Plant Medicine and Black Women’s Healing Traditions: A Roundtable
On Wednesday, April 26, 2023, from 4:00-6:00 p.m., the Black Dragon Breakfast Club will host a roundtable discussion titled "Plant Medicine and Black Women’s Healing Traditions." The event will take place at SCI 101, and will be followed by a reception. This event is co-sponsored by the Environmental Justice & Community Resilience Program, Cooper Foundation, Scott Arboretum, Dept. of Religion, Office of Sustainability, Interfaith Center, Women's Resource Center, Environmental Studies Program, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, and Black Studies Program.
The roundtable will explore the connection between ecology, plant medicine, and healing for Black women. Bell Hooks’ words in "Touching the Earth" will be the starting point for the conversation, as the panelists center on Black women healers who cultivate intimate, embodied engagements with plant and fungal medicine in their community healing work. As legalized cannabis markets generate increasing wealth, and decriminalized psychedelic therapy offers new horizons of hope for many who suffer from intergenerational trauma, the discussion will highlight the importance of making these emergent forms of radical healing accessible to those frontline communities most in need of compassionate care.
Through bridging emergent conversations in public health, critical race theory, public policy, and ancestral spirituality, the panelists will draw upon African Diasporic sacred principles of ecology and herbalist pharmacopeia traditions to foreground the curing wisdom of plants and fungi as a birthright of the Black community and a core relationship that sustains human health and wellness.
For more information about the event, interested individuals can contact James Padilioni, Jr., visiting assistant professor of religion and environmental studies at jpadili1@swarthmore.edu. Join the conversation and help us explore the healing potential of plant medicine for Black women. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn, connect, and heal.
