ABOUT CARRY SHARE OWE
An intergenerational exchange project exploring what Black generations carry, share, and owe each other.
CarryShareOwe begins with a simple idea: Black elders and young adults have more to share with each other than they tend to create space for.
THE PROJECT
CarryShareOwe aims to create honest, ongoing exchange between elders and young adults in our community, in person and virtually.
Elders carry hard-won lessons, unexpected joys, and stories at risk of disappearing without meaningful engagement. Young adults carry hard-earned insight from navigating a world changing faster than any generation before them has had to keep up with - insight rarely offered back to elders.
Both sides bring something to the table. Both are waiting to be asked.
Our Charge
WHY NOW
This kind of exchange feels more urgent than ever
We're living through a time of screen-driven disconnection, the rollback of the hard-fought progress our elders fought for and thought was secured, a level of societal vitriol many hoped never to see again, and the quiet slipping away of what once felt like a reachable American dream. Some of what we're facing is genuinely new. Some of it is emblematic of the saying, “there’s nothing new under the sun.”
The time to ask and to listen isn't guaranteed, on either side.
An 8-minute survey and a growing set of conversation prompts are just the start. What's coming is bigger: real gatherings, ongoing conversation, community built across generations.
We'd love for you to be part of it from the start.
This is just the beginning.
About the Founder
Meet Tonya Bell.
Hi, I'm Tonya. I'm a communications professional, prolific journaler, and arts-and-culture lover based in New York City. I'm also a textbook Libra, always looking for balance and wanting everyone at the table to feel seen and heard. Turns out that's a good foundation for building bridges between generations — something I've been pulled toward for decades and am excited to explore here.
CarryShareOwe is a project I've carried quietly for quite some time. The seeds were planted by television and radio programs exploring living archives through storytelling and family history, but it was truly ignited by a series of losses in my own family — the conversations cut short, the questions never asked, the quiet assumption that there'd always be time.
Those losses made me want to capture what Black elders carry before it's too late. They also made me realize how rarely the young adults in our community are asked what they carry, or are given the chance to offer the other side of the "hard-won wisdom" coin. This project is my answer to both: a space where elders are asked before it's too late, and young adults are invited in to share their perspective too.
In loving memory of Lena Mae