Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes confronts head-on the complex identity of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) in her book, Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength.

Well, Anika and her mother Sakeenah are not only talking now, they’ve shared their stories in the recently published book, Love’s All That Makes Sense: A Mother Daughter Memoir. It is an extraordinary work by mother and daughter Sakeenah and Anika Francis. In it, their individual and intertwined stories unfold through a series of letters written to each other.

Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting, begins with a 6 word statement that commands the reader’s attention. “I am a woman on fire.”  Read a bit further and the fuel for the book’s author, Terrie M. Williams, is revealed: her personal struggle with major depression that went untreated for decades.

Bebe Moore Campbell’s 72 Hour Hold is a fictional book about a mother grappling with her daughter’s severe mental illness (bipolar disorder) and her trials of obtaining treatment through a woefully inadequate mental health care system.