Our Founder
Your Favorite Survivor’s Favorite Survivor
Tahirah Ogletree is an author, actress, indie-filmmaker, domestic violence survivor, and advocate. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio Tahirah is also a charismatic leader, visionary thinker, and entrepreneur who retired after 13 years of working for one of the largest financial institutions in America to establish her production company in 2012, O’Tahirah Films, LLC. Shortly after producing two short films, “Battered, But Not Broken” and “Phoenix Finest In Blue”, Tahirah was rated as one of America’s top-aspiring African American women by Blow Fashion Magazine.
Known for her ambitious spirit and powerful drive, Tahirah’s mission to extend a heart of compassion and a message of inspiration, courage, and hope to anyone impacted by domestic violence led her to an even more noteworthy venture. In 2014, Tahirah began her journey towards an innovative vision that would take 3 years to develop, igniting the birth of a new brand, O’ TAHIRAH®, awareness campaigns, a clothing line, and ultimately the creation of The O’Tahirah Foundation, Inc a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Corporation. The Foundation’s mission is to revolutionize domestic violence prevention by providing groundbreaking awareness, healing, support, education and, empowerment nationally and within our communities.
But the journey has not stopped with just the Foundation. The bold, innovative O’TAHIRAH ® brand became a public registered trademark in 2016, and Tahirah’s vision brought to life with her Award-Winning coffee table book, SURVIVORS Celebrating Life Beyond Domestic Violence. Tahirah chose a coffee table style book, to help increase conversation, and help raise more awareness on this societal epidemic. This brilliant spellbinding and empowering masterpiece tears away the veil of shame, helplessness, and damaged self-image that is intrinsic to a pattern of continued abuse. The Award-Winning book is an unprecedented tool that will break years of silence, provide HOPE, healing, and education that will help save lives.
A signature program of The O’Tahirah Foundation, Inc is their Survivors Christmas Toy Drive. They partner with community leaders and women shelters to help families, both women and children experience the joys of Christmas, who’ve been impacted by DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. From victim to survivor, through God, faith, and perseverance, Tahirah has conquered each obstacle in her life. She truly believes that the word “NO” is an opportunity for a future “YES.” With a passion for life, ambition to follow her dreams, and a heart of compassion, Tahirah will inspire many others to do the same.
Her Story
Tahirah Ogletree grew up in a single family home, she always dreamed of being married and having a family of her own. By the of age 21, she still had that dream. Despite the warning signs, Tahirah anxiously got married to a man she had only known for six months. She spent the next five years of her life, entangled in an abusive relationship. From the physical abuse of being beaten, choked multiple times, dragged down a flight of concrete stairs, to the psychological abuse of being told to leave her home every six months for five years. Tahirah says, “it has only been through the power of God, my faith, forgiveness, and belief in myself, I lived to tell my story.”
To read her full autobiography, Through The Eyes of a Child & A Survivor’s Celebration of Life Beyond Domestic Violence, A Date That Lives in Infamy.
“A woman’s essence isn’t found in the presence of her beauty, it’s found in her character, her confidence and her ability to forgive and rise above her pain. Wisdom flows from her tongue as she speaks life into existence.”