Happy Black History Month! Possibility Seeds team has updated our digital care package for Black community members. This list contains self-care resources and art that centres Black joy and wellness. We hope this month is a time of celebration, community connection, and (importantly) rest.
Self-Care Resources
This self-guided healing platform was created to aid survivors in their healing journeys. Survivors can explore their healing through three healing approaches: mind, body and integrative.
We are Spectacular Nebulas in Healing Journal
Written by Dee Marksman-Phillpotts, the We Are Spectacular Nebulas in Healing Journal is designed to help Black survivors think about your thoughts, challenge them, or just put them on the page and let them go. This journal is for Black survivors to rest their weary thoughts, a place to sit and have a chat and a place that is here for you to revisit as many times as you need to.
Choose Your Own Adventure: an Affirmation
From adrienne maree brown.
Reimagining Self-Care for Black Folks
An article from Kelechi Ubozoh outlines some self-care strategies.
We Heal Together: a Colouring Book for Black Survivors
For Black survivors of GBV, TMU's Consent Comes First, and Carlton University's Sexual Assault Support Centre created this colouring book that celebrates Black joy, self-love, healing, and community care.
Angela Davis speaks on Radical Self-Care
An interview at Afropunk 2019.
An article from Dr. Imani J. Walker for The Root.
Podcasts
Deprogramming Grind from Culture
On this For the Wild podcast episode, Tricia Hersey (founder of The Nap Ministry, which advocates for rest as a form of resistance and reparations) talks about deprogramming from grind culture.
A podcast from psychologist Dr. Joy Harden Bradford. “A weekly chat about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.”
Cultivating Pleasure After Sexual Assault is a Healing Comes in Waves podcast episode with sexual health and consent educator samantha bitty. Her goal as a sexual health educator is to replace ideas about sex that originate in patriarchy, misogyny, capitalism, and shame with ideas stemming from abundance, sex positivity, love, and choice.
Music
For Black Love, Living And Joy
A playlist curated by the Okra Project. “This playlist is a soundtrack for you to live your best life, to experience the best love you will ever have, to remember that in the moments where things feel hard, hard times don't last forever.”
A hilarious (and important!) track and music video from local Toronto legend, Shad.
A love songs playlist curated by adrienne-marie brown.
Meditation
From educator, activist, and poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
“Letting the Day Go,” “The In Between,” and “Planting Seeds of Self-Compassion.” From Yamikani Msosa and Stefanie Lomatski.
A meditation track from Tricia Hersey of The Nap Ministry.
Books
The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
All About Love by bell hooks
Journal of Radical Permission: A Daily Guide for Following Your Soul’s Calling by adrienne maree brown and Sonya Renee Taylor