Join us in celebrating Black History Month! This year’s national theme — Black Health & Wellness — prompted us to look beyond our efforts to highlight inclusive wellness offerings and shift our attention to Black Futures and Black Imagination. We invite you to engage in a variety of offerings balancing acknowledgment of the past with thinking towards the future.

DO

• Follow/Utilize: @BlackSpeakersCollection’s database of Black thought leaders across a vast selection of categories.  (Click here for database and here to follow on LinkedIn)

DOWNLOAD

• Learn more about Health Equity — what it is and why it matters. Using this interactive tool, explore how much your zip code determines your lifelong health.

• Listen: Season 2 of Being Seen Podcast — The barbershop. Representation in Hollywood. Masculinity, through the eyes of the trans masculine community. Finding spaces where we can inhabit shared visions of freedom. The second season of Being Seen, hosted by award-winning author and advocate Darnell Moore, features conversations with award-winning guests including Steven Canals, Colman Domingo, Keiynan Lonsdale, Shangela, Kalen Allen, and more.

• Read: Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures —  “Witnessing is sacred work too. Seeing ourselves as whole and healthy is an act of pure rebellion in a world so titillated by our constant subjugation,” reflects viral curator Natasha Marin, on Black Imagination. This dynamic collection of Black voices works like an incantation of origin, healing, and imagination. Born from a series of conceptual art exhibitions, the perspectives gathered here are nowhere near monochromatic.

• Read: artist Tourmaline reflect on the power of imagining open futures for transgender people through the power of “freedom dreaming.

• Read: Zeba Blay’s Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture

• Watch: Masterclass Series – Black History, Black Freedom, and Black Love – Check out this three part series available for free on Masterclass and Prime Video this month.

DONATE

• Support the Family of Lauren Smith-Fields as they prepare to conduct a private investigation into her tragic death.

• Support Mental Health Access:

  • BEAM Collective [Black Emotional & Mental Health] is an organization dedicated to healing, wellness and libration of Black and marginalized communities. They maintain the Black Virtual Wellness Directory.

  • The Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund provides financial assistance to Black women and girls seeking therapy nationally, to help break some of the barriers affecting access to treatment.