Our womanist wellness
Our Womanist Wellness
Our Womanist Wellness is a sacred space of practices and devotion centered in holistic care and a womanist ethic for the wellbeing and wholeness of Black women.
find more of this work across sacred spaces online:
www.instagram.com/ourwomanistwellness
Womanist work is grounded in these two foundational definitions/frameworks:
Alice Walker's 1983 definition of a Womanist:
1. From womanish. (Opp. of “girlish,” i.e. frivolous, irresponsible, not serious.) A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, “you acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered “good” for one. Interested in grown up doings. Acting grown up. Being grown up. Interchangeable with another black folk expression: “You trying to be grown.” Responsible. In charge. Serious.
2. “A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or non-sexually.
Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility (values tears as natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s strength.
2. Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility (values tears as natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s strength. Sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health. Traditionally universalist, as in: “Mama, why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins are white, beige, and black?” Ans.: “Well, you know the colored race is just like a flower garden, with every color flower represented.” Traditionally capable, as in: “Mama, I’m walking to Canada and I’m taking you and a bunch of other slaves with me.” Reply: “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness.
Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.”
4. "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender"
Four Tenets of Womanism from Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society, Edited by Dr. Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas
In Deeper Shades, Dr. Floyd-Thomas notes that “Womanism and womanist scholars are concerned with the mental, physical, and social dimensions of Black women’s real-lived epistemology because knowledge construction that seeks to inform Black women’s culture, survival, and liberation must be embodied and multi-sensory.” (p.5-6)
She developed this anthology of Womanist thought that takes the foundation of Alice Walker’s definition of Womanism and further defines 4 tenets of Womanism:
1. Radical Subjectivity
2. Traditional Communalism
3. Redemptive Self-Love
4. Critical Engagement