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For many people, the holiday season isn’t so merry and bright.
Cultural expectations of togetherness during the last months of the year trigger intense feelings of isolation and sadness in 61 percent of Americans. Mental health professionals believe this “holiday blues” exacerbates the pains of what has been deemed as a loneliness epidemic in America. Communal obligations to handle holiday responsibilities and the disproportionate amount of job loss have also amplified this grief for Black women.
Birmingham-area native Elizabeth “Liz” Southern and her college best friend Morgan Lee have created a hobby club called Leisure League where women are healing through connection and joy. Since its launch in February, Leisure League has boomed in popularity both in person and virtually with more than 7,000 Instagram followers. At least four times a month, women enter a curated space where they can find community while expanding the boundaries of their creativity. They’ve thrown down their creative juices on pottery wheels during a pottery class, rolled into fall during a sushi-making workshop, and crafted their very own glow serum during a skincare workshop.
While Leisure League is open to all women, the majority of the members are Black. Lee thinks it is important that her community has a safe space like Leisure League to be their authentic selves.
“I do feel like Black women need more community now considering the climate that we’re in,” Lee said. “It’s already hard enough being a Black woman. So being able to relate and connect with other Black women that’s going through the things that you’re going through helps alleviate the stressors.”
Southern is familiar with the ache isolation can bring. Near the end of 2024, Southern moved Mobile, Ala., where she made a life for herself while attending the University of South Alabama, to her hometown near Birmingham due to her job as a therapist for foster children. The work is rewarding and mentally taxing, Southern said. It was hard to shake off the emotional residue of the stories she was hearing during sessions. Exploring her creativity has always been her go-to spiritual cleanser to keep the irritability from settling into her spirit.
“It keeps me present because my mind is always running,” Southern said. “This kind of gives me a little time to chill and pour back into myself.”
Back then, Southern had a small circle that included her sister and Lee. She was having a hard time finding a way to connect with other women. So Southern asked Lee and her sister if it would be weird to start a hobby club in Birmingham. It was important to Lee for her to be supportive of Southern’s idea at that moment.
“I feel like me and Liz aren’t friends. We’re more so sisters at this point,” Lee said. “I was in that situation before, and I knew how it felt. I didn’t want her going through that on her own. So whatever I could give and do in that situation for her, I was gonna do it ten toes down.”
The women quickly gathered on Zoom to create a menu full of activities for the Leisure League and to start an Instagram page to spread the news of what was coming: a hobby club that helps women find community through their creativity. Leisure League’s first event was a galentine mixology class at Mayawell Bar. Southern was nervous about the get-together at first. The workshop got a good response online, but only a handful of people showed up for the first class. Her anxiety quickly eased up when everyone who signed up for the second mixology class showed up. Those who came to the first class had such a good time, they decided to stay and hang out with the rest of the women who were laughing and chit chatting with each other.
“It was surreal to see this idea we had on pen and paper come into life and people actually supported us,” Southern said. “A lot of the people who came to the first event come to an event a month. So we are almost really good friends.”
Lee and Southern regularly fill Leisure League’s event calendar with interesting activities where attendants can expand their toolbox of creative skills while getting to know local businesses in the area. In April, women decorated pots and planted their own plants during a paint and pot workshop at House Plant Collective. Fear of heights were pushed to the side during an aerial yoga class at Aero Joe Pilates back in November. Leisure League warmed things up on Dec. 5 during a glassblowing event at Whimsies Hot Glass where members forged their own colorful Christmas ornament in a furnace heated up to the same temperature as the surface of the sun.
Creating a safe space where Black women can exist without their personalities and expressions being filtered through the lens of sexism and racism has been a fulfilling mission for both Lee and Southern, especially during a year when Black women have experienced multiple forms of harm. An analysis by Fortune discovered that more than 600,000 Black women have been economically sidelined since February. More than half of that job loss happened between February and April alone, when divestment in diversity, equity and inclusion and federal government layoffs pushed more than 300,000 Black women out of the workforce. By August, Black women had lost 319,000 jobs while white men gained 365,000.
Economic setbacks compound on the mental toll Black women are already experiencing. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America said Black women experience anxiety more chronically and intensely than white women due to racial and gendered microagressions. Lee believes Black women are in need of a community where stereotypes don’t exist so they alleviate themselves from the stressors harming their wellbeing.
“When you’re Black, you’re never just alone. It’s always someone watching and trying to dictate what you’re doing or control your narrative,” Lee said. “So to be in a space with women who know what you’re going through and can relate just makes life so much easier. These spaces require open mindedness because every Black woman is not the same. We are all different. Just because we’re Black doesn’t mean we have the same perspective or live the same life.”
The desire to be perceived as resilient and self-sufficient, known in psychology as the “Strong Black Women schema,” can add the psychological burden of being a Black women. Southern recalls growing up in an environment where the women in her family endure a juggling act of emotional and cultural responsibilities without cracking the smile they present to the outside world. She has since learned how to express vulnerabilities and needs through therapy. No matter what hobby Leisure League is enjoying, Southern wants to fostering an environment where Black women can let their guard down.
“It starts with Morgan and I,” Southern said. “So when women come to the events, I give them a little spiel and just validate their feelings, whether they’re feeling nervous or excited. I let them know all feelings are welcomed and that they can participate as much as or as little as they want. It starts with us as the founders. Our attitudes matter. In order for women to feel invited to do something, we ourselves have to be inviting.”
In just ten months time, Lee and Southern are already witnessing positive results from their efforts. Those who were cautious about attempting aerial yoga were later jotting down information about how to take classes more often. Lee witnessed a heartwarming moment between a mother and daughter during Leisure League’s Build-Your-Own-Bouquet event, which is regularly held at Railroad Park. Multiple women brought different variations of flowers to make their own floral arrangements together. When the tunes were busted and the group started line dancing, the mother watched in awe when her typically reserved daughter hopped up and eagerly joined the other girls.
“Her mom was like, ‘This is not her. She doesn’t do things like this,’” Lee said. “So for us to be able to give her that safe space to be able to get out there, do what she wants and not second guess herself, and for her mom to actually be able out there and witness that, I loved.”
Southern doesn’t plan to keep fun, healing energy in Birmingham. She sees expansion in Leisure League’s future. Her and Lee have already received feedback about starting chapters in Huntsville and Montgomery. Southern said the youth she works with as a therapist have taught her a lot about the importance of community. She’s excited to see that manifest through the group she’s developing alongside her best friend.
“The youth always express to me that they want to be themselves in a crowd of people, whether they’re accepted or not,” Southern said. “I feel like that translates into community because what makes a community beautiful to me is seeing that everyone has different interests, personalities, upbringings, jobs and careers. So really, what makes you you is what boosts the community up.”
