Chapter 2: Re)Membering Lessons on Daughtering: A Black Woman’s Journey Towards Healing, Love, and Self-Actualization During Health and Racial Pandemics

This chapter examines my participation in a Black women’s virtual literature circle during an ongoing global health pandemic and racial crisis in the United States. The circle functioned as a protective factor, enabling me to survive and thrive as an early career scholar, mother, and daughter facing personal and professional challenges. Grounded in critical race feminism, I employ autoethnographic methods to examine how engagement with Black womanist-centered texts afforded opportunities for healing and developing mindful practices. Furthermore, I explicate how the circle revitalized my mental and spiritual well-being, resurrected my intellectual curiosity, and reinvigorated my scholarly agenda from the depths of professional burnout. I conclude with lessons learned for sustaining and extending wellness beyond the literature circle as a daughter, sister, and mother.