Black Earth wisdom : soulful conversations with Black environmentalists

First Title Value for Searching:

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 290 pages ; 24 cm.

Summary:

"Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water as family and understood the intrinsic value of nature. This thought-provoking anthology brings together today’s most respected and influential Black environmentalist voices —leaders who have cultivated the skill of listening to the Earth —to share the lessons they have learned. These varied and distinguished experts include Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Alice Walker; the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet; marine biologist, policy expert, and founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, Savi Horne. In Black Earth Wisdom, they address the essential connection between nature and our survival and how runaway consumption and corporate insatiability are harming the earth and every facet of American society, engendering racial violence, food apartheid, and climate injustice. Those whose skin is the color of soil are reviving their ancestral and ancient practice of listening to the earth for guidance. Penniman makes clear that the fight for racial and environmental justice demands that people put our planet first and defer to nature as our ultimate teacher." --publisher's website.

Contents:

Foreword / Dr. Ross Gay -- A Watatic childhood : an introduction / Leah Penniman -- These roots run deep : a prayer of homage to our earth-listening Black elders -- It is time for a new covenant : a conversation with Awise Agbaye Wande Abimbola, Yeye Luisah Teish, and Awo Enroue Onigbonna Sangofemi Halfkenny -- All that breathes gives praise : a conversation with Ibrahim Abdul-Matin and Chris Bolden-Newsome -- Queer earth biomimicry : a conversation with Toi Scott and adrienne maree brown -- Reading the sky : a conversation with Dr. Lauret Edith Savoy, Rue Mapp, and Audrey Peterman -- So we walk : a conversation with T. Morgan Dixon, Teresa Baker, and James Edward Mills -- Each one teach one : a conversation with Angelou Ezeilo, Dr. J. Drew Lanham, and Dillon Bernard -- A home in this rock : a conversation with Dr. Carolyn Finney, Latria Graham, and Savi Horne, Esq. -- Rooted in the earth : a conversation with Greg Watson and Pandora Thomas -- Oldways : a conversation with Dr. Claudia J. Ford and Dr. Leni Sorensen -- Hope is a seed : a conversation with Aleya Fraser and Ira Wallace -- I can't breathe : a conversation with Sharon Lavigne and Dr. Dorceta Taylor -- One blue planet : a conversation with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Chris Hill, JD -- Rising waters : a conversation with Queen Quet and Colette Pichon Battle, Esq. -- The earth's song : a conversation with B. Anderson, Toshi Reagon, and Yonnette Fleming -- Climate griots : a conversation with Kendra Pierre-Louis and Steve Curwood -- A witness people : a conversation with Alice Walker and Dr. Joshua Bennett -- Exegesis : a conversation between the author and the earth -- Mama nature told me / Naima Penniman.

Subject Term:

African American environmentalists -- Interviews.

Environmentalism

Ecology

Environmentalists -- Interviews.

African Americans -- Interviews.

Additional Credits:

Penniman, Leah

Publication Info:

New York, NY : Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023]

Subject:

African American environmentalists -- Interviews.

Environmentalism

Ecology

Environmentalists -- Interviews.

African Americans -- Interviews.

Environmentalists, African American

Environmental movement

Balance of nature

Biology -- Ecology

Bionomics

Ecological processes

Ecological science

Ecological sciences

Environment

Environmental biology

Oecology

African Americans -- United States

Afro-Americans

Black Americans

Colored people (United States)

Negroes

SAILS ISBN:

9780063160897

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Bridgewater Public Library	333.72 PENNIMAN 2023	NEW NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mattapoisett Free Public Library	333.72 BLA 2023	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... New Bedford Francis J. Lawler Branch	363.7 BLA 2023	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Seekonk Public Library	333.72 BLAC	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A soulful collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore Black people's spiritual and scientific connection to the land, waters, and climate, curated by the acclaimed author of Farming While Black

Author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water as family and understood the intrinsic value of nature.

This thought-provoking anthology brings together today's most respected and influential Black environmentalist voices --leaders who have cultivated the skill of listening to the Earth --to share the lessons they have learned. These varied and distinguished experts include Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Alice Walker; the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet; marine biologist, policy expert, and founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, Savi Horne. In Black Earth Wisdom, they address the essential connection between nature and our survival and how runaway consumption and corporate insatiability are harming the earth and every facet of American society, engendering racial violence, food apartheid, and climate injustice.

Those whose skin is the color of soil are reviving their ancestral and ancient practice of listening to the earth for guidance. Penniman makes clear that the fight for racial and environmental justice demands that people put our planet first and defer to nature as our ultimate teacher.

Contributors include:

Alice Walker * adrienne maree brown * Dr. Ross Gay * Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson * Rue Mapp * Dr. Carolyn Finney * Audrey Peterman * Awise Agbaye Wande Abimbola * Ibrahim Abdul-Matin * Kendra Pierre-Louis * Latria Graham * Dr. Lauret Savoy *Ira Wallace * Savi Horne * Dr. Claudia Ford * Dr. J. Drew Lanham * Dr. Leni Sorensen * Queen Quet * Toshi Reagon * Yeye Luisah Teish * Yonnette Fleming * Naima Penniman * Angelou Ezeilo * James Edward Mills * Teresa Baker * Pandora Thomas * Toi Scott * Aleya Fraser * Chris Bolden-Newsome * Dr. Joshua Bennett * B. Anderson * Chris Hill * Greg Watson * T. Morgan Dixon * Dr. Dorceta Taylor * Colette Pichon Battle * Dillon Bernard * Sharon Lavigne * Steve Curwood * and Babalawo Enroue Halfkenny

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this uplifting compendium, Penniman (Farming While Black), cofounder of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, N.Y., brings together pieces linking racial justice with environmental stewardship. In interviews with 16 Black environmental activists--including Ifa priest Awise Agbaye Wande Abimbola and novelist Alice Walker--Penniman discusses acidifying oceans, environmental racism, and the unsustainable consumption of nonrenewable resources, while also touching on more positive considerations of the beauty of the natural world and what it means to live in "right relationship" with the Earth. Culinary historian Leni Sorensen notes that the legacy of chattel slavery complicates many Black Americans' relationship with land, a theme Penniman takes up in her conversation with Greg Watson, director of policy at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, about deepening Black involvement in agriculture through urban farming. The need for activism is highlighted throughout: Penniman emphasizes the importance of boosting the voices of young eco-warriors, while Aleya Fraser, cofounder of Black Dirt Farm in Maryland, opines on the "Afroecology" movement, which promotes kinship and living in harmony with nature. Soulful, spirited, and often joyful, this is sustained by a deep reverence for the Earth and its "symbiotic living ecosystems." The result is a potent look at the overlap between the environmental and racial justice movements. (Feb.)

Kirkus Review

Essays exploring the relationship between people of color and nature. Penniman, author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, shares her conversations with 16 Black environmentalists. "The voices and expertise of Black, Brown, and Indigenous environmentalists, amplified by all those who have eschewed white supremacy, must be heeded if we are to halt and reverse planetary calamity," writes the author in the introduction. "Ecological humility is part of the cultural heritage of Black people." The author weaves together the experiences and stories of this diverse group of individuals with respect to their relationships with "Mother Earth" and their perspectives on how to listen to her better. "Embedded in the theory of the supremacy of white people over other races," writes Penniman, "is the theory of human supremacy over nature." Among the topics she discusses in her joint conversation with Lauret Edith Savoy, Rue Mapp, and Audrey Peterman are the contention that national parks have been historically unwelcoming to Blacks and that the land used to create the park system was stolen from Native Americans. Regarding the enslavement of African Americans, Penniman contends that Blacks have "confused the subjugation our ancestors experienced on the land with the land herself." With Greg Watson and Pandora Thomas, she discusses ancestral grandmothers braiding seeds into their hair before boarding the trans-Atlantic slave ships, the value of traditional African diets, and the loss of connection to ancestral foodways. With Alice Walker and Joshua Bennett, the author discusses the role of Black eco-literature as a vital avenue to record and remind people of color of their history. Walker writes about hearing the Earth stories of various African American and Black members of her community, and while she was also interested in biblical stories, she believes they "further enslaved us in a belief system that took us a greater distance from our earthbound wisdom." Ross Gay provides the foreword. A powerful and passionate collection of instructive perspectives on nature. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

The environmental justice movement has raised awareness of the connection between racism and environmental degradation, demonstrating that Black and brown people are typically most impacted by toxic waste, food apartheid, and climate change. While mainstream, primarily white environmental organizations have largely ignored the needs of Black communities, the often unacknowledged Black environmental movement has thrived. Penniman, farmer, activist, and author of Farming While Black (2018), interviewed 28 African and African American farmers, climate warriors, food justice activists, spiritual leaders, and agronomists about their relationships to land and racial justice. A common thread is the need to recognize Africans' traditional connection to the earth, which was uprooted and tarnished by slavery and colonialism. Penniman chronicles the long history of Black environmental action in the face of white land theft, habitat destruction, extractive capitalism, and a racist wilderness preservation movement that ethnically cleansed Indigenous peoples to create national parks and then banned Black families from visiting them. Penniman and the interviewees offer a staggering range of reparative projects, including farms and community agricultural projects rooted in traditional African farming practices, heirloom seed cooperatives, nature therapy programs for juvenile offenders, and hiking groups for Black women and teens. It's clear that Penniman and her contributors view Black environmentalism as healing therapy not only for Black individuals but for the planet.

Opening
Foreword	xi
A Watatic Childhood: An Introduction	xv
These Roots Run Deep: A Prayer of Homage to Our Earth-Listening Black Elders	xxv
Spirit
It is Time for a New Covenant-A Conversation	3
All that Breathes Gives Praise-A Conversation	20
Queer Earth Biomimicry-A Conversation	35
Wilds
Reading the Sky-A Conversation	53
So We Walk-A Conversation	68
Each One Teach One-A Conversation	80
Soil
A Home in this Rock-A Conversation	101
Rooted in the Earth-A Conversation	117
Oldways-A Conversation	131
Hope is a Seed-A Conversation	147
Defense
I Can't Breathe-A Conversation	161
One Blue Planet-A Conversation	176
Rising Waters-A Conversation	191
Witness
The Earth's Song-A Conversation	205
Climate Griots-A Conversation	221
A Witness People-A Conversation	235
Closing
Exegesis-A Conversation between the Author and the Earth	253
Mama Nature told Me	259
Acknowledgments	267
Notes	269
Credits and Permissions	291
About the Editor	293

Available:

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Table of Contents