Preaching Black Earth

Melanie L. Harris is Professor of Black Feminist Thought and Womanist Theology and Professor of African American Studies at Wake Forest University, and Director of the Food, Health, and Ecological Well-Being Program at Wake Forest School of Divinity. Harris is a leading scholar in ecowomanism, a poet, a professor, and a mother. She weaves her academic work with her artistry as a singer, researcher, and writer. She is ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal church. Harris is the author of many scholarly articles and books, including Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker, and Womanist Ethics; Ecowomanism: African American Women and Earth-Honoring Faiths; and Faith, Feminism, and Scholarship: The Next Generation (coeditor). She is the founding director of The Ecowomanist Circle, a nonprofit organization dedicated to climate justice education and empowering ecowomanists and environmental writers.

"Should Asase Yaa (Mother Earth, in Akan) decide to speak today, her voice would reverberate with the sounds contained in Preaching Black Earth. The authors of this polyphonic and polyvocal anthology witness through interviews, poems, spoken word, and preaching the groaning, sighing, and loud expressions of the agonies and triumphs of Mother Earth. The editor of this exceptional work, Professor Melanie Harris, has truly allowed the earth to have being and voice and thus be a participant in the global struggle for justice. Not only is God's creative vision that all beings live in harmony clearly declared in this volume, but also ways of teaching, preaching, and creatively modeling the vision are made abundantly clear." —Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care, Candler School of Theology, Emory University"Preaching Black Earth spurs our theological imagination for what it means to live in fidelity with the wider creation. This volume is thoughtful, inspiring, and adept in its attention to culture and contexts. Harris has curated another compelling collection that elevates Black women's spiritual wisdom as a vital source for engaging our daily encounters as opportunities for sacred practice. Practitioners, laity, and scholars alike will consider this a must for their personal libraries." —Lisa L. Thompson, Associate Professor and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Black Homiletics and Liturgics, Vanderbilt University"This exquisite, spirit-filled, anthology invites all readers to centralize ecowomanist insights and methods in our work for earth justice. This book is a crucial guide for environmental and social justice in these times, especially (but not only) in North America. And the time to listen is now—especially for those of us of settler-colonial descent who inherited white theological privilege." —Christiana Zenner, Associate Professor of Theology, Science, and Ethics at Fordham University"The brilliance and prophetic wisdom that mark Melanie Harris's work abound in this book. It is a wellspring of deeply rooted soul-sustenance for the uncharted journey toward a world where Earth and earthlings may flourish. Ecowomanist wisdom guides the reader to weave contemplative practice into transformative power for earth justice as social justice. Brave and tender words light the way. Drink from this luminous volume to water your soul, illumine your connection to all that is, and ignite enduring courage for the collective sacred work of ecological social healing that is the great spiritual and moral calling of our time in history." —Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Professor of Theology and Social Ethics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and author of Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation; Building a Moral Economy: Pathways for People of Courage; and other works."This text brings together leading academicians, activists, and religious leaders who care about justice for people and the earth and shows how justice for people and justice for the earth are intimately connected. Bringing together the wisdom from environmental justice, earth justice, ecowomanism, and liberation and black theologies among others, the sermons, interviews, and poems in this book help us to look at the intersectional issues involved in eco-injustice faced by peoples, nonhuman life, and the planetary community. Most importantly, the writings in this text not only appeal to our rational selves but also appeal to the deep affective realities that lie in the wake of colonization, slavery, and ecological degradation." —Whitney A. Bauman, Professor, Religious Studies, Florida International University"This book is powerful in ways that deserve both careful attention and enduring praise. The variety of voices represented here is stunning. They are drawn together with Melanie's skilled weaving of suffering, solace, and solidarity in our times. She invites us into the space of effective transformative action." —Mary Evelyn Tucker, Codirector, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology