Drinking Gourd is a network of Queer & Trans Black land stewards growing local Black infrastructures, harvesting self-determining and self-sustaining economies and sanctuary for Black people, guided by Afro-Indigenous healing traditions and land ways.

Our legacy is that of the Underground Railroad and marronage, the history of Green Books, and Negro Spirituals: ways of guiding our people to peace, healing, safety, and collectivity while under threat. We are guided by abolitionist traditions. 

DRINKING GOURD

Our core work is building, nurturing, and resourcing people with the skills and evolutionary values needed to steward land as a communal resource. We are a network of land spaces guided by spirit, the land, and our ancestors to practices collective decision-making and to sow seeds for the future together. Our pathway to liberation is illuminated by healing as a co-created process of restoration, care, and vision.

 

Some of what we offer to our network:

  • Infrastructure Support: creating collective models of governance; providing support to interface with federal and state requirements (tax, legal, budget, etc.); instruction in land care including gardening, crop cultivation, holistic nutritional guidance, and herbal medicine-making.
  • Legacy Building: maintaining land sanctuaries for the long term; endowing the next generations through covenants, regenerating processes, and sustainable economies.
  • Spiritual Support: teaching and supporting communication with ancestors, including all land guardians and spirits; trauma healing; spiritual initiations; assistance in grounding the vision of liberation; apprenticeships in healing modalities including body work, air and water purification, reiki, and shamanism.
  • Financial Support: short-term grants, long-term funding, and crisis relief funding for land spaces in our network.
 
 

Black Oaks Center

We are a learning center in sustainability, natural building, renewable energy systems, regenerative agriculture and resilience to facilitate future generations to thrive in a post-carbon world.

Earthseed Land Collective

We believe that creating intergenerational relationships and skill sharing promotes and increases resourcefulness, community wellness, financial independence and self-determination for our current past and future generations.

Foxfire Ranch

We are an entertainment and event venue in North Mississippi, centering rest, retreat, deep learning; celebrating 100 years of Black land ownership.

Gangsters to Growers/The Come Up Project Co-op

Our mission is to put into practice a holistic approach providing employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to returning citizens that live in under-served communities.

TKO Farming

TKO Farming is a fully sustainable farm within a larger community not only across Mississippi but connected to Black land-stewards across the South. Our mission is working to improve the social, economic and cultural landscape of black farmers while reconnecting with the land in a deep, enduring, and regenerative manner.

Nature’s Garden for Victory and Peace, Inc.

Our vision is to cultivate land that is preserved and built upon to evoke health, social wellbeing, victory and peace in members of the community.

North Star Farm (Organized by the Black Church Food Security Network)

We are a land-based holistic community development model that includes residential living on a 25-acre land trust.

Operation Spring Plant, Inc./Olusanya LLC

We are a grassroots, non-profit organization, dedicated to promoting self-help, community and economic development programs and initiatives for historically underserved and other small farmers and producers.

Sipp Culture

Sipp Culture is a generational approach to collective community development in rural Utica, MS.

Yisrael Family Urban Farm

Our goal is for community members to develop autonomy by shifting from consumers to producers while connecting their personal growth to community resilience.