Founded by Je-Shawna Wholley, Earthseed is a community and family archive project with the intention of healing through exploration, history and storytelling. This project is an opportunity for Black folks to delve into their family history and creating something for the future from what they find.
We recognize the emotional implications that come with facing the generations of colonial imperialism and anti-black violence that many of our ancestors had to endure. Our trauma informed curriculum approaches archiving Black stories and creating art from those stories as revolutionary acts.
The term Earthseed is a way to pay homage to the great Afro-futurist writer, Octavia Butler. Her work in the Parable series opened our eyes to new ways of intentional community building during times of chaos. This project is a legacy of black feminist healers, activists and cultural workers who preserve and revive marginalized narratives, experiences, trauma, resistance and healing stories. Experts (to include members of the cohort) will facilitate teach-ins that will help to further the participants' work and deepen our understanding of healing through remembering.
The Earthseed Black Family Archive Project cohort is an interdisciplinary artistic exploration of trans-generational healing and future world making. This cohort is for black change makers and cultural workers who are interested in doing their own family history work and collective storytelling. This group will have check-ins, read together, learn from each other and experts in the field. Each cohort member will be asked to create a short presentation as a creative representation of the information they learned from their family research. Your project will be presented during the culminating artists showcase at the end of the program. The theme for this year is “Answer the Ancestral Call.” You do not have to have a completely fleshed out project, but we would like to get a sense of: Why are you being called to this work at this time? What are you hoping to find? What are you interested in creating?
Cohort members will be paid a $1,000 stipend for their participation in the cohort and the showcase. Black folks who identify as queer, trans, 18-24 years old, 55 years and older, disabled, and/or immigrant are strongly encouraged to apply.
Archivists, scholars, artists and activists with various backgrounds will share insight on their philosophy and methodology as change makers and how they approach their work. Participants will receive feedback on their projects. Each session is designed to support our efforts as we create our own offerings of healing to our families and communities we are accountable for. We invite mental health practitioners, trained in trans-generational trauma, to discuss how to conduct trauma-informed oral history interviews. We offer genealogical research support and incorporate grounding practices because having to piece together your family history through land deeds or slave owner receipts is traumatizing and can be an isolating experience. This is why we create. Not only to leave something behind and to disrupt the criminalization of our stories; but to also process trauma and facilitate trans-generational healing.
All sessions are virtual. Closed captioning will be provided. ASL and second language interpretation is available upon request.
What does reparations require?
What does it look like to work with our ancestors in our liberation movements?
What does reparations look like with a trauma informed lens?
Who and whose are we?
What does it mean to mobilize the archive for justice and healing?
Build generative spaces of care for Black folks who are creating at the intersections of memory work, trans-generational healing, reparations and new world building.
Resource Black family historians, memory workers, artists and archivists committed to trans-generational healing and cultural preservation.
Create a space for collective dreaming and ancestral conjuring.