Dear friends,
I’m thrilled to welcome you to the first edition of the Library of Black Wellness Newsletter, an extension of the living archive dedicated to creative works that have shaped, preserved, and expanded Black wellness across generations. Each monthly issue will spotlight new additions to the library, highlight my favorite finds, and feature one monthly long read, typically a book, that I believe belongs at the heart of our conversations on Black wellness. Along the way, I’ll share insights, reflections, and stories about why these works matter and how they continue to guide us.
📚 New Additions
Liberating Abortion
Co-authored by Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahone, this book delves into the lives of hidden historical figures and examines the complex interplay between race, class, and reproductive rights. Sherman, also known as “The Beyonce of Abortion Storytelling,” has once again humanized an issue that is so often not.
Womanly Magazine Issue No. 4: Black Maternal Health
This issue of Womanly comprehensively explores Black maternal health through personal narratives, expert interviews, and educational articles. It also shares powerful birth stories and reflections on motherhood through really beautiful photo essays.
Meet Johanna: Pilates Instructor and Wellness Diversity Advocate
This article profiles Johanna Thompson, a Pilates instructor who advocates for diversity in the wellness space. She focuses on making wellness more inclusive, particularly for women of color, and is working on eradicating elitism from Pilates—which is very much needed.
✨ My Fave Finds
Women In The Life, Breast Cancer Memoirs By Lesbians Of Color, April 1999
As I worked to source the Library, I encountered Women in the Life magazine during one of my archive dives. This edition, uplifting the stories of women navigating breast cancer, brought me to tears. Their stories of what it meant to love and care for themselves and each other during a difficult diagnosis and healing process were moving. Our storytelling has so much power, especially when we share it broadly.
‘We live in both worlds’: how teachers of Gullah Geechee herbal medicine are cultivating tradition
I really did enjoy this one. The fact that this piece was published in such depth showcases that herbal medicine is being taken somewhat seriously as a legitimate wellness practice after being stigmatized historically. At its crux, the article focuses on how a new generation actively works to preserve this ancestral knowledge, recognizing it as a form of self-reliance.
🌿 This Month’s Long Read
Beloved being the first book recommendation likely isn’t shocking if you know me personally. Whenever I explain the Library to people, I typically point them here because the book provides the foundation for reading dense texts about complicated topics such as healing from unthinkable traumas and “rough” choices made out of love.
Beloved is a profound exploration of life after enslavement, and what it means to be haunted by the consequences of a vicious, inhumane institution. Parts of it are difficult to read, but I encourage you to keep going.
The story centers on Sethe, who, 18 years after her escape, lives in Ohio with her daughter Denver, isolated and tormented by the ghost of the eldest child she killed instead of allowing to grow up enslaved. The malevolent spirit, which they call Beloved, eventually manifests as a mysterious young woman who appears on their doorstep. Her arrival forces Sethe to confront the devastating choices she made and work to heal from her memories. Morrison does not hold back here. As she said in an interview once, she “goes there” and asks us to come along with her as her characters work through things many of us cannot imagine.
Thank you for being here at the very beginning. I can’t wait to continue this work with you all.
With care,
Julia