No Handouts for Black Girls

By Toshiba Billings

No Handouts For Black Girls is part cautionary tale, part love letter to Black women that will take the reader through a range of emotions. Fusing personal anecdotes with often hilarious real talk, no bullsh*t advice, this book dismantles the fallacy of the Strong Black Woman and how trying to live up to that narrative has kept us from living our whole truth. Toshiba goes in hard, but the weight of her words is tempered with humour and "say what now?" moments. At its core, it's an outpouring of love to Black women everywhere and feels like a heart-to-heart conversation with your very best friend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Toshiba Billings
• Release date: Mar 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393505815

Toshiba Billings

Part Street. Part Bougie. All parts Badass B*tch. I’m also a… Mother Creator Risk Taker The best friend you never knew you needed Audaciously Authentic…and A whole ass mood Want to know more? Check out my website or email [e-mail]

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Success does not happen in a vacuum. To get to where you want you’ll need a little help along the way. When you receive that help, whether it be large or small, it is important to thank those who gave it.  I am beyond grateful for those who took the time to make this book into what it is. Especially those who read it when it was a 55,000-word manuscript. Lord was I ever long winded in that version.

Thank you Carcia & Telly Campbell, Kareem Griffin, Keshia Gudge, Cheryl J. Moses, Kai Little-White, Jennifer Manning, and McKay Pearson. Each of your feedback was critical to get this book into the homes of the readers.

Thank you to Ericea Buchanan, Tomika Long, Monifa Brooks, and Marcus Norman for adhering to my tight timeline. I owe you big time. 

Kern Carter, thank you for your ear and your advice.

For anyone who had to listen to me go on and on about this book and the contents within it. I see you. I thank you. I love you.

Last but certainly not least. My Ace, the Michelle to my Barack, butter to my bread, saltfish to my ackee, Joanne tell it to me like it is Brathwaite. There are no words to express how appreciative I am of you however I better find some before you cuss me. You have not only made this book better than I envisioned; you’ve made me better for knowing you. Everyone needs a Joanne in their life. Someone to hold them to the fire. Who asks them the questions everyone else is afraid to and then forces them to be truthful in their answers. Not afraid to tell them when their shit stinks, albeit a hell of a lot nicer than I do. I owe you more than I could ever repay. However, one day I hope to at least give you back half as much as you have given me. Now that I got that sappy shit out of the way imma let you get back to churning your butter so you can give the sensitive souls what they need.

For anyone I forgot my bad. I’ll catch you next book.

FOREWORD

By Joanne Brathwaite

__________

In the big little city that is Toronto, I had heard the name Toshiba Billings for about 15 to 20 years before I ever met her.

We were virtually introduced in 2020, through a mutual friend who arranged an e-meet via LinkedIn because, as he put it, we were two dynamic Black women, and he thought we should get to know each other.

With nothing but gender and our Blackness in common—and an up for anything spirit, apparently—we exchanged pleasantries and then arranged to talk further through Zoom.

Our initial conversation was courteous—we were strangers, after all—but I think both of us sensed that there was synergy worth developing further. That first  Zoom call ended with an agreement to speak again, with Toshiba scheduling a regular Tuesday session into her calendar.

Will an hour do? I recall her asking.

Better make it an hour and a half, I advised.

What started out as weekly business-oriented calls soon turned into catch-ups with a favourite girlfriend. I found myself looking forward to our chats, and in no time at all, she had become a close and trusted confidante.

I loved her bold, no-fucks-given personality, and while I was the square-ish straight (wo)man to her unabashed and unapologetic bombshell, it turns out we had a lot of shared experiences and backstories.

Our Pandemic bonding also saw us through countless business ideas and projects, from consultancies and seminars to e-courses and erotica.

It was during one of our many hilariously messy sessions she let drop that she’d written a series of erotic novels. Naturally, as a writer myself, I was instantly intrigued.

However, it was while she was working on some kind of business-themed manual that she mentioned an inkling of No Handouts (unnamed at the time) had come to her, and she asked if I would listen to an excerpt.

As she read what would later become the introduction to the book, my first and only thought was, "holy shit. This bitch wrote a book." Weeks later, after she had finished the first draft, she asked if I would edit her opus.

I happily obliged.

Countless revisions, multiple merciless cuts and literally tens of thousands of scrapped words later, the final manuscript of No Handouts For Black Girls is finally ready for publish, and I’m as excited and relieved as if it were my own.

This book is indeed a love letter to Black women—although not every woman will be receptive to the contents herein. Part tough love, part filth read, and 100 per cent truth, it’s a wake-up call for sistas to stop sleeping on themselves and embrace the badass bitches that lie dormant within us all.

Yes, even you.

I’m a picky reader, and most self-love/self-help type books leave me rolling my eyes. Perhaps this is my bias showing, but No Handouts is a definitely a book I would have picked up for myself. It’s a perfect read—short, punchy and to the point—peppered with the type of real talk that will have you laughing out loud and cussing the author out all at the same time.

But know it all comes a place of love. 

If you’re tired of spinning your wheels in life, love, and beyond, and you’re ready