “crisis”—especially as it relates to our children.
“Dealing with traumas at home is one of the reasons the suicide rate is rising among our children. I can’t fathom a 5-year-old contemplating life or death. Five? Your shoulders are too small to hold the weight of the world. That bothers me. I get choked up every time I’m at a public forum and I have to say those words,” she said.
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