“We are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, we are each other’s magnitude and bond,” are the lines from one of my favorite poems by Gwendolyn Brooks.  These inspirational words about the value of unity describe my commitment to equity and justice within the natural world and a quest for universal belongingness. Through my lived experiences as a Black woman, I have approached my professional and personal undertakings with an antiracist and decolonial praxis.  As such, the Wekesa Earth Center will be a reflection of this dogma and sensibility.

NatureRx@UMD, a program that I co-founded and co-direct, will be a feature of the Center within the Office of Programs. NatureRx@UMD highlights and leverages the natural spaces of the University of Maryland College Park campus arboretum for the purpose of health, well-being and environmental stewardship. Expanding beyond NatureRx@UMD, the Wekesa Earth Center will work to actively acknowledge the trauma endured by the Piscataway People and bring to light the legacies of violence, and displacement of their ancestors through education and other acts of tribute.

The Wekesa Earth Center will also continue to demand recognition and atonement for land based historical traumas related to African enslavement and anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. The center seeks to achieve equity, reconciliation, and healing in nature and to build a world where every human being is granted their right to enjoy and experience the privileges of these ancestral lands.

In Peace and Solidarity,
Jennifer D. Roberts
May 17, 2023