‘Wildness’ in Healthy Aging: The significance of the relationship to land/place for healthy aging in the Black community
“One of the things I hear in my interviews with Black elders about their relationships to land is that land is a way of knitting people together in relationships of ongoing care and intergenerational obligation to each other.”
– Mistinguette Smith
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Thank You to Our Featured Guest: Mistinguette Smith, Writer and Founder of the Black/Land Project
Thank You to Our Forum Host: Susanne Stadler, Architect and Executive Director of At Home With Growing Older
Conversation Details:
“For Black people, resourcefulness, resilience and regeneration are rooted in their relationships to urban land, and place.”
In this conversation with Mistinguette Smith, writer and founder of the Black/Land Project, we further explore how these relationships nurture and sustain older Black Americans’ lives and offer a legacy of well-being to Black people of all ages.
More About Mistinguette Smith:
Mistinguette Smith’s passion is to write about race, land and kinship. She is the founder of the Black/Land Project, which identifies and amplifies the relationship between Black people, land, and place, the principle of M Smith Consulting that serves philanthropic and social sector groups to implement change, and on the faculty of UVM’s Master’s program in leadership for sustainability. Her essays, poetry, and creative nonfiction have appeared in a wide array of publications. Her website has offerings of teaching tools and resources of the Black/Land Project for public use.
Takeaway Resources:
- Black/Land Project | Website: An overview with various resources or offerings.
- Wildness: Relation of People and Places | Video: Mistinguette Smith talks with the Center for Humans and Nature about what gifts emerge from the wild, black margins.
- The Deck | Discussion Tool: This helpful tool is used by the Black/Land Project team in its workshops. It is comprised of over 100 different questions that we can ask ourselves about Black relationships to land. You may find these questions helpful as a conversation starter, a writing prompt, or maybe even as a new perspective to consider.
- Black/Land | A Conversation & Video: At Harvard Graduate School of Design, Mistinguette Smith shares a wonderful and insightful engagement with students about Black people’s relationship to land/place.
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The original, live conversation was recorded on: Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 5:30 PM PST.