The Book Clurb Library

What Its About: "Healing Justice Lineages" is a call to embrace community and survivor-led care strategies, rooted in anti-capitalism, Black feminism, and abolition, to address generational trauma and build collective care and safety, pushing beyond the medical-industrial complex.

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Why I Recommend: Healing Justice is (and has always been) the mission of The Well Healing! Our wellness is resistance, our individual and collective care is political warfare (A. Lorde). Read to learn about these concepts and connections! 

What It's About: In Black Disability Politics Sami Schalk explores how issues of disability have been and continue to be central to Black activism from the 1970s to the present. Schalk shows how Black people have long engaged with disability as a political issue deeply tied to race and racism.

 

Why I Recommend: Intersectionality is critical to forming sustainable political strategies in our movement and for cultivating empathy in our person-to-person relationships. Disabled communities offer transformational wisdom that will serve ALL of us on the mission to get free!

What It's About: In these essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world... She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

 

Why I Recommend: The ongoing genocide in Palestine coalesces the struggles of racialized violence, climate change, colonization, capitalism, and more. There have been intentional efforts to desensitize, distract, divide, misinform us, and separate our fate from one another. Let's continue to resist with education and wisdom from freedom fighter, Dr. Angela Davis.

What It's About: In A Burst of Light and Other Essays, poet, activist, and LGBTQ+ icon Audre Lorde presents readers with a powerful call to action, urging us to create a society that values and respects its people, centers justice and equity, and encourages self-care. Her reflections on her battle with cancer and essays emphasizing the radical political intersectionality of identities remain relevant today.

 

Why I Recommend: Audre Lorde is an OG of the intersectional movement spaces! Lorde's concepts of Care and "Wellness Warriors" have directly influenced the work and language of TWH's politicized wellness services. Get to know her!

What It's About: Exploring the history of asylums and psychiatry; the relationship between disability justice, queer liberation and mental health, art and creativity, prisons and abolition, and alternative models of care, Mad World explores the current mental health crisis connection to capitalism, racism and other social issues.

 

Why I Recommend: With "self-care" and "mental health" as mainstream conversations, it's important to critically consider what we believe we know about mental health and how these un/conscious beliefs were constructed (spoiler alert: it's capitalism).

What It's About: In The Spirit of Intimacy, Some distills the ancient teachings and wisdom of her native village to give insight into the nature of intimate relationships. Some generously applies the subtle knowledge from her West African culture to this one. Simply and beautifully, she reveals the role of spirit in every marriage, friendship, relationship, and community.

 

Why I Recommend: "Relational skills are Liberation skills!" Our relationships are colonized. It can be difficult to imagine other ways of being in relationship to the people and world around us. But it exists; it always has. We need each other for our survival and our thriving! Check out this read to explore new-old possibilities of connection and intimacy.

What It's About: Through critiques of nationalism and of imperialism, Fanon provides a psychoanalysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the social, cultural, and political implications of decolonization.

 

Why I Recommend: Even though this was written in 1961, it remains terrifyingly relevant to the current political landscape we are collectively navigating. If you are truly interested in imagining the process of radical change, this read is for you.

What It's About: Eastern Body, Western Mind explores the connection between the chakra system of Eastern philosophy and the psychology of the Western world. It offers a comprehensive guide to understanding and balancing the body's energy centers for optimal emotional and physical health.

 

Why I Recommend: If you appreciate traditional healing and modern wellness - this book was made you in mind. Eastern Body, Western Mind offers a refreshing connection between psychology and the wisdom of the Indian chakra system. Truthfully, much of Western mental health interventions are actually rooted in (or appropriated from) indigenous practices. Check this out to learn more on how to integrate the two worlds.

What It's About: This autobiographical book by Assata Shakur was written in Cuba where she lived after being granted political asylum in 1984. Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials.

 

Why I Recommend: Rest in power to Assata Shakur. This revolutionary freedom fighter recently transitioned in Cuba after 41 years in political asylum. Shakur's life and legacy embodies the commitment, courage, and sacrifices required in the fight for liberation.