Earthseed Black Family Archive Project

What is the Earthseed Black Family Archival Project?

Founded by Je-Shawna Wholley, Earthseed is a community and family archive project with the intention of healing through exploration, history and storytelling. This cohort is for black change makers and cultural workers who are interested in doing their own ancestral work and collective storytelling. This group will have check-ins, read together, learn from each other and experts in the field. Our culminating event will be a public artist showcase - an offering representing our time together and the family root systems we were able to tap into.

What is “Earthseed”?

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, traumas, 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.

What is the Ancestral Reparations Cohort?

A collaboration between the Earthseed Black Family Archive Project and BlackRoots Alliance, this project is an intellectually artistic exploration of transgenerational healing and future world making. More specifically, this cohort will focus on questions pertaining to reparations: what does it mean for black families? what would it look like for our ancestors? what could we imagine as a collective? As the conversation of reparations shifts to "who" is qualified to receive reparations, some attention is being paid to the fact that many Black Americans cannot trace their lineage back beyond a couple of generations. As we work to make the case for reparations, it is important for us to support people as they unpack their lineage and discover more about where and from whom they have come. In order to heal ourselves and create a healed system, we have to work on healing generational trauma. This project creates an opportunity to those interested in delving into their family history and creating an artistic representation of what reparations could mean through a healing justice lens.


The Sessions:

Archivists, scholars, artists and activists with various backgrounds will share insight on their philosophy as change makers and artists, while providing feedback for the cohort members’ work. Each session is designed to support our efforts as we create our own offerings of healing to our families and communities we are accountable to/for. Those who identify as Black, 18 years+ old, elder, queer, trans, disabled, and/or immigrant are encouraged to apply.


Questions that are guiding this project include:

  • What does transgenerational healing require?

  • What are the current models for reparations? What is it missing?

  • What does reparations look like with a trauma informed lens?

  • What would our ancestors/family see as reparations?

Goals of the Project:

  • Build intimate spaces of care for community members looking to create around the questions of transgenerational healing, reparations and new world building.

  • Create space and opportunity for folks looking to heal from the impacts of white supremacy and capitalism by practicing communal care and mutual aid of resources, time and perspective.

  • Create a space for collective dreaming.