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Taraji P. Henson has come up with a creative way to honor her late father as well as address the issue of mental illness in the Black community—particularly with Black men.
“I talked to him and I could feel him smiling down with the sun — it was beautiful,” Henson, the Oscar-nominated actress and Empire star, told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was like a scene from a movie.”
The event was called inaugural Boutique of Hope fundraiser to support Henson’s newly launched Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, named for her father.
Henson and executive director Tracie Jade Jenkins were hoping to raise at least $30,000 from the popup boutique to help support the foundation’s first initiative, a partnership with Cierra Lynn’s “Art Affirmations” to bring art to inner city school bathrooms that will serve to combat issues like depression, bullying and suicide.
“I wish people knew that its OK to talk about mental illness, especially in the African-American community and especially men,” Henson told THR. “They are told to be strong and tough it out and told that you’re weak if you have issues. We’re all human.
“We’re all in this thing called life together, and it is tough,” she added. “We’re not afraid to talk about having a root canal or there’s no shame in having a thyroid issue or even cancer. Why can’t we talk about mental health in the same way?”
Cancer claimed Boris Henson’s life in 2006 and his daughter revealed he was a Vietnam veteran who dealt with his own mental health struggles while she was growing up.
“He was something else,” she said. “I wish he was still around because they don’t make ‘em like him anymore. He never put a cap on my talent and never put a cap on where he saw me going in life and in my career.
She added: “He would probably say, ‘This is just the beginning. You have so much more to accomplish.’ I miss him. I miss him.”