A selection of titles by and for Black women to celebrate Black Women's Wellness Day.
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Also check out the book lists African American Fiction and African American History & Culture; with Memoirs, Essays, and More.
Health and Self Care
Prioritize your wellbeing with these 150 self-care exercises designed specifically to help Black women revitalize their outlook on life, improve their mental health, eliminate stress, and self-advocate.
A groundbreaking exploration of how to harness concepts from group therapy and the safety (and joy) of sisterhood to heal yourself and your relationships, from the licensed clinical psychologist who founded the award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls.
A pioneering physician reveals how childhood stress leads to lifelong health problems and what we can do to break the cycle. For anyone who has faced a difficult childhood, or who cares about the millions of children who do, the innovative and acclaimed health interventions outlined in this book will represent vitally important hope for change.
This book offers spiritual, emotional, and practical guidance to women of African descent as they embrace and celebrate their natural hair journeys. The mother-daughter writing trio addresses topics like hair loss, growth, styles, tools, and maintenance, along with scriptural and literary affirmations.
A thoughtful, inclusive, and vividly illustrated guide to help Black people-and all people of color-heal from racial trauma using vital tools from an expert in mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork.
Pursue a plant-based diet without sacrificing the dishes you love with these healthy, vegan comfort food recipes that are as delicious as they are nutrient dense. A passion project for long-time vegan and popular food blogger Emani Corcran, this recipe book pays homage to her favorite family dishes and her experiences growing up immersed in Black food culture. Ebook
Running saved Alison Desir's life. At rock bottom and searching for meaning and structure, Desir started marathon training, finding that it vastly improved both her physical and mental health. Yet as she became involved in the community and learned its history, she realized that the sport was largely built with white people in mind. Running While Black draws on Desir's experience as an endurance athlete, activist, and mental health advocate to explore why the seemingly simple, human act of long distance running for exercise and health has never been truly open to Black people. Ebook
In this insightful, funny, and whip-smart book, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields fat Black women are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life.
Black women often feel intense pressure to be strong and to do it all for others. But at what cost? In this empowering guide, Black psychologist and registered nurse Cheryl Woods Giscombe introduces the innovative, research-based superwoman schema (SWS) framework--five core beliefs that drive Black women's stress--and provides self-care practices grounded in mindfulness and self-compassion to help readers find balance and live a life of joy and greater well-being.
As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now, more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with each other, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice. Ebook
An exciting, genre-redefining narrative mix of memoir, inspiration, and specific exercises and prompts, with timely messages about social and racial justice and how the world needs to move beyond body positivity to something even more exciting and revolutionary-body liberation.
A practical guide to aging and health for women who have felt ignored or marginalized by the medical profession, from a leading OB/GYN and expert on menopausal and post-reproductive health.
With the relatability and warmth you want from your doctor, Black Women's Wellness addresses what most other physician-authored books omit: the unique challenges Black women face, including microaggressions and the less-than-desirable statistics and legacy of health-care outcomes. With comparative data for Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women, this book provides clear, actionable information so women can live vibrant, healthy lives today.
In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. eBook, Downloadable audio
A tragedy is unfolding all around us and is receiving well overdue attention. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white peers. But Dr. Monique Rainford is working to better understand these disparities and do something about them.
A renowned doula shares powerful lessons on healing and thriving through the murky seasons of life in this moving, intimate guide to deeper self-awareness and radical joy.
Jessamyn Stanley, a yogi who breaks all the stereotypes, has built a life as an internationally recognized yoga teacher and award-winning Instagram star by combining a deep understanding for yoga with a willingness to share her personal struggles in a way that touches everyone who comes to know her. Now she brings her body-positive, emotionally uplifting approach to yoga in a book that will help every reader discover the power of yoga and how to weave it seamlessly into his or her life. Ebook
This pioneering bestseller has become a rallying cry for a movement of radical self-love--the second edition shows readers how to grow the movement from self to systems and includes empowering stories from Sonya Renee Taylor's travels around the world. Downloadable audio
This first-of-its-kind herbal guide takes you through the origins of herbal practices rooted in African American tradition--from Ancient Egypt and the African tropics to the Caribbean and the United States. Inside you'll find the stories of herbal healers like Emma Dupree and Henrietta Jeffries, who made modern American herbalism what it is today. You'll also find a comprehensive herbal guide to the most commonly used herbs--such as aloe, lavender, sage, sassafras, and more--alongside gorgeous botanical illustrations.
An unapologetic exploration of the Black mental health crisis--and a comprehensive road map to getting the care you deserve in an unequal system.
Eating disorder specialist and storyteller Jessica Wilson challenges us to rethink what having a "good" body means in contemporary society. By centering the bodies of Black women in her cultural discussions of body image, food, health, and wellness, Wilson argues that we can interrogate white supremacy's hold on us and reimagine the ways we think about, discuss, and tend to our bodies.
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience. Featuring contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more. eBook, Downloadable audio
At Home & At Work
A Washington Post culture writer chronicles the challenges she faces as a Black mother in a mostly white mommy group in a time of gentrification, racial reckoning, and a global pandemic.
In 1920, as art and writing flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois published The Brownies' Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun-the first periodical for African American youth, collecting original art, stories, letters, and activities to celebrate their identities and inspire their imaginations and ambitions. Building upon Du Bois's mission, esteemed professor and scholar Karida Brown and celebrated artist Charly Palmer reimagine the groundbreaking publication with The New Brownies Book, gathering the work of more than 60 contemporary Black artists and writers, including Ntozake Shange, Frank X. Walker, Danny Simmons, and Alice Faye Duncan. Created by and for Black families today, this anthology is filled with inspiring essays, poems, photographs, paintings, and short stories reflecting on the joy and depth of the Black experience.
Poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it. Ebook, downloadable audiobook
A visual celebration of natural Black hair that highlights the powerful connection between mothers and their children during their wash day rituals.
An indispensable guide to building a startup and breaking down the barriers for diverse entrepreneurs from the visionary venture capitalist and pioneering entrepreneur Kathryn Finney.
A powerful, visually stunning celebration of Black homeownership, featuring inspiring homes and family histories of notable Black Americans-including chef Alexander Smalls and actor Danielle Brooks.
A collection of lyrical essays about the way joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma, in the author’s life.
An unflinching reckoning with the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives.
Told through first-person narratives, essays, and poems, this uplifting collection celebrates the many ways that outdoor spaces offer Black people opportunities for personal empowerment, connection, and rejuvenation.
A warm, wise, and urgent guide to parenting in uncertain times, from a longtime reporter on race, reproductive health, and politics.
A must-have anthology of the leading Black women and femmes shaping today's food and hospitality landscape--from farm to table and beyond--chronicling their passions and motivations, lessons learned and hard-won wisdom, personal recipes, and more.
Forget the aesthetics of mainstream minimalism and discover a life of authenticity and intention with this practical guide to living with less...your way.
An incisive, intersectional essay anthology that celebrates and examines romance and romantic media through the lens of Black readers, writers, and cultural commentators, edited by Book Riot columnist and librarian Jessica Pryde.
A professor of English literature presents a memoir of family, identity, and acceptance that examines the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a black, queer, and feminist perspective.
The popular host of the Money Moves podcast and youngest person ever to trade on the New York Stock Exchange provides winning tips for women to help them shift their financial mindset, become confident about their money, set them on a path to financial security, and live their best lives.
Only a fraction of what is known about Madison's earliest African American settlers and the vibrant and cohesive communities they formed has been preserved in traditional sources. The rest is contained in the hearts and minds of their descendants. Seeing a pressing need to preserve these experiences, lifelong Madison resident Muriel Simms collected the stories of twenty-five African Americans whose families arrived, survived, and thrived here in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While some struggled to find work, housing, and acceptance, they describe a supportive and enterprising community that formed churches, businesses, and social clubs--and frequently came together in the face of adversity and conflict. A brief history of African American settlement in Madison begins the book to set the stage for the oral histories.
A collection of essays and stories documenting the lived theology and spirituality we need to hear in order to lean into a more freeing, loving, and liberating faith-from the hosts of the beloved Truth's Table podcast.
Stories and inspiration from contemporary Black women and nonbinary writers in nature and science.
From gender adviser to the UN Catherine Joy White comes This Thread of Gold, a lyrical celebration of the history of Black women who challenged stereotypes through film, politics, activism, and beyond.
Drawing on first-hand clinical insight and scientific research, Dr. Wilborn offers much-needed advice on how women of color can be high-performing and successful professionally, without sacrificing their physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
Beautiful, empowering, and exhilarating, Melanin Base Camp is a celebration of underrepresented BIPOC adventurers that will challenge you to rethink your perceptions of what an outdoorsy individual looks like and inspire you to begin your own adventure.