"Virtual Chat & Chew: Radical Self-Care for Black Information Professionals"

Shannon D. Jones, Medical University of South Carolina    
Jamia Williams, University of Utah/Network of the National Library of Medicine Training Office    
Tamara Nelson, Medical University of South Carolina

In her book, A Burst of Light and Other Essays (1988), Audre Lord says, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” This quote captures the African American Medical Librarians Alliance (AAMLA) Caucus’ motivation for establishing the “Chat and Chew” initiative. During the COVID-19 pandemic, AAMLA members formed a weekly virtual forum known as the “Chat & Chew.” These weekly check-ins aimed to build community and provide support amidst unprecedented health crises adversely affecting Black Americans, including the coronavirus pandemic and the long-standing issue of police killings and brutality. In coming together for these weekly check-ins, group participants benefited by actively practicing self-care and exchanging ideas and information with colleagues nationwide. Each gathering incorporated various presentations and discussions, including topics related to self-care and wellness, microaggressions and stigmatization in the workplace, virtual technologies, plant care, book discussions, and opportunities to engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Presenters will share lessons learned and successes for member engagement and best practices that made the program sustainable throughout 2020 until the present day.

"Race, Repose, and Resistance: Utilizing Black Studies and Trauma-Informed Librarianship to Cultivate a More Sustainable Library Practice"

Christina Bush, Swarthmore College    
Lorin Jackson, Medical University of South Carolina

Recognizing the increasing scholarly and popular interest in rest as a resistive strategy as exemplified by Tricia Hersey’s work with the Nap Ministry and concepts like “quiet quitting”, this presentation considers issues of rest and race and their implications for LIS and library workers. Our work is centered around a number of key questions including: how is rest differently understood and accessible in relationship to identity? Why is it imperative for us to engage resistive rest and refusal as socially liberating acts of self-actualization within academic libraries? How can Black cultural, social, and intellectual traditions serve as a north star in creating liberatory experiences and innovative healing spaces for library workers in their work? How can our experience with rest be supported and enacted as part of an anti-racist and sustainable librarianship practice? Engaging with trauma-informed and critical librarianship along with the theoretical and thematic concerns of Black Studies, we interrogate how rest, refusal, and resistance can be understood and deployed as an integral part of a sustainable library practice, and proffer the concept of critical repose as a gesture towards both analytical and practical interventions. We conclude by inviting participants to pause and reflect on their current relationship to critical repose and consider the applicability of the outlined strategies, while also imagining novel approaches to implement in their own practice.