Understanding how the library works

The Library of Black Wellness defines wellness through a cultural and communal lens. Here, wellness doesn’t refer to trends or wellness as it is currently understood. Instead, the Library focuses on a fuller spectrum of Black life: how we survive, how we grieve, how we heal, how we love, how we care for each other, and how we make joy possible. It includes spiritual continuity, emotional survival, rest, resistance, ancestral practice, and everyday acts of love. We recognize wellness as something inherited and continually shaped by our collective memory and conditions.

To provide an example, an op-ed by a Black physician discussing heart disease rates may not appear in the archive unless it situates that topic within a communal practice. Meanwhile, a piece about traditional Black midwifery absolutely belongs here because that tradition is rooted in ancestral knowledge and resistance.

The library contains novels, poems, essays, academic articles, cultural commentary, spiritual practices, recipes, and community-submitted knowledge. All of these reflect a commitment to remembering how we’ve cared for ourselves and one another.

Not at all. It’s a living library. The goal, at this iteration, isn’t to be exhaustive but to continue growing with intention.

Yes! We welcome submissions via this form. The criteria are relatively straightforward. If it’s a fiction book, an essay, or a poem, it has to be written by a Black person. Academic or news articles, videos, podcasts, etc., must pertain to works created by Black people or be about the intricacies of wellness in Black life. It can be created by whoever as long as the work honors and uplifts Black cultural knowledge. 

It helps to think of potential submissions in this way: Does this work honor the stories, practices, and cultural knowledge that have helped Black people survive, grieve, love, heal, and thrive across generations?

Yes! We just ask that you properly credit us. If you’d like to cite, adapt, or teach with materials from the library, please feel free to do so while acknowledging the original source and the curator. For more extensive use or collaborations, feel free to reach out via our contact form.

Spread the word. Share the library. Contribute a story or resource. Above all, we should continue preserving and practicing the knowledge that has always sustained us.