hello…

Thanks for stopping by! My name is Hollie Sue Mann and I’m a writer, educator, yoga & mindfulness instructor, and social justice advocate.
I write at the intersection of the personal, political and loosely philosophical. I write as a way to know what I think. My work aspires to reveal something to myself and to you about our shared moral life.
Lately I have started a new writing project on Substack called, Bushes Afire. Some recent pieces are below. Please click the button to see them all.

Hello from my living room where, today at least, I am in desperate need of a map for this adult life, friends. I offer a little preview of what’s to come this week, and a sharing of one of my favorite memoirs, by Meredith Hall, that I think beautifully reveals in a roundabout way what it means to live a mindful life, not as we conventionally define it, but as I hope to reimagine it in my piece for you all later this week. It has much to do with remembering, reunion and self-discovery....

It is hard to deny that a light of learning has been, if not snuffed out, then seriously dimmed in young people as a result of Covid and its drastic interruption to their education and social-emotional development. This was apparent to me on my first day back to teaching, but I have felt it more deeply these last few weeks, as students seem to be struggling to get by, to stay engaged, to know what to do, and to simply show up. The other day, while leading a discussion on late-stage capitalism and black women in the family, I looked around and noticed a room full of people who seemed largely adrift, exhausted and, if I am being totally honest, simply unwell....

Here’s a little hello from me to you on this beautiful Sunday morning, and a reminder to sign up for my weekly newsletter, Bushes Afire. A new piece comes out every Wednesday. This week is all about what it’s like returning to the university classroom in a post-Covid world, and what the pandemic seems to have meant for students, teachers and learning communities....

Beauty is

Everywhere