Did you grow up in aneighborhood or community that was mostly black? Where was it? Did your family live there by choice? Economic circumstance? History?
What things did you love about that neighborhood?
Aquimin is part of the Black/Land project, and this is an excerpt from his story:
“There's a creek running through the forest valley where my neighborhood is situated, and all through my childhood this is where I'd go to play, to hide, or to pray in silence the way lonely children do. Whenever I bring someone new to my home I always point out one particular house, one right up next to the creek, point to it and talk about how this is the house that I have a lifelong resentment against. "Why?" the guest will inevitably ask, but I could never understand why their response to my answer was always one of flat affect and quiet dismissal...”
Did you grow up in aneighborhood or community that was mostly black? Where was it? Did your family live there by choice? Economic circumstance? History?
What things did you love about that neighborhood?
As a black person in the U.S., how would you describe your relationship to land?
What piece of land — in a city, in the suburbs, in the country; a garden, church, a street corner; any place that’s on land, not water– what piece of land means the most to you?
This is a space for Black/Land Conversations: conversations withinblack communities about the relationship between black people, land, and place. Like our Black/Land individual and group interviews, these Black/Land conversations ask us to think deeply about specific questions. Because the purpose of the Black/Land Project is to share the powerful traditions of resourcefulness, resilience and regeneration that reside in black communities, our discussions tend to focus on assets and strengths, even as we acknowledge trauma and struggle.
Please keep your discussion posts respectful; on topic; and brief. Welcome!