Resigning from a historic role was a tough call for Tracie Hall, but it was a decision necessary to embrace a new shift in her life.

She’d built a mammoth legacy after becoming the first Black woman executive director of the American Library Association in January 2020. Her philanthropic, innovative and optimistic spirit was needed as libraries endured a global pandemic, censorship challenges, record-breaking book bans and defunding strategies. These issues were occurring during a time when political scientists and researchers were becoming — and continue to be — more concerned about the effects of disinformation on democracy.

Under Hall’s leadership, the association created the first national anti-censorship campaign, Unite Against Book Bans, which empowers people with the tools to fight for the right to read. She improved the financial health of the association, giving it the power to create a grant program for librarians doing the work to improve their communities and a legal defense fund for those who were unjustly fired or facing litigation. More than $10 million was distributed to public school and academic libraries during Hall’s tenure. Hall was honored multiple times for her efforts at ALA. TIME magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in 2023. The National Book Foundation awarded her the Lifetime Achievement Award – the second librarian to receive such an honor.

All of these accolades were foreshadowed to Hall during her interview for the position.

“I joked and said, ‘You know, I’m just trying to make sure that Black girl magic doesn’t turn into Black girl tragic,” Hall said. “I said that because I have and continue to consciously fight a trope of my own making, but certainly a societal trope, that says that Black women’s value to the world is only when we’re doing labor.”

While Hall is proud of what she has built during her tenure, her words echo the generations of Black women who’ve spoken about the dangers of martyrdom. Folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neal Hurston said Black women were the mules of the earth in her book “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The imagery evokes a responsibility of servitude to one’s own detriment, which mirrors the psychological and physical consequences of the “strong Black superwoman” persona. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé believes Black women disproportionately face high rates of stress-related illnesses, such as anxiety, untreated depression and adverse birth outcomes, because they feel pressured to take on a persona that requires them to be strong, hyper-independent caretakers who suppress their emotions.

Hall takes pride in her hard work ethic, but has admitted to workaholism at times. Advocacy was something close to her heart, but in the back of her mind, Hall was coming to terms with her own mortality. She is only two years shy of turning 57, the age when her mother suddenly passed.

“I made a decision that I would try to do all of the work that was needed to the best of my ability, and when it was clear that the work was in a place where the baton can be passed – because you’re never finished – that I would move on,” Hall said.

That time came last October, when the ALA announced Hall’s departure so she could become more focused on creating a balanced life for herself – one that didn’t solely orbit around a profession.

“We spend a lot on ‘What are your career goals?’ But what about life goals?” Hall said. “I think it’s important to be fully dimensional and to pursue all your dreams. For me, that’s also about discipline because it’s easy to just keep doing the thing that you know. But you risk a lot, when you say, ‘No, I’m gonna go in the direction of this dream here.’ I’m sort of like, a real life example, that you can take a risk. And it can be scary, but it can also be very rewarding.”

Hall’s life goals include spending hours reading or writing in a Paris cafe, watching the push and pull of the tide in Cape Coast, Ghana, or polishing up her Spanish while strolling around in Mexico City. Peace is a passport for someone with as much wanderlust as Hall. “Travel is a form of meditation, release, and an opportunity to get to know world cultures, foodways, and indigenous forms of knowledge,” Hall said. “I’ve always seen travel as another form of reading.”

More traveling gives her an opportunity to complete her quest to visit 30 of the most beautiful libraries in the world. She’s halfway to her goal as of the beginning of February. The literary marvels that have swooned her heart include Biblioteca Vasconcelos, a library located in downtown Mexico City where bookshelves hang like honeycombs from the ceiling. She awed at the artistry dominating the interior and exterior of Biblioteca Central UNAM. The sprawling, colorful mural was painted by Juan O’Gorman, a friend and colleague of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The Seattle Public Library will always have a place in Hall’s heart because that’s where she first became a librarian.

Over the past 20 years, Hall has visited and held speeches at about 300 libraries worldwide. Even if the location is not on her list, she cherishes the architecture of each space, whether it’s the stained glass windows or the small rooms that have their own fireplaces.

“They all have a feeling that’s almost spiritual,” Hall said. “It makes you realize how important it is that we develop the life of the mind. In the same way that we have gyms for people to exercise their bodies, libraries are the place where they exercise their mind.”

Since leaving her post at the ALA, Hall’s advocacy work hasn’t gone to the wayside. She’s currently across the pond serving as a visiting fellow at Royal Holloway at the University of London, where she’s researching the impact of Brexit on public libraries in the United Kingdom. She’s also sharing her library trips on social media where followers are already being inspired to visit a library during their own travels.

Living life this way has shown Hall she can serve her community while replenishing herself. She hopes every Black woman does the same: to break through the stereotypes of over-extending servitude and to find their worth outside of being a wife, mother of the church, or any other title.

“What I’ve been interested in is what do Black women look like as creatives, as artists, as makers? What do we look like at play? What do we look like when we’re happy and in joy?” she asked. “What is the force that we bring into the world when we just have our heads held back in laughter? I’m wanting to explore that.”