“Confronting chronic emotional pain in Black life is the terrain of political resistance we must now explore, the new revolutionary frontier” –bell hooks
This week on the podcast, we celebrate National Mental Health Awareness Week by discussing the role of healing and mentalhealth in parenting. In this episode we discuss our participation and learnings from BEAM’s Black Mental Health and Healing Justice training this summer and through storytelling explore the role of healing in Parenting for Liberation. When emotions rise during the interview, we lean into courageous conversations about hyper-vigilance and fear, we resist shame, and practice breathing together. Much gratitude for authentic vulnerability. We conclude the call with a practice from the BEAM training—collective mantra—that we co-created about the capacity for Black folks to heal:
I have a right to my feelings and emotions
Black people have a right to heal
We have a right to exist and must be
Our families deserve freedom to play, to laugh, and to love
We can and we must love and support one another
Healing is essential to Black liberation
Let’s get free y’all!
To learn more about BEAM and their Black Mental Health trainings visit: www.beam.community/hjtraining/
To learn more about National Mental Health Awareness Week visit: https://www.nami.org/