This is the third in our series of Black/Land stories, illustrating how black people self-define our relationships with land.
Land as Refuge and Self-Determination with Terra Turner
Terra Turner is an artist, healer, community leader and urban gardener in East Cleveland, OH. She is one of the founding board members of the Black/Land Project.
[Land as home] ownership is important because home, it’s the place where your people gather. When I bought this house, the intention was this could be a place where people could be, and where I could be with people that I love. That’s why I needed a house. I needed a place for my records, my books, my pictures. And I needed a place for the people that I love.
I think for us, particularly us black women, that’s huge. It’s the place where you are safe in the world, a place where nobody can talk over the children, nobody can be mean to the old people. There are some things that just can’t happen here, because I need to be in a place in the world where that shit don’t happen. I think that that piece is huge for our connection to land . It’s the space where we can control what the f*** happens. Because we can’t control what the f*** happens out there. We can’t.