Nia Harris

With roots entwined in the fertile soil of Eastern North Carolina, my path unfolds as a storyteller, mindfulness guide, land tender, Holistic Nutrition practitioner, Birth & Postpartum Doula, and spirited activist for Reproductive Justice and Ecowomanism. 

My lived experiences coupled with an academic formation at New York University have equipped me with the knowledge to devise restorative approaches to socioeconomic health disparities through cultural anthropological, public health, and social justice frameworks. Opportunities learning and working within a multitude of communities, organizations, and cities around the world supported me in weaving my background of ethnographic research, community engagement, farming/agriculture, birth-work, and traditional medicine and spiritual systems.

Answering the call to revive my ancestral lands in North Carolina, I began an longitudinal ethnographic research project titled "Healing from the Earth: how Black farmers utilize land and food sovereignty to restore health amid racial injustice" in 2021. The beauty of the interdisciplinary nature of my research unfolded as I shared living and working spaces with four resilient Black women land stewards in the Southeast and Northwest U.S. in 2022. Guided by the empowering principles of Ecowomanism and the frameworks of Reproductive Justice, I passionately dove into the intersecting spheres of farming, community organizing, healing arts, and activism to explore the myriad of ways Black land stewards are reviving liberatory practices with the intention to sustain their personal and communal well-being.

After my fieldwork, I joined the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition in Portland, OR. Here, I am deepening my knowledge, skill-building, and leading the Community Programs and Outreach efforts at Black Futures Farm, a community-building and production farm that is healing the connection between Black people and the land.

Each course, training, conversation, and story has magnified my “community toolbox;” skills, resources, and wisdom which guide me forward as a healing vessel for the communities I am called to serve. This is Healing Us Evergreen.