Welcome

Welcome to Àṣẹ – the ABPsi Blog. We are pleased and excited to announce the launching of the Blog. Àṣẹ—a Yoruba term that speaks to the power to speak things into existence; to make things happen. The ABPsi blog represents an extension of our longstanding commitment to building bridges of understanding, support and mutual elevation between the Association and the respective communities that birthed us, give us meaning, and whom we serve.

Social Media has changed the ways we live, work, play, create, establish and maintain community bonds and, of course, communicate. And as is the case with most technological advances the influences and impacts, good and bad, are often distributed unevenly. The challenges are myriad and so too are the advantages. One of the advantages for us is that it potentially provides ABPsi with an opportunity to be placed in closer contact and conversation with the peoples and communities in whose interest we work and fight.

A great deal of the work that we—collectively as an organization and as individual scholars, scientists, practitioners—engage in goes unnoticed and unrecognized. In part, because of systematic structures that get in the way of more direct communications and, in part, because of lack of availability of distribution networks that provide opportunities for us to communicate with our communities more broadly. And therefore, there are a constellation of resources that we provide and that are available to our communities, which go underutilized to the detriment of those who could benefit from our expertise, skills and services and those of us who work so assiduously to provide them.

It is our hope that this blog will serve as a sort of Ring Shout experience, a shared space around which we come together with our communities to think through, discuss and share our work and ideas concerning the mental and spiritual liberation of our people. Àṣẹ will explore intersections between art and ideas, popular culture and politics, public health and social and behavioral science, social ecology and spirituality through the lens of Black Psychology as they relate to Africans (Blacks) here and throughout the diaspora. This is not a scholarly blog but rather one rooted in a communal conversation that is meant to accessible to professionals and laypersons alike.

We are excited that Àdisà Àjàmú has agreed to be the featured blogger for our new blog, and we believe you will be as well. Follow Àṣẹ and connect with the beat of the rhythm of the ABPsi – let’s make things happen!

— Taasogle Daryl Rowe, Ph.D., President, ABPsi