Author, educator and literary activist Marita Golden’s 20th book that will be released June 13 builds on her previous book, which pushed back against the idea that Black women have to be strong all the time.

Her new book, “The New Black Woman: Loves Herself, Has Boundaries, and Heals Every Day,” further pushes the needle against such boxes for Black women.

“Black women, especially, have a tendency to be very invested in giving themselves away totally because it gives them an enormous sense of power,” Ms. Golden said in a recent telephone interview. “But that control and power is at the expense of their health and well-being.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Ms. Golden suffered two silent strokes. She began contemplating her own personal health, as well as the health of Black women in general.

“Given that so much of our experience in this country is proscribed and circumscribed, the health metrics for Black people are actually worse now than before the pandemic,” Ms. Golden said. “We’ve always been in a health emergency in this country.”

Black women in particular are disproportionately impacted by anxiety and depression. They are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, three times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related conditions and have higher mortality rates from obesity-related illnesses such as heart attack and stroke.

She wrote her 19th book, “The Strong Black Woman,” to explore those deadly statistics and it struck a chord with readers.

“A lot of people who read and enjoyed it said they wanted to know more about my own specific practices for maintaining physical and mental health,” Ms. Golden said. “That’s what led me to write ‘The New Black Woman.’”

The Washington, D.C.-born author lives in suburban Maryland, but Ms. Golden also has a strong connection to Virginia having taught at Virginia Commonwealth University for almost a decade starting in the mid-1990s.

She said the contemplative practices and resources she shares in her latest book are ancient, used around the world and effective.

“It’s been crucial to me to help me listen to myself.” Ms. Golden said. “My contemplative practices were important in helping me maintain emotional and physical balance.”

The starting point for self-care is loving oneself, she said.

“Self-love is the beginning of all health,” Ms. Golden said. “For Black women that’s a real journey in a society, and sometimes even in our community, that marginalizes us around so many issues and takes us for granted.”

While women are often socialized to put others first, she says mental health professionals advocate differently.

“Just as on an airplane when they say put your own mask on first, in a sense we have to adopt that same policy,” Ms. Golden said. “We have to engage in radical self-care because we are not able to serve others in the way we want to if we don’t take care of ourselves.

Ms. Golden further believes that the legacy of COVID-19 has made public discussions surrounding health and self-care acceptable and urgent.

“We are in a revolutionary period,” she said. “So many Black women are talking about their health. So many Black women are concerned about their health — both mental and physical.

“We’re witnessing the evolution of a new Black woman.”

For more information about Ms. Golden’s upcoming book and events, please visit: https://maritagolden.com/