Description

In collaboration with Spelman College, Georgia State University will create an open access archive on Black women’s religious activism in America. Drawing its name from Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, which calls attention to black women’s “responsible, in charge, serious” leadership, The Garden Initiative aims to widen historical understanding of the religious leadership of African American women, and to equip religious institutions, scholarly communities, civic organizations, and social movements with new knowledge resources. The initiative will document transnational collaborations between African and African American women leaders, promote a broad examination of diverse religious traditions and varieties of religious leadership, create a hub for mentoring leaders through intergenerational dialogues, and seek to amplify the voices and religious perspectives of Black women. The project’s collection of historical materials and new oral histories will be housed in the Atlanta University Center’s Woodruff Library, featured on a public website, and form the basis for a major international conference in the grant’s final year.