In her recent projects, Mann has started exploring the issues of race and legacy of slavery that were a central theme of her memoir "Hold Still". They include a series of portraits of black men, all made during one-hour sessions in the studio with models not previously known to her. Mann was inspired by Bill T. Jones' use of the Walt Whitman 1856 poem "Poem of the Body" in his art, and Mann "borrowed the idea, using the poem as a template for own exploration". Several pictures from this body of work were highlighted in Aperture Foundation magazine in the summer of 2016. and they also appeared in "A Thousand Crossings". This book and exhibit also introduced a series of photographs of African American historic churches photographed on expired film, and a series of tintype photographs of a swamp that served as refuge for escaped slaves. Some critics see in Mann's work a deep working through of the legacy of white violence in the South, while others have voiced concern that Mann's work at times repeats rather than critiques tropes of white domination and violence in the American southeast.