At Healthworks Group, we have continued our commitment to inclusion, anti-racism and education across our clubs. Black History Month, held annually each February, is a celebration and honor of the historical achievements and cultural contributions of Black Americans. As we celebrate Black History Month in 2024, we invite you to join us as we come together to inspire, support, learn, and empower Black voices and the power of Black women.
HWX x Black History Month Community Fitness Classes
Celebrate with movement to the music of Black artists and our inspiring HWX instructors. These specialty classes are open to our community (free for members and guests) as we set intentions, own our power, and come together as a community of women of color and allies. Classes include ACHIEVE (cycle) in Cambridge and POWER45 (athletic conditioning) in Back Bay with Joy Mikhail, 305 Fitness (dance cardio) in Back Bay with Avana Epperson Temple, Flow Yoga in Coolidge Corner with Rhonda Gray and STRENGTH in Republic Fitness with Danny Ayala.
To view the full program and book your place, please click here.
Healthworks members, we ask that you reserve your seat online or in the app and allow us to reserve our Eventbrite seats for guests.
Ways to celebrate around our clubs
Watch, listen and read
Learning is power, and at Healthworks, we have a DEI Media Club that meets monthly. Below you’ll find a list of recent and upcoming books, podcasts, and movies we’ve discussed that we can’t recommend highly enough.
For a list of past years’ readings and resources, click here.
Important figures, past to present, in the black community
- Alice Coachman – Alice Coachman was the first black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal for the high jump at the 1948 London Olympics.
- April Ryan – April Ryan is the longest-serving black reporter on the White House press corps and has served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) for 25 years.
- Claudette Colvin– Claudette Colvin is an American pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. In March 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. This was nine months before the more widely known incident in which Rosa Parks.
- Dorothy Height – Dr. Dorothy Hite is recognized as the first leader of the Civil Rights Movement to recognize inequality for women and Black Americans. She was also president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.
- Elizabeth Freeman – Elizabeth Freeman, born “Mumbet,” became the first black woman to successfully file a lawsuit for freedom from slavery in the state of Massachusetts in 1781.
- Janet Mock – Yesnet Mock is a transgender rights activist, New York Times bestselling author and television producer. She is the founder of the annual #TransBookDrive and #GirlsLikeUs storytelling campaign to raise awareness of trans women and girls.
- Karine Jeane-Pierre – Karine Jean-Pierre is an American political adviser who has served as White House press secretary since May 2022. She is the first black and the first openly LGBT+ person to serve in this position.
- Rosa Parks – Rosa Parks helped start the Civil Rights Movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Her actions inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted more than a year and ended when the Supreme Court ruled that the bus segregation was unconstitutional.
- Shirley Chisholm – Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman to seek the nomination for president of the United States (1972).
- Tarana Burke – Tarana Burke is an American activist who started the MeToo movement in 2006 to help other women with similar experiences stand up for themselves.
- Wangari Maathai – Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on tree planting, environmental conservation and women’s rights.
We invite you to also visit our clubs this month as we feature local black-owned businesses that will be presenting tables. To be updated about our program, please follow us Instagram.
