Day 25 - Rest as an Act of Resistance
“What if our ancestors’ wildest dream was to rest?”
— Christina Gardner (Reference)
At some point today or this week, give yourself permission to rest. And when you rest, know that precisely by resting, you are your ancestors’ wildest dreams. They resisted so that we may rest our bodies in ways they could not.
In a world that constantly demands more of us, taking the time to rest is an act of resistance—it recharges our bodies and minds, enabling us to continue the fight for justice and to sustain our movements over time.
Now, more than ever, we recognize the profound importance of rest in our lives. During the Liberation Table meal, we embrace the time to recline—to lean back, relax, and restore ourselves, knowing that our self-care is an essential part of the work we do for our communities.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Rest. In your journal, reflect on a time you felt rested. What brought you peace?
LEARN MORE
“Juneteenth Reflections: What if our ancestors' wildest dream was to rest?” by Christina Gardener https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/juneteenth-relections-what-our-ancestors-wildest-dream-gardner
7 types of rest that every person needs by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith https://ideas.ted.com/the-7-types-of-rest-that-every-person-needs/
CALLS TO ACTION
COMPLETE the Liberation Calendar Survey.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 24 - Break Silence: #SayHerName
“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect. It means that I must everlastingly seek to cleanse myself of the hatred and the contempt that surrounds and permeates my identity, as a woman, and as a Black human being, in this particular world of ours.”
— June Jordan
A Call for Help, A Fatal Response
On November 14th, 2014, 37-year-old Tanisha was killed by the Cleveland police after her family called for assistance with a mental health crisis. During her time in need, Tanisha wandered outside in the cold–unarmed and barefoot, and wearing only a nightgown. Rather than extending a hand in support, a police officer instead executed a “takedown” move, forcing her face-down on the pavement, and handcuffed her, pinning her under her knee for 21 minutes. She died where she lay, with a police officer’s knee on her back.
The #SayHerName Campaign is Born
Tanisha’s name will never be forgotten. The #SayHerName campaign was born just a month after her death, seeking to bring awareness to the overlooked stories of Black women, girls, and femmes victimized by racist police violence. AAPF’s #SayHerName Mothers Network provides a space for family members to advocate and support one another in their grief. Tanisha’s mother, Cassandra, dedicated the rest of her life to raising her granddaughter and building community amongst the mothers, sisters, aunts and nieces in similar predicaments who make up the Mothers Network. But Mother Cassandra’s physical health deteriorated from ongoing trauma, and she died in September 2021—yet another casualty linked to systemic violence against Black women.
A Snapshot of the Crisis of Mental Health Care for Black Women
Many Black women carry the extra burden of mental illness while trying to navigate life in America’s often hostile sociopolitical climate. A stunning 61% of Black women say they prepare for possible insults or must carefully manage their appearance to enhance the possibility of fair treatment during healthcare visits.
The African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and the #SayHerName Mothers Network applaud the passage of Tanisha’s Law, a long overdue yet important initial response to the extrajudicial murder of Tanisha Anderson. Tanisha’s Law will establish a Community Crisis Response Department in Cleveland City Hall, alongside a new deputy commissioner who will dispatch unarmed crisis responders to the appropriate 911 calls. This law and others like it have the potential to interrupt one site where police violence disproportionately affects Black women: when they are experiencing a mental health crisis. Black women’s deaths at the hands of police often occur in contexts where they should have been safe—during routine traffic stops, wellness checks, or minor legal disputes.
“The decision is not a cure but it is an ounce of prevention that could lead to a cure to the behavior that’s been taking the lives of Black women, girls and femmes.” - Rhanda Dormeus, mother of Korryn Gaines
Extend Tanisha’s Legacy to Shift from Policing to Caring
We thank the local community organizers, Tanisha’s family, and the #SayHerName Mothers Network for providing us with a blueprint to organize against racist and sexist police violence across the country. AAPF celebrates the passage of Tanisha’s Law and will continue to uplift the names of those lost until "support" truly means a hand of help, not a knee on the back. We urge that every city extend Tanisha’s legacy by enacting similar laws.
“It was through hard work and dedication that made this possible. To show up for your family in the face of grief, let alone advocating for this piece of legislation, should not be taken lightly. I am forever grateful to Tanisha's family for ushering in this monumental moment.” - Debra Shirley, mother of Michelle Shirley
“Mental health is real and it’s very important that it is recognized, especially within law enforcement. Let’s make sure Tanisha’s Law is adhered to, not just in Cleveland, but all around the world.” - Shante Needham, sister of Sandra Bland
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Raise Your Voice to Stop State Violence Against Black Women and Girls:
Use this digital tool to send a letter to your state and national representatives: https://bit.ly/RaiseYourVoiceSHNLetter
LEARN MORE
#SayHerName 2025 updates in this graphic: https://bit.ly/EgregiousActs_SHN
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 23 - Write to Your Ancestors
“For I am my mother’s daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.”
— Mary McLeod Bethune
Our connections to our ancestors and each other have the power to heal our wounds, freeing us to experience life in all its beauty and possibility.
Today we remember our ancestors who have struggled, those who perished, and those of us who have thrived despite centuries of enslavement, colonialism, and systemic racism. We will not allow their stories of courage, resistance, and survival to be banned, whitewashed or written out of our children’s textbooks altogether.
Take some time today to give thanks to our ancestors and our elders.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Write a letter or just a few words to express your gratitude and love for your ancestors.
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 22 - Breathe
“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
— bell hooks
The most significant meal for enslaved people during the week was Sunday supper. Before emancipation, Sunday was both a sabbath and a salve. Sunday was a treasured respite—however brief— offering enslaved people more freedom to gather together and break bread. The meal fed weary bodies; communing with loved ones fed the weary soul. Sunday supper was and, for many Black families, still is a time of shared connection and joy.
Our Liberation Table meal is inspired by this beloved Black family tradition. We encourage you to take a moment to envision yourself enjoying a meal with loved ones: Allow your body to relax and sink into your seat as your ears fill with harmonious laughter. Let the warmth of the food fill your heart and your belly. May it open you up to love and connection and foster the transformational conversation, intergenerational healing, and expansive love that Black people so deserve. Our connections to our ancestors and each other have the power to heal our wounds, freeing us to experience life in all its beauty and possibility.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Connect with your breath.
Inhale (1, 2, 3, 4)
Hold (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Exhale (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Repeat.
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 21 - Celebrate Liberation Table Together
“A [person] who calls [their kin] to a feast does not do so to redeem them from starving. They all have food in their own houses. When we gather together in the moonlight village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every [person] can see it in [their] own compound. We come together because it is good for [kin] to do so. Let us find time to come together physically and enjoy the power of togetherness.”
— Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
The most significant meal for enslaved people during the week was Sunday supper. Before emancipation, Sunday was both a sabbath and a salve. Sunday was a treasured respite—however brief— offering enslaved people more freedom to gather together and break bread. The meal fed weary bodies; communing with loved ones fed the weary soul. Sunday supper was and, for many Black families, still is a time of shared connection and joy.
Our Liberation Table meal is inspired by this beloved Black family tradition. We encourage you to take a moment to envision yourself enjoying a meal with loved ones: Allow your body to relax and sink into your seat as your ears fill with harmonious laughter. Let the warmth of the food fill your heart and your belly. May it open you up to love and connection and foster the transformational conversation, intergenerational healing, and expansive love that Black people so deserve. Our connections to our ancestors and each other have the power to heal our wounds, freeing us to experience life in all its beauty and possibility.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Host, Attend, or Plan a Liberation Table!
Download the Liberation Table Guide.
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 20 - Experience the Impossible as Possible
“To foretell the future without studying history is like trying to learn to read without bothering to learn the alphabet.”
— Octavia Butler
In times like these, imagining a liberated future for Black people in this country takes intentional work. Yet it is precisely in this practice—envisioning what may at times seem impossible as possible—that we create new worlds of liberation for our people. Afrofuturism helps us do that. It helps us break out of the supposed "inevitable."
For centuries, Blackness has been treated as alien, as "other." Through Afrofuturism, we remember that we are our own sun, our own source of light and power—envisioning futures that center Black voices, stories, and possibilities. Afrofuturism offers a lens to imagine ourselves beyond the constraints of the present.
However, in order to envision the future, we must look to our past. Octavia Butler understood this deeply. When preparing to write Parable of the Talents, she said: "I needed to think about how a country might slide into fascism–something that America does in Talents. So I reread The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and other books on Nazi Germany… I wanted to understand the lies that people have to tell themselves when they either quietly or joyfully watch their neighbors mined, spirited away, killed. Different versions of this horror have happened again and again in history. It's easy enough to spot this horror when it happens elsewhere in the world or elsewhere in time. But if we are to spot it here at home, to spot it before it can grow and do its worst, we must pay more attention to history."
Earlier this month, we were reminded that the culture war is an actual war. Living through this time now requires the same courage as our ancestors demonstrated—the courage to imagine what seems impossible. Because imagination has kept Black people alive. Many hoped we would perish under the weight of white supremacy, colonialism, and imperialism, yet we dared to dream bigger. Refusing to be destroyed or rendered invisible, we redefined survival. Our very existence defies a social fabric that never intended for us to survive. With no place made for us, we were forced to imagine spaces where we could exist, as people.
Afrofuturism is embedded in each of us—we are still here, thriving, despite attempts to erase us or to keep us tethered to a white man's leash. Through Afrofuturism, we are able to envision a world where Black people can live with joy, dignity, and without fear.
In dreaming beyond limits, we affirm that Black futures are boundless.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Listen to Black music you grew up with or that you love today and consider what it conveys about Black life.
Reflect in your journal: What’s your favorite memory of listening to this song? What do you love about this song?
LEARN MORE
Watch an Afrofuturist movie! Below are a few suggestions:
Black Panther (2018)
Space Is the Place (1974)
Coming to America (1988)
The Wiz (1978)
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
The Blackening (2022)
See You Yesterday (2019)
“Ultimate List of Afrofuturist Movies” https://www.imdb.com/list/ls026388695/
CALLS TO ACTION
COMPLETE the Liberation Calendar Survey.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 19 - Revel in the Music That Raised You
"Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud!"
—James Brown
Music has always been a vital part of Black history, offering a window into the struggles and resilience of Black people. For historians of slavery and Reconstruction, music provides one of the few ways to understand how everyday Black people perceived their social conditions and articulated claims for freedom during times when anti-literacy laws or limited access to education prevented them from writing their stories down.
Whereas Black history is often depicted as a cycle of struggle and degradation, African American music reveals the strategies Black people have used to resist injustice, preserve historical memory, celebrate self-worth, and exert influence over American national identity. Black music has profoundly inspired each era of sociopolitical upheaval and artistic development in American culture.
The music we grew up with and listen to today continues this tradition. Think about the songs, artists, and genres that shape your life. What messages do they carry? How do they connect with the struggles, dreams, and resilience of the past? The music of today plays a powerful role in expressing our current experiences and shaping our future, just as it did for those who came before us.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Listen to Black music you grew up with or that you love today and consider what it conveys about Black life.
Reflect in your journal: What’s your favorite memory of listening to this song? What do you love about this song?
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 18 - Fight for the Freedom to Learn
“I want history to remember me… as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.”
—Shirley Chisholm
Our freedom to learn is under attack. As in times of enslavement, when many of our ancestors were not allowed to read for fear that knowledge would lead to liberation, we are now being silenced for speaking the truth: that Black history is American history, and it cannot and will not be erased. We are being banned from reading books that speak to this reality and to Black experiences. From the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to the President’s House Site to your local library, we must continue to speak out, talk back, and tell the truth, as this is essential to preserving our democracy.
This administration is removing books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and How Racism Takes Place from the Naval Academy library while Mein Kampf remains and requiring the National Park Service to remove an exhibit in Philadelphia that recounts George Washington's history of slave ownership. Over the past year, the Trump administration has accelerated the campaign to erase Black history and Black knowledge from our sites of national memory and learning, including K-12 schools, higher education, national parks, military cemeteries, and, of course, museums.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) was opened in 2016, after decades of bureaucratic struggle and intense curatorial planning. Its mission is to “share the unvarnished truth of African American history and culture” and “to illuminate the contributions, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped our nation.” It was created by a dream team of historians and curators with unparalleled credentials, yet their work was discredited by an executive order drafted by an attorney whose only relevant qualification was having visited the Smithsonian “at least three times.” Undermining the authority of acclaimed Black experts by replacing them with or putting them under the control of individuals who exemplify white mediocrity has been a hallmark of the second Trump administration.
At the state level, these efforts are even more intensified and absurd. In Florida, the state infamous for teaching students the “personal benefits” of enslavement, the history of McCarthyism has been rewritten in their Social Studies Standards as a positive force in U.S. society and civil rights movement organizations have been labeled as suspected communist front organizations. Things are so turned upside down that Black law students at a Florida HBCU were told they “couldn’t use the word ‘Black’ in Black History Month [event flyers]…[they] would have to abbreviate it.” African American Studies programs are being shut down at public universities, while PragerU videos are approved for classroom use in at least 10 states.
Organizing in defense of our freedom to learn the realities of American history, especially as we approach the 250th commemorations, is not just an important symbolic gesture. It is at the heart of the fight for democracy itself. On Monday, in a ruling ordering the National Park Service to restore the exhibits about George Washington as a slaveholder in Philadelphia, a judge appointed by President George W. Bush agreed with this assessment: “Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery, receives a false account of this country’s history.” She stated, “this court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not.”
In this critical moment, we must stand up for civil rights, for the accurate accounting of history, for our books, our voices and our lives.
The Freedom to Learn is the Freedom to Live.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Join the fight for the freedom to learn by adding your name to the Black History Is American History affirmation and follow AAPF’s campaign for ways to get involved this May during the Freedom to Learn National Week of Action.
LEARN MORE
Egregious Erasures of History and Truth: https://bit.ly/EgregiousErasures
PragerU Wants to Capitalize on PBS Defunding - The American Prospect
Erasing the Past: The Trump administration's attacks on history since 2025
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 17 - Make a Way Out of No Way
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
—Ida B. Wells
Civil rights pioneer and journalist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) lived during what some have called “the Nadir,” an era of racial backlash after the end of Reconstruction marked by endemic racial violence. It was a time of devastating setbacks for the cause of racial justice, but it was also a time when critical Black institutions and mutual aid organizations were founded. Despite the times, Ida B. Wells did not turn away from the work at hand. She co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), started her own newspaper, fought for women’s suffrage, and crusaded against lynching.
She put her keen intelligence to analyzing one of the worst problems of her day. At a time when many looked at lynchings individually and locally, Wells understood there was a systematic campaign “to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized.” As her biographer, historian Paula Giddings, put it, “Her genius was to be able to see something and draw new conclusions about it….” Despite the danger to herself and her family, Wells visited sites of recent lynchings and conducted extensive investigations. She toured the U.S. and Britain speaking the truth about the real motivations behind this horrifying racial violence.
Wells’ painstaking work collecting data in communities where lynchings had just occurred convinced other Black leaders of the day and the newly founded NAACP to take up a campaign against lynchings on a national scale. She pioneered techniques of investigative journalism and was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 2020.
At a time when more than 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs and with misogynoir on the rise in public discourse, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on the example of Ida B. Wells and so many others as we remember we have been in times of even worse racial backlash before. We can take courage from her example and bring our knowledge and talents to bear on what seem like intractable problems. What does Ida B. Well’s example call you to do?
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Reflect in your journal: When is a time you made a way out of no way? What work is in front of you that needs doing? What networks of mutual support are needed to help those who are suffering?
LEARN MORE
Watch: Nikole Hannah-Jones Tells the Story of Investigative Journalist Ida B. Wells
CALLS TO ACTION
REGISTER HERE to join us TOMORROW, Wednesday, February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Liberation Table is a tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora—an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a meal with African diasporic roots. Register here.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 16 - Plant Seeds
“Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine in yourself, so that you can hear it in others.”
—Marian Wright Edelman, Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund
Drs. Mamie and Kenneth Clark's Doll Test demonstrated the early internalization of racial inferiority among Black children. The Clarks concluded that prejudice, discrimination, and segregation created feelings of inferiority and damaged self-esteem—harm that persists today. Self-concept is directly correlated with overall success, yet our current educational system does not address this issue. It teaches what MK Asante calls a "white self-esteem curriculum," neglecting to include the contributions of people of African descent or the role the American system of racial oppression played and continues to play in the disparities we see today.
We must provide Black children with spaces outside of school to develop positive racial identities grounded in self-knowledge and self-love. Black Heritage Academy guides young Black people on the path to discovering that like their courageous ancestors, they can be powerful agents and organizers of social change. History shows us the transformative power of young people: Claudette Colvin was just 15 when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, nine months before Rosa Parks.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led largely by young people in their teens and twenties, became one of the most dynamic forces of the Civil Rights Movement, organizing sit-ins, freedom rides, and voter registration drives that fundamentally challenged American racism. These young activists understood that change doesn't wait for adulthood—it requires courage, community, and a deep knowledge of who you are and where you come from.
We are building a community of Black educators, parents, and young people dedicated to ensuring Black children have pride in their histories and themselves. Black Heritage Academy was originally created in New Haven, CT in 2016 by community organizers, educators, teachers, professors, and undergraduate and graduate students. Our hope is that this work will spark Saturday academies and afterschool programs for Black children K-12 throughout the country.
Join us in building this movement together! We need your unique brilliance and skill set. In April, we will host Black Heritage Academy focus groups. Sign up here to receive more information in March.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Sign up HERE to join the Black Heritage Academy community.
LEARN MORE
Inside SNCC: Freedom Schools
https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/culture-education/freedom-schools/
Freedom School Poetry
https://www.crmvet.org/poetry/64_fskool_poems-r.pdf
CALLS TO ACTION
SIGN UP HERE to join us February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Liberation Table is a tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora—an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a meal with African diasporic roots. Register here.
CHECK OUT The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, Tony-nominated, Jon Michael Hill, and Theater and Africana Studies professor, Justin Emeka. Also, check out the Director's Cut from the event.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 15 - Stretch
“Rest is not a reward. Rest is reparations.”
—Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry
Reach up to the stars, where millions of ancestors look down at you and smile. Reach down to the ground, to the feet that helped you survive to stand where you are now.
Stretching is an act of self-care that reminds us we are capable of reaching beyond our current limits. It’s a physical and symbolic practice—a way to release tension, expand our boundaries, and prepare for growth. Each stretch is a small act of restoration and resilience, helping us stay grounded while creating space for what’s next.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Stretch with this 5-minute RAMONI Chair Yoga video.
CALLS TO ACTION
SIGN UP HERE to join us February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Liberation Table is a tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora—an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a meal with African diasporic roots. Register here.
CHECK OUT The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, Tony-nominated, Jon Michael Hill, and Theater and Africana Studies professor, Justin Emeka. Also, check out the Director's Cut from the event.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 14 - Pass the Flame
“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.”
— Maya Angelou
In some African cultures, as in many communities in the African Diaspora, ancestors play an important role. Ancestors are honored and are assumed to guard and guide posterity. During slavery, the enslaved were forbidden from performing such rites and prayers related to their ancestors.
Today we remember our ancestors who have struggled, those who perished, and those of us who have thrived despite centuries of enslavement, colonialism, and systemic racism. Let us remember that our heritage is our light. The wisdom and traditions of our inheritance illuminate our present. Lighting a candle represents the passing of this flame from our ancestors to us.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Light a candle and perform an ancestral prayer. You can use the prayer below:
“My uplifted Ancestors, guides, fierce protectors and skilled healers.
Please stand with us, your children.
Be with us in this moment and guide us
along the road with a cool head and a clear mind. We are root of your root, soil of your soil,
bone of your bone, and blood of your blood. Hearing our sincere cries and our honest placations, keep the gifts of health, wealth, and prosperity close so that we may honor and grow your legacy.
We have not forgotten our commitment to our lineage, and we vow to never forget.
Thank you.”
Reflect in your journal: What's the most important gift your ancestors passed on to you?
CALLS TO ACTION
SIGN UP HERE to join us February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Liberation Table is a tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora—an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a meal with African diasporic roots. Register here.
CHECK OUT The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, Tony-nominated, Jon Michael Hill, and Theater and Africana Studies professor, Justin Emeka. Also, check out the Director's Cut from the event.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 13 - Remember We Are Our Own Sun
“We should not be eternal guests. It is up to us to create our own values, to recognize them and to carry them throughout the world. We are not alone in the world, but we are our own sun. I do not define myself relative to Europe. In the darkest of darkness if the other does not see me, I do see myself. And surely do I shine!"
— Ousmane Sembène
As Black people descended from West and Central Africa and from enslaved Africans brought to the Caribbean and the United States, we have all been subject to the myth of Black inferiority. But Senegalese filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène, reminds us that, in a world that asks us to see the Western and European countries as the center of civilization and desirability, we, in fact, are the sun. We understand our Blackness as a compass gifted to us by our ancestors, guiding us to liberation and expression. It leads us back to ourselves while carrying us into the future.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Reflect in your journal: In what ways have you witnessed the decentering of Black voices, experiences, and ideas—including your own or those of your ancestors? How can you re-center your own experience, your own ideas along with those of our ancestors, thinkers, and artists in your daily practices?
LEARN MORE
Read: Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène: History in the Remaking
Watch: Black Girl (1966) by Ousmane Sembène
CALLS TO ACTION
SIGN UP HERE to join us February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Liberation Table is a tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora—an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a meal with African diasporic roots. Register here.
CHECK OUT The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, Tony-nominated, Jon Michael Hill, and Theater and Africana Studies professor, Justin Emeka. Also, check out the Director's Cut from the event.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 12 - Groove Like No One’s Watching
“I pick the banjo up and they sneer at me,
'Cause I'm black myself…
I don't creep around, I stand proud and free
'Cause I'm black myself
I go anywhere that I wanna go
'Cause I'm black myself
I'm surrounded by many lovin' arms
'
Cause I'm black myself
And I'll stand my ground and smile in your face
'Cause I'm black myself”
— Amethyst Kiah
Few would deny the breadth and depth of Black influence on American music. From Gospel to Blues to Jazz to Rock and Roll, Soul, R&B, and Hip-Hop, Black artists have truly shaped the soundtrack of American life. But there’s a history most people know less about: namely, the critical Black contribution to Country music, often misperceived as a white genre. At a time when the contributions of Black people are being erased from textbooks, historic sites, and museums, it’s imperative that we reclaim this hidden history to demonstrate how deeply multicultural America has always been, even in spaces long believed to be the cultural product of only one group.
In fact, the story of country music begins in West Africa with a gourd-based instrument known as an akonting, which was the musical precursor to the banjo—itself an instrument played pretty much exclusively by Black folks until the middle of the 19th century, long before it became a staple of what came to be called “Hillbilly music.” In the 1920s and ‘30s, Black and white artists performed together on several hillbilly records, which borrowed heavily from the Blues. In short, what we know as country music was a hybrid from the beginning. So why don’t we know the names and stories of the people who inspired some of the best-known stars in country music history?
Because white audiences during Jim Crow couldn’t accept that the music they loved was the product of a multiracial and multicultural society with significant Black roots. The power of white supremacy trumped the willingness of the emerging country music industry to embrace its true origins. Although there have been significant strides in recent years, with Black artists finding greater success in Country than in the past, Black women still fight for attention and airplay, despite the critically acclaimed work of artists like Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, Rhiannon Giddens, and Valerie June.
And, despite the success of Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter,” an album with both traditional and contemporary country elements, many among the country fan base—and within the industry itself—have struggled to accept it as a representation of the genre. Thankfully, with the leadership of folks like those in the Black Opry movement, which promotes the work of Black country artists, the African American roots and branches of this uniquely American musical tree refuse to remain obscured. Black artists are seizing the opportunities provided by new technologies to create, market and distribute their own music to fans without waiting for the approval of industry heads in the country cathedral of Nashville.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Put your boots on the ground and dance! Play a video from a Black artist in Country (or the genre you love best) and join in.
LEARN MORE
Listen as a dynamic group of artists and scholars reclaim this often ignored history in The Sounds of Us: Intersectionality Matters! podcast with guests: Jake Blount (Musician and Historian), Amythyst Kiah (Banjo Player and Historian), Amanda Ewing (Luthier), Tim Wise (Writer and Racial Justice Educator), Denitia Odigie (Musician).
CALLS TO ACTION
SIGN UP HERE to join us February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Liberation Table is a tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora—an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a meal with African diasporic roots. Register here.
CHECK OUT The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, Tony-nominated, Jon Michael Hill, and Theater and Africana Studies professor, Justin Emeka. Also, check out the Director's Cut from the event.
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 11 - Tell Her Story of Resistance
“I've been brash all my life and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble. But at the same time, speaking out has sustained me and given meaning to my life.”
— Hazel Scott
Today, and, if you join us by zoom, tonight, we’re taking up the legacy of McCarthyism and the histories of Black artists it hoped to bury in the 1950s. The tools of erasure and censorship were subpoenas, hearings, and blacklists. Among the casualties were writers, directors, actors, and a wider vision of who we are in on-screen storytelling.
Hazel Scott (1920 - 1981) was a piano prodigy educated at Juilliard and mentored by Billie Holliday. She headlined the famous nightclub Cafe Society when she was only 19 years old. Hollywood came calling, but Scott was soon blackballed after she organized other Black women on one film set to strike for clean, dignified costumes. Undeterred, Scott toured the country, always refusing to perform in front of segregated audiences. In spite of her resistance, Scott became the first Black person to star in a weekly television show in 1950 as a pianist, backed by jazz greats Max Roach and Charles Mingus.
When her name appeared on a published list of communist subversives, Scott believed she could clear her name by voluntarily appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The committee, however, was more concerned with sending a message to enforce the racial status quo than finding the truth about her affiliations. Despite growing viewership, The Hazel Scott Show was canceled, and the studio destroyed the record of it by dumping the kinescopes in the Hudson River. Blacklisted from the entertainment industry, Scott found refuge in Paris, where she and James Baldwin organized a demonstration to coincide with the March on Washington in 1963. But her place in history as a legendary performer and television pioneer was effectively erased.
Today we live in the long shadow of this era with tools of repression surfacing again through hearings, executive orders, and intimidation, along with newer ones layered on top: censorship laws in dozens of states, the polarization of social media, and automated keyword screening that flags and censors content when “unacceptable” terms appear. Some of those terms are “diversity,” “equity,” “intersectionality,” “Black,” and “women.” The new normal, the world we have inherited, is one of censorship by orders and by acquiescence. We all have a role to play in making sure that the stories of Hazel Scott and other Black artists who were blacklisted are not forgotten. The act of remembering is not only one of recovery, but also of resistance.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Tune in for the virtual broadcast TONIGHT at 7 pm ET of The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring a performance by Tony award winner Kara Young as Hazel Scott.
Sign up here: https://bit.ly/UTB_TheStoryOfUs26
LEARN MORE
Read: The power and pain of Hazel Scott's story | American Masters | PBS
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 10 - Wade In the Water
“I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?”
— Phyllis Wheatley
Today, we see ICE terrorizing communities, violently ripping families apart, and uprooting people from the only homes they've ever known. People are being flown across oceans to certain danger and, for some, inhumane incarceration. Murdering behind badges, their policing feeds the fear and falsehood that we are not all precious children of this earth. We have a collective obligation to ensure that the Black and Brown lives taken at the hands of federal agents are not erased. We must remember Keith Porter, Jr. and Silverio Villegas González—both shot and killed by federal agents—alongside the more than 30 people who died last year in ICE custody.
Karla McKanders, director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, notes, "Policy conversations regarding the criminal justice system and the immigration system rarely intersect, which has muddied the understanding of how Black immigrants are disproportionately impacted by both." We cannot discuss citizenship without confronting the context of race and the deep legacy of slavery. McKanders argues that "immigration is essentially about membership and belonging," but the U.S. has long excluded people of African descent from this idea of belonging. The Naturalization Act of 1790 defined citizenship as "free white persons," relegating Black people to the status of property. It wasn't until the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 that Black people were no longer "three-fifths of a person" but instead recognized as full citizens with equal protection under the law.
State violence has always relied on racism to justify who deserves protection and who can be disposable. This is why we must consistently demonstrate how racism is at the core of state violence. We must name racism's role in the ongoing escalation of authoritarianism so that it cannot continue to be weaponized to extinguish lives and undermine our freedom. This is a battle over who is seen as belonging to the nation—who gets to call this place home, no matter what brought them here. The legacy of exclusion and systemic violence continues to divide us.
This is why solidarity is not optional—it is survival. When we refuse to let our neighbors be taken, when we organize across communities to resist these raids, we are not just fighting deportation. We are fighting the very logic that says some lives matter less than others.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Salt represents the tears our ancestors cried, the sweat of their toil, and the ocean that still separates many of us from home. Put a bit of salt on a plate. Then, wet your index finger, place it in the salt, and taste the salt that is on your finger. Take a deep breath and a moment of silence to acknowledge the loss we have all experienced as a result of slavery, colonialism, police brutality, and deportation.
LEARN MORE
The Vulnerability of Black Immigrants
https://prospect.org/2025/12/12/vulnerability-of-black-immigrants/
Rik Freeman’s Personal Touch, local artist’s current exhibit Wade in the Waters at Phillips@THEARC
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/778398/rik-freemans-personal-touch/
A racial purge is headed to Springfield, Ohio last week, as TPS for Haitians ended on Feb. 3 and 1000 feds arrived to deport them on Feb 4. The foundation of this purge is the racist lie from 2024 (they are eating cats and dogs). https://19thnews.org/2026/01/ice-churches-children-springfield-ohio/
CALLS TO ACTION
SIGN UP for the virtual broadcast TOMORROW night at 7 pm ET of The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring a performance by Tony award winner Kara Young as Hazel Scott. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/UTB_TheStoryOfUs26
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 9 - Rediscover a Cultural Artifact
"You are your best thing."
— Toni Morrison
These days, it can feel harder than ever to connect with friends. Life is overwhelming—work, responsibilities, and the distance between us can make it seem impossible to prioritize our relationships. But here’s the truth: connecting with friends is one of the most powerful ways to sustain ourselves. It’s what will save us, even when things feel hard.
Whether it’s a call, a text, or a DM, take a moment to reconnect. And as you do, think about how you can begin prioritizing those bonds more often.
We also invite you to consider gathering with friends on Saturday, February 21, for a Liberation Table. This new tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora brings us together as friends and family over a meal rooted in African diasporic traditions. For inspiration, join us on an upcoming info session to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together.
Let’s start healing ourselves, one connection at a time.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Choose a cultural artifact and in your journal, reflect on what this item means to you.
Cultural artifacts are physical representations of our memories—items that carry significance beyond their material form. They don't have to be grand or precious heirlooms.
LEARN MORE
Explore how one museum honors the value in everyday objects:
The Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia, PA.
Philly's Colored Girls Museum offers prescription for 'A Good Night's Sleep'
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 8 - Walk
“We have to carve out time to be selfish in order to re-energize so we can be selfless. And we need restoration in order to have revelation.”
— Chloe Dulce Louvouezo
Today, we invite you to take an awe walk. An awe walk is a simple practice that shifts your attention from internal thoughts to the wonder around you.
Choose any location—a park, your neighborhood.
Walk at a comfortable pace, but shift your focus outward
Look for things that inspire awe: vast skies, intricate patterns, beautiful details, play of light
Approach your surroundings with fresh eyes, as if seeing them for the first time
Notice both the grand (trees, clouds, architecture) and the small (textures, colors, shadows)
Pay attention to colors—the shade of bark on a tree, the way sunlight changes a building's hue, unexpected pops of color in ordinary places
Listen to the sounds around you—birdsong, wind rustling leaves, distant voices, the rhythm of your own footsteps
Let yourself feel part of nature, small in a good way—connected to something larger than yourself
The goal isn't to go somewhere special—it's to see the everyday world with new attention.
If you enjoy your walk, consider organizing or joining a walking group like GirlTrek, a national movement working to heal intergenerational trauma, fight systemic racism, and transform Black lives. Through walking teams, GirlTrek mobilizes Black women and community members to reclaim their health while leading advocacy efforts rooted in the Civil Rights tradition.
Looking ahead:
Join us Wednesday for the virtual broadcast of The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, Tony-nominated, Jon Michael Hill, and Theater and Africana Studies professor, Justin Emeka.
Sign up here: https://bit.ly/UTB_TheStoryOfUs26
TODAY’S PRACTICE
If you’re able, put one foot in front of the other and take an awe walk (description below!).
Reflect in your journal: What’s something new you noticed on your walk—something you hadn’t seen or paid attention to before?
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 7 - Connect with Friends
“Anytime you get more than a couple of Black women together, you’re creating this powerful mechanism for change.”
— Kimberly Bryant
These days, it can feel harder than ever to connect with friends. Life is overwhelming—work, responsibilities, and the distance between us can make it seem impossible to prioritize our relationships. But here’s the truth: connecting with friends is one of the most powerful ways to sustain ourselves. It’s what will save us, even when things feel hard.
Whether it’s a call, a text, or a DM, take a moment to reconnect. And as you do, think about how you can begin prioritizing those bonds more often. We encourage you to use the Liberation Calendar Whatsapp Group.
We also invite you to consider gathering with friends for a Liberation Table. This new tradition for Black people of the African Diaspora brings us together as friends and family over a meal rooted in African diasporic traditions. For inspiration, join us February 18th at 7:30 pm ET to learn how to practice Liberation Table—a space to reflect, connect, and build something meaningful together. Register here.
Let’s start healing ourselves, one connection at a time.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Call or text a Black friend to wish them Happy Black History Month today and invite them to participate in the Liberation Calendar!
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 6 - Look Through An Expansive Prism
“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.”
— Kimberlé Crenshaw
Patriarchy, white supremacy, heteronormativity are the ways we’re taught to understand others as either the “default” or “outsiders.” Thinking inside this paradigm keeps us tethered to a system that doesn’t serve us.
Intersectionality is a framework that helps us understand the varying ways in which our identities dictate our lived experiences. It is a prism that allows us to see how various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We all face different sets of challenges based on our race, gender, sexuality, ability, religion, and more among the cornucopia of identifiers that make us human. Intersectionality not only makes exclusions visible, it also suggests how interventions might be reframed to better include multiply marginalized people. It encourages advocates and policymakers to ask: “How do my strategies address people who belong to multiple groups at once?”
Intersectionality pushes groups to move beyond single-issue organizing and recognize how inequalities intersect within communities. It has been indispensable in helping many of us uncover unwritten histories, analyze overlooked social problems, and address failures in human rights. From Black women fighting the twin threats of state violence and high maternal mortality rates to queer youth of color protesting the censorship of LGBTQ+ and anti-racist books, an intersectional framework can empower us all to push towards liberation.
Today, we invite you to contemplate how your identity in its full complexity may affect your experience, as well as those around you. And to consider how you might use the prism of intersectionality to see and think differently about real world problems you encounter.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Watch The Urgency of Intersectionality with Kimberlé Crenshaw.
Reflect in your journal: What intersections does my Blackness cross?
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 5 - Embrace Your Creativity
“I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence…chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art. This is precisely the time when artists go to work.”
— Toni Morrison
Life is more than struggle and survival. It is also abundant and flourishing. Even in the harshest conditions, life is jealous for itself, and love finds a way. In addition to remembering the suffering of our ancestors, we must also highlight their joys and victories. The stories of our ancestry teach us that in the face of the violent history and a callous present, some of us have dared to laugh.
Some of us dared to pop gum, double dutch, forget our troubles, experiment, invent, pun, love ourselves, love one another, and love the culture that we’ve made. Our past has embraced highs and lows, inspiration from the Continent, and innovation across the Oceanic. Black artists continue to depict our dynamic experiences as people of African descent. Today, we dare to create art as an act of joy and resistance.
We invite you to use some printable images from Liberation Calendar below:
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Decorate the cover of your Liberation Calendar journal. Use color, cutouts, stickers–whatever makes your journal feel true to you and your journey this month. And most importantly, have fun while you unleash your creativity!
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 4 - Speak Truth to Power
“Backtalking—the act of turning a critical eye to things we are told are unfixable or ‘just the way things are.’”
— Kimberlé Crenshaw
How does a person dare to challenge structural racism and sexism in American society? That is what Kimberlé Crenshaw did when she articulated two concepts that would forever change national and global debates about equality: intersectionality and critical race theory.
Crenshaw’s new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir, is the story of how a little girl from Canton, Ohio, came up with a new way to look at the world. It traces the way her lived experience made her see things others around her didn’t. As the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and a pathbreaking public servant, and the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother, Kimberlé starts to talk back, and that backtalking has continued throughout her life.
It happens when she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launches My Brother’s Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women.
Today, in that same spirit, we dare to talk back to the normalization of harms to Black people. If we continue to see egregious acts of anti-Blackness as mere distractions, we will miss the crucial way they are fueling the current slide to authoritarianism. Anti-Blackness is not simply a consequence of the actions of the current administration—Anti-Blackness is the Point.
We will not look away as racist and sexist rhetoric demonizes Black people and our communities. We will not stand by as equal opportunity is undermined in colleges and work places. We will not be silent as our federal workforce has been purged of vital programs and tens of thousands of workers. We will not forget the history, texts and cultural artifacts that are being erased from our collective national understanding of race and racism.
We know that the attack on our history and memory will intensify in 2026 as a whitewashed and white-centric version of American history is promoted for America’s 250th. We will document the racist and misogynistic attacks at the center of the current administration’s assault on equal opportunity and civil rights and create the collective understanding that ultimately can move us forward.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Reflect in your journal: What does being a truth teller require of you right now? What truths are you being called to tell?
LEARN MORE
Read Anti-Blackness Is the Point report resources
Pre-order Backtalker: An American Memoir
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 3 - Consider the Cost
"Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion"
– bell hooks
Today, we take time to grieve the historical and ongoing effects of racism on our physical, mental, and emotional health. We acknowledge the harm of toxic racism in medicine, naming it for what it is. We deepen our understanding of how to recognize racism, even in its subtler forms, and we empower ourselves to speak out against what we see and experience.
Last month, Dr. Janell Green-Smith died shortly after giving birth to her first child. She was a certified nurse-midwife (CNM) and doctor of nursing practice (DNP) who had dedicated her career to ensuring safe births for others. She served families in South Carolina and fought relentlessly to end racism in maternal healthcare. Her tragic death proves what we already knew: no Black woman is safe in this system.
Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women—a disparity that persists across income and education levels. Black women with college degrees face higher maternal mortality rates than white women without high school diplomas. These disparities are not caused by race-related health conditions but by racism itself. For example, Black mothers are more likely to have their pain dismissed, their concerns ignored, and their symptoms overlooked by medical professionals. The maternal health crisis reflects broader inequities in healthcare access, quality of care, and the cumulative impact of racism on Black women's bodies.Addressing this crisis requires systemic change: dismantling racist practices in medicine, increasing the number of Black healthcare providers, expanding access to doulas and midwives, and centering Black women's voices and experiences in their own care.
Unfortunately, programs built over decades to address structural racism in medicine and even the research needed to understand how it operates have had their funding cut or threatened. After cancelling billions of dollars in grants earlier in 2025, it was reported last December that the “Trump administration is pausing new funding for National Institute of Health grants that include terms like ‘health equity’ and ‘structural racism.’” The government has declared that these terms do not reflect “scientific rigor” while simultaneously uplifting dangerous long-debunked claims based in scientific racism and eugenics.
Health equity leaders like Dr. Uché Blackstock, author of Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, are continuing the important work of helping us to consider the cost:“The US is the wealthiest country in the world, yet we have the worst health outcomes out of any high-income country, and in part that’s because our persistent racial health inequities are so profound.” As we honor the memory of Dr. Janell Green-Smith, we also stand fast in refusing to look away from the costs of racial inequity in medicine and healthcare.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Reflect in your journal: What toll has racism taken on your mental and physical health? What costs to our health as individuals and as a people have never been adequately acknowledged or counted?
Light a candle to give yourself a few moments to mourn the cost of racism on our health.
LEARN MORE
Watch Listen to Me (trailer)
Read Black Mothers Are Sharing Difficult Stories in Hopes of Saving Lives and Improving Maternal Health Care. Are You Listening?
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 2 - Embark on a Shared Journey
“Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.”
– Alice Walker
Today, we embark on a shared journey with one another. Together, we are creating a liberated space, claiming what has been denied to us in a world that does not make room for our freedom.
To lay the foundation for this space, let's first take part in a libation ritual to connect with our shared ancestors who brought us here.
Libation is a sacred practice that bridges the present and the past, allowing us to honor the sacrifices of our ancestors and celebrate our lineage.
To perform a libation, a cup is filled with liquid—often water—and ceremonially offered to the earth, floor, or a plant. The liquid may also be poured or sprinkled in the north, south, east, and west sides of the room, then over the shoulder. This ritual is a tangible expression of gratitude, honoring those who paved the way for us and connecting us to the generations before us.
In the Akan community of Ghana, libation is one of the most sacred spiritual traditions (Adjaye, 2001). It’s central to ceremonies marking significant life transitions—births, weddings, and funerals—but also woven into everyday life.
Libation connects us to our past with deep gratitude, acknowledging the generations who made sacrifices for our freedom and progress.
Reference: Adjaye, JK. 2001. The Performativity of Akan Libations, an ethnopoetic construction of reality. Ghana Studies, Volume 4, p. 107.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Perform your own libation. First, take a moment to reflect on whether there is anyone specific to whom you’d like to offer it. You may also choose to light a candle as you begin.
We invite you to watch this video to learn more about how libations are practiced.
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 1 - Begin a Daily Liberation Practice
“When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don't speak out ain't nobody going to speak out for you."
– Fannie Lou Hammer
Liberation is the process of reclaiming one’s autonomy, history, and future. We as Black women sit at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression—when we are free, those systems themselves must fall. Our liberation is not simply one piece of a larger puzzle; it is the key that unlocks freedom for all. Liberation for Black women is liberation for everyone.
Yet we navigate a world that does not and has never cared for us. In the absence of external care and protection, we must cultivate intentional practices that sustain and liberate us. We internalize this necessity on an individual level, but it extends far beyond ourselves.
Black people at large face similar conditions of systemic neglect and harm. What Black women experience is not isolated but part of a broader pattern affecting our entire community. The circle widens further still—people of color communities everywhere contend with structures that were never designed for our flourishing. The need for liberation practice becomes universal across all marginalized communities.
This project recognizes these concentric circles of impact: the individual at the center, then our immediate community, the larger community of people sharing our struggles, and finally society at large. Each circle influences and is influenced by the others. A daily liberation practice operates at all these levels simultaneously—healing the individual, strengthening community bonds, building collective power, and ultimately transforming the broader society.
Liberation is not isolated. When you rest, heal, and free yourself, you model possibility for those closest to you. When your circle practices collective care, you build power in your community. When communities organize, they reshape policy. Each act of personal liberation sends ripples that can transform society.
Your freedom matters—not just for you, but for all of us.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Liberation begins with you and ripples outward. In your journal, draw four concentric circles, labeling them from the center out: Self → Friends & Family → Community → Beyond.
Reflect in each circle:
Circle 1 (Self): What does liberation look like for me? What practices sustain and free me on an individual level?
Circle 2 (Friends & Family): How does caring for and liberating myself impact my friends and family?
Circle 3 (Community): How does that care for my close circle strengthen my community?
Circle 4 (Beyond): How does a liberated community shift conditions at the state, national, or global level?
LEARN MORE
Read “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female” by Frances M. Beal
CALLS TO ACTION
ADD the 2026 Google Liberation Calendar to your own calendar.
JOIN our WhatsApp community to engage w/ fellow participants!
DOWNLOAD the Liberation Table Guide.
Day 28 - Imagine Your Afrofuture
“Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down. We not only end up confused, rudderless, and cynical, but we forget that making a revolution is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics, but a process that can and must transform us” (Kelley, 2002, p. xii).
Visioning is a central part of changemaking, and it requires imagination. As you reflect on your life and the months and years ahead, how do you envision your Afrofuture? What possibilities, dreams, and transformations do you see for yourself and your community?
References: Kelley, Robin D. G. Freedom Dreams : the Black Radical Imagination. Boston :Beacon Press, 2002.
TODAY’S PRACTICE: Journal: Take a moment to imagine a future where your vision comes to life—what does it look like, feel like, and how can you begin building toward it today?
Complete the 2025 Liberation Calendar Survey HERE!
Day 27 - Groove Like No One’s Watching
Take a moment to let go and move freely—groove like no one’s watching! Whether it’s a slow sway or an all-out dance, feel the rhythm in your body and allow yourself to experience joy through movement.
TODAY’S PRACTICE: Dance on your own, watch a dance video and join in, or buy tickets to see a performance.
Day 26 - Fight for the Freedom to Learn
Many of us are feeling afraid, angry, or overwhelmed since President Trump’s inauguration and his rapid-fire Executive Orders. We are seeing the normalization of attacks on Black history, frameworks, and our entire civil rights infrastructure. But our ancestors confronted similar forces against even higher odds, and we can draw on that tradition of resistance, courage and solidarity going forward. As Dr. King told civil rights organizers in support of the Freedom Riders in 1961 gathered in a Montgomery, Alabama church that had been surrounded by violent rioters, “The first thing that we must do here tonight is to decide that we aren't going to become panicky. That we're going to be calm, and that we are going to continue to stand up for what we know is right.”
Join AAPF tonight to be in community with others who care deeply about the fight for Black History and our democracy. The conversation will be moderated by Kimberlé Crenshaw with speakers Damon Hewitt, David J. Johns, Nina Turner, and Russell Robinson who will offer their analysis of the executive orders, the consequences they will have for racial justice, the historical resonance of this moment and also a path forward to protect us in the bullseye of backlash. RSVP here!
If you don’t have time to join the event, read and share the Executive Disorder project, which provides the tools to understand and resist this conservative regime. You can find posts on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Bluesky.
TODAY’S PRACTICE: Attend TONIGHT’s “Executive Disorder: Resisting the War on Equal Opportunity” event at 7pm EST or watch this 5-minute explainer video about the Executive Orders.
Day 25 - Witness the Censorship of Our Knowledge
Since the short-lived summer of racial reckoning in 2020, a wave of backlash fueled by anti-Black racism has rolled across the United States. Book bans have been supercharged by state legislation and well-funded national extremist organizations like Moms for Liberty. Key targets of those bans have been books by Black authors or about Black historical figures or characters. Teachers in 22 states have been censored from speaking about systemic racism, while videos from PragerU that justify and minimize enslavement have been approved to be shown in classrooms in 9 states and counting.
Just a few weeks into the new administration, we have already seen Department of Defense military base classrooms stripped of displays honoring Black History Month and books taken from shelves. In one school, posters of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Susan B. Anthony were removed, while one of Leonardo Da Vinci was left on display. When asked why, the school official replied “Because he [Da Vinci] was a real historical figure.” So the message being sent to the children of military families is that the contributions of Black people are not worthy of recognition. And that even someone as widely revered as Dr. King is not of “real” historical significance.
Modern democracies die through deception, including the subversion of knowledge and science. After the freezing of federal funding of their health research programs, higher education institutions are now being pressured by the Department of Education to eliminate any programs aimed at reducing barriers to equal opportunity for students of color, while the same office has halted racial and gender discrimination investigations. We have seen analytical frameworks like Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, and gender theory under attack through state legislation and now executive orders from the new administration precisely because they function to reveal truth, expose misinformation, explain social reality, and provide a blueprint for resisting.
Continuing to read book by Black authors and to utilize frameworks developed by Black scholars to make sense of what we are seeing are two powerful ways we can stand up as witnesses who will not look away from or deny the censorship happening before our eyes.
TODAY’S PRACTICE: Register to attend TOMORROW’s Under the Blacklight, “Executive Disorder: Resisting the War on Equal Opportunity” at 7pm EST. This event will provide the space our communities need right now — the space to resist, to plan and to learn from our history.
Day 24 - Write to Your Ancestors
Our connections to our ancestors and each other have the power to heal our wounds, freeing us to experience life in all its beauty and possibility. Today we remember our ancestors who have struggled, those who perished, and those of us who have thrived despite centuries of enslavement, colonialism, and systemic racism. We will not allow their stories of courage, resistance, and survival to be banned, whitewashed or written out of our children’s textbooks altogether. Take some time today to give thanks to our ancestors and our elders.
TODAY’S PRACTICE: Write a letter or just a few words to express your gratitude and love for your ancestors.
What do you think your ancestors would say in response?
Day 23 - Meditate
Today, let’s take a moment to slow down, center ourselves, and find our grounding. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and as you exhale, allow yourself to settle fully into this moment.
TODAY’S PRACTICE: Close your eyes and take a moment to connect with your inner self.
Enjoy a 10-minute guided meditation.