National Association of Black Social Workers Conference

The 58th Annual NABSW Conference: We Are the Rhythm

The National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) will convene its 58th Annual Conference in Detroit, Michigan, under the theme We Are the Rhythm: Social Work through Resistance and Resilience. The conference centers the enduring legacy, cultural grounding, and transformative leadership of Black social workers across generations.

Rooted in the principle of Sankofa, this year’s gathering reflects on the ancestral rhythm that continues to inform Black social work practice—across classrooms, communities, hospitals, courts, and policy spaces nationwide and beyond. This rhythm, shaped by resistance and sustained through resilience, remains foundational to service, advocacy, and collective care.

The conference is positioned as both a professional convening and a cultural affirmation. Programming will examine how Black social workers lead practices of resistance that generate resilience, and how cultural heritage continues to shape approaches to liberation, self-determination, and healing justice. Workshops, plenary sessions, and cultural experiences form the core of the conference’s structure.

Participants will include both first-time attendees and long-standing members, creating an intergenerational space for connection, reflection, and renewal. The conference also provides opportunities for participants to reconnect with colleagues and recommit to shared purpose.

Detroit serves as a fitting host city—its history marked by resistance, its present defined by resilience, and its cultural rhythm deeply embedded in Black excellence. The city’s artistic, musical, and communal traditions provide a meaningful backdrop to the conference theme.

The 58th Annual Conference affirms NABSW’s ongoing commitment to sustaining the rhythm of Black social work in practice, community, and purpose.