Sybil Wilkes Archives

What You Need To Know: Today is the final day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But for some, breast cancer awareness is every day of the year. Why We Need To Know: Thirty-five years ago today, my mother underwent a mastectomy. And for almost eight years afterward, I lived with the constant fear of the […]

Retired NFL veteran Wade Smith sits down with Sybil Wilkes to discuss his first children’s book Smitty Hits the Play Books which was co-written by Houston sportswriter Jayme Lamm. Smitty Hits the Play Books is based on Smith’s personal experience as a kid growing up playing sports and balancing his education. Watch the full interview […]

The People’s Poet will be the first feature documentary to tell the full story of the incomparable Maya Angelou. The film will include appearances by President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Common, and Guy Johnson (Maya Angelou‘s son). In Sybil Wilkes‘  two part interview with co-directors Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn-Whack, she takes us through the […]

New York sports anchor Brian Custer of SportsNet New York had everything a man could want – a great job, a wife and kids and the respect of his peers. But one thing he wasn’t expecting to have was aggressive prostate cancer. Custer was shocked – he was a healthy man in his 40’s who […]

My cousin Robyn is a beautiful young girl on the verge of womanhood, with a quirky sense of humor, a curious mind and a sweetness that I pray she never loses. Just 14, she’s the spitting image of her mother, my first cousin, Sheryn.  Robyn is loved by everyone in the family–especially her parents and […]

Dr. Annelle B. Primm, Deputy Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) & Director of the APA’s Office of Minority and National Affairs answers your mental health questions. —- What are symptoms/warning signs of PTSD? Some of the symptoms of PTSD include low mood, fear, avoidance, social withdrawal, feelings of numbness, and flashbacks of […]

The annual Congressional Black Caucus weekend is this weekend and that means that there’s a lot going on. Although it’s become Known as one of the biggest Black events on the annual social calendar , there is a serious side to the gathering. Congresswomen Marcia Fudge, who represents Ohio’s 11th district, says that this year […]

No major headline or call to stop the presses.  Excuse my language, but it really does SUCK.  But what sucks even more is to sit idly by and do nothing about cancer. A generation has passed since cancer sucked the life out of my world. January 7, 1993. To borrow from The Temptations: “that day […]

When I was a kid, my parents had a coffee table book, “Great Negroes: Past and Present.”  Day after day, I would pass through the living room, (because there was no living in the living room) and didn’t really pay attention to the books that lived in the living room.  One weekend before I had […]

For days, I have been thinking about the march in Washington D.C. to “reclaim the dream.” I wanted to hear what others in attendance thought, not to take their thoughts as my own, but to let the whole experience wash over me before talking or writing about it. Our 24/7, say-it-fast, say-it-first news cycles don’t […]

Thanks to Tom and “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” I have been blessed to travel the world, meet several U.S. presidents, an African president and a king – and see the best that this world, especially this country, has to offer. Now, the flip side of that is visiting New York City’s Ground Zero one […]

Hi. My name is Sybil. I work, rarely take a sick day, pay my mortgage and other bills on time, tithe, volunteer, vote in most elections, check in with my relatives from time to time, floss daily, remember most birthdays – but apparently, what I don’t do is blog enough. Here’s the thing: I am […]