Rev. Dr. Melanie Harris is a professor of Black Feminist and Womanist Theologies at Wake Forest University, an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and one of the founders of ecowomanism — a theology and environmental philosophy centering the voices, wisdom, and spiritual practices of Black women and women of color.
In this conversation, Harris traces her own eco-memories back to Dearfield, Colorado, one of the historic Black-owned farming settlements founded by families who migrated west during the Great Migration — including her own grandparents. She reflects on growing up with a rare and precious connection to land and growing things, even as her family navigated the very real dangers racism posed to simply being outdoors in rural America.
Harris speaks candidly about how, in many African American communities, painful histories tied to slavery and cotton have led families to intentionally distance children from the land — a protective severing that ecowomanism seeks to gently repair. Drawing on her mother's practice of singing and humming to plants, she describes music, spirituality and land stewardship as deeply entwined threads of Black religious life.
She also talks about the hidden ecological history of Black women and why it matters to see women like Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer not just as liberators and Civil Rights leaders, but as environmentalists who understood the connection between racial justice and earth justice.
The episode closes with a meditation on the high desert of New Mexico, where the conversation was recorded – a portrait of land, memory, grief and grace held together.
This episode was produced in partnership with the Center for Humans and Nature and with support from the Kalliopeia Foundation.
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:00 Roots, Roses and Ecowomanism
00:10:55 Harriet Tubman, Environmentalist
00:17:30 The Lynching Tree and What Needs Repair
00:27:10 The Divine Feminine and the Desert
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Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson. Find out more about the show at https://wondercabinetproductions.com, where you can subscribe to the podcast and our newsletter.
