The Soulwork Reading List: Seminal Books for community Liberation & Vocation

Join the Soulwork Reading Challenge on StoryGraph: An Always-On Journey to Liberation

Soulwork is collective care—a radical practice of healing, resistance, and reimagining systems that were never built for Black women, marginalized genders, disabled folks, or queer communities. It’s the labor of tending to our spirits while dismantling the crooked rooms of capitalism, patriarchy, ableism, and digital extraction.

This reading list is your toolkit. These books are blueprints for liberation. They center our stories, honor our labor, and light the path to building communities where everyone can actually thrive.

1. Foundations: The Theory of Soulwork

1. Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris-Perry
A cornerstone for understanding the “crooked room” of race, gender, and sexuality—the societal distortions that force Black women to contort themselves to fit oppressive systems. Harris-Perry’s analysis of shame, stereotypes, and resilience is a manifesto for reclaiming agency.

2. Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
Collins’ framework of intersectionality and self-definition is the bedrock of soulwork. She teaches us to center our lived experiences as a form of knowledge and resistance, rejecting Eurocentric hierarchies that erase Black women’s genius.

3. Digital Black Feminism by Catherine Knight Steele
How do Black women bend technology toward liberation? Steele traces our digital counterpublics—from Black Twitter to encrypted group chats—showing how we build community in spaces never meant to hold us.

Follow along with the essential Soulwork Reading List

2. Reclaiming Labor, Rest, and Boundaries

4. Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab
A guide to protecting your energy in a world that demands Black women’s unpaid labor. Tawwab’s work is a soulwork staple for anyone learning to say “no” without guilt.

5. Rock My Soul by bell hooks
Hooks confronts the toll of systemic violence on Black self-esteem, urging us to reclaim joy and wholeness. Pair this with Audre Lorde’s A Burst of Light for a masterclass in radical self-care.

6. Household Workers Unite by Premilla Nadasen
A groundbreaking history of domestic workers’ organizing, from the Jim Crow South to modern-day movements. Nadasen shows how Black women have transformed undervalued labor into a site of resistance and solidarity. This book is a must-read for soulworkers redefining the value of care work.

7. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
A prophetic novel about climate collapse, community-building, and the audacity to believe in a future shaped by equity. Butler’s protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, models soulwork in motion: “God is change. Shape God.”

3. Ancestral Wisdom and Radical Imagination

8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Janie Crawford’s journey to self-discovery—through love, loss, and reclaiming her voice—is a soulwork anthem. Hurston reminds us that liberation begins with telling our own stories, on our own terms.

9. Afrocentricity by Molefi Kete Asante
A call to center African philosophies and histories in a world that dismisses them. Asante’s work fuels soulworkers building systems rooted in dignity, not exploitation.

10. All the Black Girls Are Activists by EbonyJanice Moore
Moore reframes activism as a daily practice of survival and creativity. This isn’t a handbook for hashtags—it’s a love letter to Black women’s relentless power to transform the mundane into the revolutionary.

4. Queer & Disability Justice: Systems of Care and Collective Survival

11. Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
A groundbreaking text that centers disabled queer and trans Black/brown voices, redefining “care” beyond capitalist, ableist frameworks. Piepzna-Samarasinha’s vision of mutual aid—rooted in disability justice—is a lifeline for soulworkers building communities that prioritize access, interdependence, and radical tenderness.

12. The Future Is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Another essential from the same author, this book expands on disability justice as a practice of collective survival and joy. It’s a manifesto for queers, crips, and survivors crafting futures where care is liberation.

13. Exile and Pride by Eli Clare
A disabled queer classic that connects environmental destruction, bodily autonomy, and the politics of place. Clare’s work is a compass for soulworkers navigating the intersections of ableism, capitalism, and queer liberation.

5. Bonus: Soulwork in Practice

14. The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Radical self-love as political resistance. Taylor’s work is a compass for dismantling internalized oppression and reclaiming our bodies as sites of power.

15. Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown
Because joy is a birthright. Brown teaches us to center pleasure in our movements, rejecting grind culture’s lie that suffering equals solidarity.

Conclusion: Build Your Soulwork Syllabus
These books are not just to be read—they’re to be lived. Start a soulwork circle. Host a chapter swap at your local café. Trade dog-eared copies with your chosen family. Liberation is not a solo journey; it’s a chorus.

And remember: support Black-owned, queer-owned, and disability-led bookstores. Buy these titles from Sistah Scifi, Cafe con Libros, or The Lit. Bar. Because soulwork begins with who we fund, not just what we read.

Now go build your own library of liberation. The crooked room is waiting to be dismantled—one book, one soul, one collective breath at a time. 📚✨

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By engaging with these texts, you’re building a toolkit for liberation. You’re honoring the labor of Black women and marginalized genders, reclaiming your narrative, and joining a community of soulworkers committed to collective care.

There’s no deadline, no pressure—just an open invitation to read, reflect, and grow. Whether you’re a seasoned reader or just beginning your soulwork journey, this challenge is for you.

Share your journey: Use #SoulworkReadingChallenge to connect with others.

Let’s build a world where care > capitalism, rest > grind, and liberation > extraction. One book, one soul, one collective breath at a time. 📚✨