Black Women In Study is an ongoing political reading practice for Black women who want to stay awake to the world around us, stay rooted in ourselves & one another, and deepen our understanding of the forces shaping our lives.This is a space for studying power together.Together we sit with books that help us see more clearly, books that invite us to grapple with capitalism, heteropatriarchy, empire, and all of the conditions shaping our collective lives.We read not to escape what we are living inside of, but to understand it more clearly. To steady ourselves, to sharpen our perception, and to remember that clarity, too, is a form of care & protection.This is a space for grounding, conversation, and a kind of clarity that comes when Black women gather, think, question, and wrestle with ideas together.Welcome.
WHAT WE STUDY
The books we select draw from Black thinkers, writers, and traditions of political thought across the diaspora, as well as other voices that help illuminate the systems we are living inside of.These are not light or casual reads. They ask something of us.They ask us to look directly at the structures and systems that organize our lives and the social relations that shape how we live with one another.They invite us to question what has been normalized, to examine the conditions we are living inside of, and to think critically about the worlds we are inheriting and the worlds we are helping to shape.
HOW WE STUDY
Each month, we gather around one book.Throughout the month, participants can meet in our online study space, a place for reflection, shared language-building, questions, and conversation as we move through the text together.At the end of the month, we gather virtually to sit with what the book opens for us — what it illuminates, unsettles, clarifies, or complicates.You can enter the practice in whatever way feels right for you:• reading quietly on your own
• joining the study space
• gathering with us at the end of the month
• or moving between all threeThis practice is offered at no cost. It's an offering of care and commitment to Black women.
Who This Space Is For
Black Women In Study centers women of the African diaspora. When we say Black women, we include cis and trans Black women, as well as Black femmes who recognize themselves in this invitation.The practice is organized from the United States and is shaped by political traditions that grow from this context, including Black feminist thought and traditions of studying racial capitalism and power. Black women across the diaspora who recognize themselves in this orientation are welcome here.
STEWARDING THIS PRACTICE
Black Women In Study is created and stewarded by Toi Smith.The practice grows out of my own commitment to political study, Black liberation, and my desire to be in deeper conversation with other Black women who feel the pull toward understanding the systems shaping our lives.Black Women In Study is my offering of a shared space for reading, questioning, and thinking together.
STUDY WITH US
There are two ways to participate in Black Women In Study.
Option 1: Read AlongYou can read independently alongside the practice.Sign up below, and you’ll receive the books we’re reading each month. You’re welcome to read quietly on your own or with beloved friends as we move through the texts together.
Option 2: Attend Orientation To Join The Study CommunityIf you’d like to go deeper and connect with the Black Women In Study community through our online gathering space and monthly virtual book discussions, the first step is to attend a virtual orientation (via Zoom).Orientation allows us to introduce the purpose of the practice, share our community agreements, and enter the space together with care.Those who attend orientation receive access to:
• The online community study space
• Our monthly virtual book discussionsNext Orientation
Saturday, August 8th, 3-4 PM EST
Sign up below to join Black Women In Study.Add your name below to receive:- The monthly book selections
- Invitations to upcoming orientations
- BWIS updatesWe can't wait to study with you!
Questions?Reach Out Here: [email protected]
Thank you for joining Black Women In Study!A welcome email with more information is on its way to your inbox right now. We're so happy to have you!
What We're Reading
Below you'll find our current, upcoming, and past book selections. BWIS members vote seasonally on the books we read.Want to read with us? Learn more here!
APRIL 2026Black In Blues
by Imani Perry
Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?” In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as art and history: The dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the 16th century. The mixture of awe and aversion in the old-fashioned characterization of dark-skinned people as “Blue Black.” The fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure. The blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one gone too soon.
MAY 2026The Conjuring of America
by Lindsey Stewart
Emerging first on plantations in the American South, enslaved conjure women used their magic to treat illnesses. These women combined their ancestral spiritual beliefs from West Africa with local herbal rituals and therapeutic remedies to create conjure, forging a secret well of health and power hidden to their oppressors and many of the modern-day staples we still enjoy.In The Conjuring of America, Black feminist philosopher Lindsey Stewart exposes this vital contour of American history. In the face of slavery, Negro Mammies fashioned a legacy of magic that begat herbal experts, fearsome water bearers, and powerful mojos--roles and traditions that for centuries have been passed down to respond to Black struggles in real time. And when Jim Crow was born, Granny Midwives and textile weavers leveled their techniques to protect our civil and reproductive rights, while Candy Ladies fed a generation of freedom crusaders.
JUNE 2026Love In Exile
by Shon Faye
Love is supposedly attainable for us all. But for most people, especially women, success with “love”—the yardstick we use to measure our value across romance, parenthood, sex, religion, and friendship—can feel out of reach, an experience frequently ascribed to a personal failing. This sense of unworthiness is, according to Shon Faye, “a form of exile: an intentional, punitive banishment that serves political ends.” Faye, a trans woman in her thirties, has felt isolated from love for as long as she can remember. So after the devastation of her first heartbreak, she figured it was time to find out why.The subsequent investigation, Love in Exile, boldly reframes love’s elusiveness as a collective question. Conversationally frank and intellectually ambitious, these eight voice-driven essays unpack the norms governing love in our time with the insight of a shrewd outsider. Here, Faye examines her breakups with cis men alongside lessons from Lana Del Rey and Alain de Botton, explores the lovelessness that fueled her time as an addict, tackles the relationship between feminine self-worth and motherhood, and finally attempts to discover genuine self-acceptance.