Black Earth Wisdom

November 28, 2022
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.

March 1, 2023
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.

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Starred review from March 1, 2023
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.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.