RESOURCES
Books
Herbalism & African American Herbalism
Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs – Gail Faith Edwards
African American Herbalism – Lucretia VanDyke
Working the Roots – Michele E. Lee
Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit – Linda Holmes
The Earthwise Herbal (Vol. 1 & 2) – Matthew Wood
The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism: Transform, Heal, and Remember with the Power of Plants and Ancestral Medicine – Karen M. Rose
The Modern Herbal Dispensatory: A Medicine-Making Guide – Thomas Easley
Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life – Scott Chaskey
Ancestral Practice & Intimate Herbalism
Plant Spirit Medicine – Eliot Cowan
Bitter Roots, Sweet Fruit – Lori Arviso Alvord
Sacred Woman – Queen Afua
Of Water and the Spirit – Malidoma Patrice Somé
Ancestral Medicine – Daniel Foor
Sex and Herbs and Birth Control: Women and Fertility Regulation Through the Ages – Ann Hibner Koblitz
The Intimate Herbal: A Beginner's Guide to Herbal Medicine for Sexual Health, Pleasure, and Hormonal Balance – Marie White
Sex and Herbs and Birth Control: Women and Fertility Regulation Through the Ages - Ann Hibner Koblitz
Birthing, Womb Work & Midwifery
The Fourth Trimester – Kimberly Ann Johnson
Birthing from Within – Pam England
Witches, Midwives, and Nurses – Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English
Reclaiming the Body – Sharon G. Mijares
The Way of the Doula – Rachel Gurevich and Patty Brennan
The Herbal Doula: Plant Medicine for Fertility, Community Care, and Birthwork--An inclusive guide from conception to postpartum – Marie White
Delivered By Midwives: African American Midwifery in the Twentieth-Century South – Jenny M. Luke
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America – Monique Rainford, MD
Farming & Sharecropping
Freedom Farmers – Monica M. White
Farming While Black – Leah Penniman
The Color of Food – Natasha Bowens
Rooted in the Earth – Dianne D. Glave
Black Earth Wise – Leah Penniman
Soil: A Story of a Black Mother’s Garden - Camille T. Dungy
Community Learning Resources
Soul Fire Farm Uprooting Racism Trainings
A hands-on program exploring food sovereignty, farming, and racial justice. https://www.soulfirefarm.org/programs/urfs/
BIPOC HERBALISM COMMUNITY
An inclusive, earth-centered community herbal education space with intimate and ancestral herbalism
teachings. https://bipocherbalism.com/community
Podcasts
Herbal Highway – KPFA: Plant medicine from a decolonial perspective
Black Healers Podcast – Uplifting Black herbalists and spiritual healers
Medicine Stories – Amber Magnolia Hill on ancestral remembrance and herbalism
Homecoming Podcast – Black birth workers on birth, parenting, and healing
GroundShots Podcast – Land connection, folk traditions, and earth-based practice
Documentaries & Videos
Herbalism & Ancestral Practice
Dirt and Deeds in Mississippi – Farming and Civil Rights
Rooted in Race – Black herbalism and land (YouTube short doc)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown – Includes community health context
The Healing Wisdom of Africa – Malidoma Somé interview/documentary
Birthing & Womb Work
Bringin’ in Da Spirit – About Black midwives in the South
The Business of Being Born – Explores birthing systems in the U.S.
Orgasmic Birth – Natural and empowered birthing perspectives
Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives – Holistic birth model
Farming & Land
The Seeds of Vandana Shiva – Global food sovereignty
Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land
Homecoming: Conversations on Land and Black Belonging – Soul Fire Farm series
Queen Sugar (TV Series) – Fictional, but resonates with land and legacy
Peer-Reviewed Articles
African American Traditional Medicine and Herbal Healing
Angela Harris, Journal of Black Studies, 2003
Explores the survival and evolution of African American herbal knowledge, particularly in the Southern
United States. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3180895
Herbs and Roots: Toward an African American Herbal History
Tamara Venit-Shelton, Southern Cultures, 2017
Provides a historical perspective on African American herb use from slavery through the early 20th century. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300243611/herbs-and-roots/
Ethnomedicine and African American Women’s Health
Cheryl Rodriguez & LaFrancine N. Johnson, Women & Health, 1999
Discusses the intersection of race, gender, and traditional healing among African American women. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J013v29n01_04
Re-membering the Body: Healing through Ancestral Memory
Linda Thomas, Journal of Black Psychology, 2008
Examines embodied memory and spiritual healing through ancestral lineage.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095798408314136
Decolonizing Healing: African Diasporic Spiritual Traditions and Mental Health
Afi Odelia Scruggs, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2016
Explores African diasporic healing modalities as decolonial mental health interventions.
Spirituality and Reproductive Health Among African American Women
Karen M. Jennings & Angela M. Odoms-Young, Journal of Religion and Health, 2011
Analyzes how spirituality influences Black women’s reproductive and birthing choices.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10943-010-9384-6
The Black Midwives of the South: Traditions and Resistance
Gertrude Fraser, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 1998
Highlights traditional Black midwifery as a form of resistance to systemic medicalization.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/maq.1998.12.2.161
Obstetric Racism: The Racial Politics of Pregnancy, Labor, and Birthing
Dána-Ain Davis, Medical Anthropology, 2019
Investigates racialized reproductive trauma and the importance of culturally relevant care.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2018.1549389
Black Agrarianism and the Enduring Legacy of the Plantation Economy
Monica M. White, Agricultural History, 2018
Discusses agricultural resistance and the Black agrarian tradition in the U.S.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/702862
We Were Never Meant to Survive: Black Feminism and the Politics of Black Land
Ashanté M. Reese, Antipode, 2020
Explores how land-based resistance intersects with Black feminist theory.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anti.12612
Sharecropping and the Cycle of Poverty
Pete Daniel, The Journal of Southern History, 1984
Analyzes the legacy of sharecropping on rural Black communities https://www.jstor.org/stable/2208476
Gossypium spp. (Cotton Root Bark): A Symbol of Herbal Resistance
Karen L. Culpepper, Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, 2017
Explores the history of cotton and the erasure of its duality within American slavery.
https://americanherbalistsguild.com/sites/americanherbalistsguild.com/files/jahg_autumn_2017_final_cotton_root_culpepper.pdf