Nailah Garard

Yale University, Yale Divinity School

"Black/Land Ministries"



Biography

Nailah Garard is a Masters of Religion candidate studying Black/African Diasporic Religion and Ecology. She recently graduated from Macaulay Honors College at the City College of New York where she studied international studies, anthropology, and legal studies. Her scholarly interests include black geographies and indigeneity, gender violence, and spirituality. She also enjoys creating poetry, paintings, and visual media to create conversation and raise sociopolitical consciousness. She is an alum and mentor in the Beyond Identity Fellowship under the Politics of Sexual Violence initiative for young women and gender non-conforming students doing identity-based research and political writing. Nailah is a singer, youth leader, and food distribution volunteer at her local church community in Long Island. As an artist and activist, she is deeply invested in an interdisciplinary approach to political education and creative expression.

Paper Abstract

Inspired by the vision of a black farmer commons, I propose a black church commons-- or understanding of the black church as sacred geography offering spiritual freedom and belonging, generational and collective land ownership, alternative economies, cultural preservation through foodways, and self-governance. I expand how we locate the black church by utilizing a black-indigenous and eco-womanist lens that sees the land as the basis of all liberation and acknowledges the central role of black women, the lived experience, and non-Christian communal beliefs. I investigate the theological underpinnings of food and land sovereignty, and historical case studies of black church land to demonstrate how black churches are flexible geographies that partner with the land for liberation and self-determination. This investigation will inform a project that utilizes the land resources of historically black American congregations in rural and urban communities to advance food and land sovereignty.