6.5 Minutes With... | Charmaine Lang

C21 Graduate Fellow, Jamee Pritchard, interviews Charmaine Lang, Ph.D, a certified healing centered coach and organizational development consultant, about her work on slow care. Lang helps clients find joy and balance in their personal lives and careers and specializes in creating sustainable, people-centered operations and cultures of care. Her work is deeply rooted in Black Feminist Praxis. Charmaine earned a Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Lang defines slow care as intentional pausing and community support, a practice she observed in her dissertation on Black women activists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, titled “Learning to Take the Excess Baggage Off”: An Ethnographic Study of Black Women Activists’ Self-Care Practices.

She emphasizes the importance of self-care practices like meditation, therapy, and journaling, and acknowledges the difficulty that many Black women face in asking for help due to societal expectations. As a healing-centered coach, Lang supports her clients avoid burnout by encouraging them to meditate and reflect on their needs to foster their healing journey.

For further information on the topic of slow care and healing, check out the following recommedations:

1.      In Our Mother’s Gardens (2021), directed by Shantrelle P. Lewis, is a 2021 documentary that celebrates the resilience, strength, and healing practices of Black women across generations. The film highlights how Black women have passed down love, wisdom, and resilience through their matrilineal lines, emphasizing how they care for themselves and their communities despite enduring trauma and oppression. The documentary features stories from Black women across the African diaspora, particularly in the United States and the Caribbean, showcasing how these women have preserved their mental, spiritual, and emotional health through practices rooted in cultural traditions and communal care. This documentary is available on Netflix.

2.     How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell challenges the relentless drive for productivity in a capitalist society by advocating for intentional withdrawal of attention from exploitative systems. Blending philosophy, nature writing, and cultural critique, Odell emphasizes the importance of observation, presence, and deep engagement with the natural world. She argues that resisting the attention economy is an act of reclaiming personal autonomy and creativity. Through concepts like ecological attention and collective care, the book offers a powerful framework for slowing down, reconnecting with ourselves, and finding fulfillment beyond constant productivity and societal expectations.