Power, Resilience, and Love: National Suicide Prevention Month
During my first semester at Vanderbilt Divinity School, I took a class entitled Womanist Theological Ethics. Womanism is the study and practice of the herstory and everyday experiences of Black women, and the term “womanist” was coined by the writer Alice Walker in her short story, “Coming Apart,” in 1979.
Part of the assigned reading for my Womanist Theological Ethics class was Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, a choreopoem which combines all forms of theatre storytelling. Read more about “For Colored Girls” and its production at the Public Theater in New York here and here.
Some of my classmates performed For Colored Girls as part of our classwork, and I remember sitting on the edge of my seat as I witnessed their embodiment of power, resilience, and love. It was one thing to read Shange’s choreopoem; it was another thing, entirely, to see it performed.
Whether you read the choreopoem or are lucky enough to see a production of it, I highlight Shange’s work during National Suicide Prevention Month because for entirely too long, suicide rates among Black girls and women have been too high--evidence of the interconnected plagues of misogyny, misogynoir, patriarchy, and white supremacy.
Shange’s creativity and craft offer an alternative to suicide and death, as does the collective work we each can engage to become more aware of the ways white supremacy, racism, misogyny, misogynoir, and patriarchy seek to kill, steal, and destroy all of our lives.
Yet, we know that healing happens together and that part of healing is becoming aware of the intersectionality of these issues and how we can untangle and confront, uproot and challenge. We begin by reading and learning more from the articles and resources offered below. We begin by listening deeply to the wisdom of survivors. We begin (or we continue)--and in our beginning and continuing, we find the power, resilience, and love needed to individually and collectively heal.
Read + Learn More:
14 Truths I Realized About Suicidality
4 Tools I Use to Replace Self Harm With Radical Self Love
Suicide Among Black Girls is a Mental Health Crisis in Plain Sight
NAMI Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
Suicide Prevention Ideas for Action
National Institute for Mental Health Suicide Prevention Resources
