Tamekia Flowers-Holland: Hip-Hop 4 Life!

If you were the founder/CEO of your own company and the founder/executive director of a non-profit organization who would you be?  Well, Tamekia Flowers-Holland of course!  That’s right. This SistaGirl is pulling double duty and major responsibility at two entities of her own creation.  How does she do it?  She absolutely loves what she does.  So much so that she doesn’t even consider it work!

First there is Epiphany Blue, of which she is founder/CEO, came about back in 2003 under the name Remedy Marketing.  The company she was working for at that time folded and since she had already been doing some consulting work she decided to foster her own entrepreneurial spirit.  She however, decided to dissolve the company in 2005.  But in 2006 Ms. Flowers-Holland came back on the scene with Epiphany Blue – a special events and talent relations firm.  She has worked with companies like Burrell Communications Group, McDonalds, DMG management, Bet networks, and Verizon just to name a few.

Of her non-profit, Hip Hop 4 Life, she says “[It] is my purpose for being on this planet.  It’s my baby.”  Also founded in 2003, it offers young people ages 12 – 18 training on life skills combined with the education of important health-related issues against the backdrop of Hip Hop.  Ms. Flowers-Holland says that she wanted to start the organization because she used to volunteer all the time and she noticed that kids weren’t getting life skills and health information.  She wanted to give kids the skills they need to be successful in life as well as provide opportunities for them to venture beyond their neighborhoods and learn new things.  Why did she choose Hip Hop as a catalyst?  Because she thought it would be a great way to not only infuse the culture that we love so much, but also to restore quality to the name and take it to another level.

Through this organization she has worked with many popular entertainers, but she would love to work with Kerri Washington and Hill Harper, who is actually an honorary chairperson but because of his hectic schedule has not been able to do a workshop just yet.  Oh and of course President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama.  But I mean, who wouldn’t.

In the future she sees the expansion of Hip Hop 4 Life into a Hip Hop 4 Life Center in Brooklyn, where she would like to have space for a gym, auditorium, studio, and doctor and dentist offices to provide free healthcare.  She would also like to go international with programs in South Africa and London.

As for herself, Ms. Flowers-Holland just wants “to be given the wisdom strength and guidance to continue to grow and to positively influence as many lives as I can” because that’s how she wants to be remembered – as someone who positively influenced as many lives as she could.

Lastly she says “to all my beautiful, outstanding, dynamic SistaGirlz out there, if you create the opportunity for you be your own boss, think about what you have a passion for cause then it won’t be work.  You wake up excited!  Life is too short to be miserable…Learn everything you can about what you want to do.  Think about the different magazines, newspapers, etc [that give information about your