July is BIPOC Mental Health Month (also known as Minority Mental Health Awareness Month), a month dedicated to acknowledging the unique ways that the mental health of people of color is challenged in the U.S. and beyond. As creators of two platforms that prioritize the wellness of Black women, Makenna (@whatwewater) and Ajia (@gardenofintention) offer a reflection on mental health awareness both personally and on a communal level.

For the next few months, What We Water is going to be focused on a theme titled Nourish. What does it mean to truly nourish oneself? In the spiritual, mental, and physical sense? What does it mean to nourish oneself in a society where nourishment (in all its forms) is denied from your community as an extension of oppression? How can we nourish ourselves and our communities as a form of resistance? How have communities taken nourishment into their own hands and called out oppressive systems? We will be pondering these questions and more with our Nourish campaign.

As What We Water’s theme this April is autonomy and community, we want to highlight ways in which we can support Black and brown individuals who are currently incarcerated for non-violent criminal offenses related to marijuana possession. If you are a fellow pothead, it is important to invest in the liberation of cannabis prisoners who are isolated from a society in which green is the dream.

To explore these autonomy and community, our content this month will cover a wide range of related topics. We hope that this work will help you do the work towards becoming the best community member and being more in touch with yourself. How can we show up for our communities if we do not know who we are and what our role is? How can we show up for ourselves if we do not have a supportive community around us? What We Water will guide you through your practice of connecting autonomy and community.

An intimate form of exchange between you and yourself, writing can be one of the most impactful ways to practice loving. However you choose to respond, allow these journaling and writing prompts to guide you towards radical self love.

Janet Jackson did not deserve the cruelty she received after the 2004 halftime show. It is a timeless example of the double standard between Black women and men not only in the music industry, but also in nearly every social realm. Black women are not protected in this world, especially when it comes to sexualization and objectification.

In celebration of February's “Loving” campaign, we have compiled a list of poems, books, and other writings that encapsulate love as action. Let this literature guide you on your journey towards loving, whether that be how you choose to show yourself love, how you love your romantic partners, and/or how you love your friends and family. Here’s to celebrating love as an action, and as your birthright <3

Black women have been my protectors in this lifetime, certainly the last and prayerfully the next. I have known no stronger love than that I have received from Black women一my mother, my grandmothers, my aunties, my cousins, my best friends, the kind, soulful Black women I have met in my community, outside of my community and in the sweetest of moments. I have never received a better love.