Photo courtesy BBB Wellness
Shanice and Sean Hemphill
Shanice and Sean Hemphill
The realities of residential segregation in the Milwaukee metropolitan region impact more than where people can live. Segregation in the city and its surrounding suburbs is carried out along both racial and class lines, with those living in affluent white communities having access to a host of resources and services that can’t be found in poorer communities of color. This inequality of access manifests itself in many ways, but it is most pronounced when it comes to facilities that address the physical and mental health of many who call Milwaukee home.
It is this issue of community health improvement that Shanice and Sean Hemphill plan to tackle head-on with BBG Wellness (1111 W. Mitchell Street), which will celebrate its Grand Opening Week October 1-4, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. Many health care providers have come to use the word “wellness” to describe the fact that both physical and mental health matter to our overall well-being. Such an approach does away with any sort of silos between these categories and argues for a more holistic definition of health. These ideas are embodied in the spaces of BBG Wellness. There will be rooms for weights and cardio equipment, but also places for yoga, reiki energy healing, and somatic breathwork.
Black, Brown, Indigenous
BBG Wellness grand opening banner
Yet what is more important is who the Hemphills hope patronize BBG Wellness. The decision to root their new space in a predominantly Latino neighborhood was intentional. As Sean explains, “When we talked about our vision, we wanted to look at the physical and mental health of Black and Brown and Indigenous people. To give them the opportunities to have access to the same health care of their Caucasian peers.” For Shanice, communities of color need to be exposed to “the same holistic practices” of wellness that are easily found in communities like Shorewood or Wauwatosa.
To increase accessibility, those interested in the programs offered at BBG Wellness, according to Shanice, “can just come on in and ask questions.” Information on site offerings will also be made available online, at bodybygodwellness.com. Price can also be a barrier to such wellness programming, so the Hemphills are offering a monthly membership to the weight and cardio rooms for $25. Yoga and fitness boot camp classes will be offered for $15 a session. And programming will also specifically address those that BBG Wellness wants to get through their doors. The facility, for example, will soon start to host a monthly “Breath Work for Black Women” workshop series.
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For the Hemphills, there is strength in merging their approaches to wellness—and this strength will help them reach more of those individuals often left out of the wellness narrative. “We wanted to combine our practices,” notes Sean, “because we know that physical, mental, and emotional health is part of wholeness.” The Hemphills understand that segregation has made it hard for many individuals and neighborhoods alike to feel whole – and to feel healthy. “So we thought about,” concludes Sean, “where we could be centrally located to a point where we can meet the particular demographic we want to serve.” A commitment to wellness, in other words, starts in one community at a time.
