Abstract
The current study employed interpretative phenomenological analysis and Gothic Black feminist thought to examine how nonbinary Black womxn (NBBW) in the United States conceptualize their gendered-racial identity and experiences in relation to nature. We recruited N = 11 participants using purposive sampling. Participants completed individual semi-structured qualitative interviews and photo elicitation to better understand how nature reflected and connected to their gendered-racial identity. Results comprised seven co-constructed themes referred to as the Seven Ecological Wisdoms: (1) Wisdom 1: Tripartite Consciousness and the Multidimensionality of Being, (2) Wisdom 2: Boundlessness and the Expansivity of Existence, (3) Wisdom 3: Seasonal Transformation and the Fluidity of Change (sub-wisdoms: Seasonal Transformation and Constant State of Flow), (4) Wisdom 4: The Deep Dive of Self-Discovery, (5) Wisdom 5: Hardship and Perseverance, (6) Wisdom 6: The Complexities of Community (sub-wisdoms: Community in Balance and The Imbalance of Power, Provision, and Reciprocal Care) and (7) Wisdom 7: Diversity is Naturally Occurring. Implications advocate for the integration of nature via a Gothic Black feminist framework to nuance how US Black womxn’s gendered-racial experiences are conceptualized and addressed in decolonial research and practice.
Introduction
Recalling the legacy of our ancestors who knew that the way we regard the land and nature will determine the level of our self-regard, black people must reclaim a spiritual legacy where we connect our well-being to the well-being of the earth. This is a necessary dimension of healing. –bell hooks, Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery
In her speculative science fiction novel, Parable of the Sower (1993), Octavia E. Butler (1993) forewarned a global climate crisis, economic corruption, poverty, houselessness, violence, and the destruction of community in the United States (US). From the first-person narration of her Black womxn protagonist, 15-year-old Lauren Olamina, readers witness the simultaneous social chaos and decline of the American empire, as well as the creation of a nature-based cosmological faith that Lauren documents as she traverses Western collapse. Butler’s futuristic novel is set in 2024-2027.
More than three decades after the novel’s publication, the US experienced global climate crisis (Frederico et al., 2024; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, 2023), the continued colonialism and genocide of marginalized peoples (United Nations, 2024), gendered-racial violence (Richie & Eife, 2021), White supremacist Christian nationalism and the politics of oppressive White conservativism (e.g., Project, 2025; Trumpism; Dans & Groves, 2024), and the ongoing legacy of a [cishetero] imperialist White supremacist capitalist patriarchy (hooks, 2004). Indeed, a colonial logic of domination, destruction, and power (Harris, 2017) connects the centuries-long and contemporary adaptations of interlocking oppressions, rendering the American habitat inhospitable to the Black womxn’s soul (Kerney, 2025). Despite this reality, Black womxn maintain a sacred and ancestral connection to American soil via the blood and bone sacrifices of their enslaved Ancestors (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Vigil et al., 2024). As such, Black womxn’s communion with and wisdom transmission from the American environ is as much a form of Black intergenerational wisdom-sharing as it is a transtemporal and transpatial eco-spiritual practice, with implications for healing work.
Nonbinary Black womxn (NBBW) is an umbrella term that describes the expansiveness, fluidity, personhood, and liberatory orientation of a population of persons who identify as both nonbinary and Black womxn (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). Of relevance, NBBW’s eco-spirituality, distinct from religiosity, is central to their gendered-racial experiences, culture, and identities (Kerney et al., 2025). Although NBBW describe maintaining a strong connection to their Ancestors, Nature, and a Higher Power (Kerney et al., 2025), empirical knowledge remains limited concerning the relationship between NBBW’s gendered racial experience and the American soil. Accordingly, there is an immediate need for research and clinical intervention that recenters Afro-indigenous onto-epistemological wisdoms and facilitates remembrance and reconnection (Dillard, 2012; Mullan, 2023) regarding Black womxn’s relation to land whilst employing a critical lens. Using a community-based participatory action research study design, the current study qualitatively explored how NBBW perceived their gendered racial being and its relationship to nature. By doing so, this study furthers the empirical understanding of NBBW and their perceived connections to nature, informing decolonial and integrative approaches to psychotherapy.
The Water Writers: Author Positionality
Monyae Kerney, The Medicine Womxn
I, the first author and Principal Investigator (she/They), am the coiner of Gothic Black feminism and creator of Gothic Psychotherapy (Kerney, 2025). I am a spiritual non-religious NBBW whose spiritual praxis reflects my love of darkness and reverence for ancestral connection. As a proud Black womxn, whose bloodline experienced disruption by forces of colonization and genocide, I remain connected to my ancestry through earth-honoring traditions; namely, Hoodoo, rhythmic movement, and ancestral veneration. I was born of the same soil as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and I write and dream with the vision of them both. By engaging with this American land through ritual, prayer, meditation, movement, and spiritual cultivation, I honor the interconnectedness of the earth, my ancestry, and myself. I then carry this torch of ancestral wisdom through my writing and other art forms. Within the Hoodoo tradition, medicine people were multifunctional, fulfilling roles as “the healer of the sick, the interpreter of the Unknown, the comforter of the sorrowing, the supernatural avenger of wrong, and the one who rudely but picturesquely expressed the longing, disappointment, and resentment of a stolen and oppressed people” (Du Bois, 1968, p. 95). It is from this role that my research, healing, and artwork derive.
I am an interdisciplinary and Gothic Black feminist artist-practitioner who engages in contextual multiplicity (e.g., Black storytelling, music, film; Toliver, 2021) as one means of remembering and reengaging Black knowing. I seek to further decolonize psychotherapy by integrating Afro-Indigenous beliefs, traditional healing praxis, and the Gothic, as I believe that healing ourselves requires attendance to one another, our Home, and the sinister shadows of American history. Congruently, I am passionate about documenting Black womxn’s wisdoms by honoring the past and savoring the present to leave seeds for future generations of our people. My personal practices of self and communal healing reify my work. Such practices involve tarot, altar work, herbalism, dance, and being in trans-species communion (Gumbs, 2020) with nature and animals, namely my Black cats, Wednesday and Soul. As a Pisces sun and Scorpio moon (with two Scorpio cats), I am Water in human form.
I am my ancestors, human and non-human, and I consider myself and my work to be a practice of sacred earth consciousness (CHN, 2024), aimed at acknowledging, remembering, and restoring our connection to the earth, the universe, and, more immediately, one another. My use of “Big ‘T’ They” pronouns is dually reflective of my gendered-racial expansiveness and ancestral embodiment. Readers should engage this work as sacred text–a celebration of earth and Black womxn’s continued existence, the documentation of our surviving wisdoms within the American Gothic (Kerney, 2025), and an incantation of remembrance. Let your soul stir.
Natalie Malone, The Embodied Healer
In November 2024, as Black womxn awaited the fate of the US administration, I, the second author (she/her), was in the Bahamas mourning my father’s loss. While there, I found a quote by Bahamian Black womxn artist and designer Tanya Klonaris, which speaks to how I perceive my gendered racial being: “There is an ocean inside me, it crashes and glides against the shores of my fingertips, it shapes everything I create.” I am a Black queer ciswomxn whose first Saturn Return arrived with my co-authoring this paper. My Saturn Return brings forth thrashing waves and calm ripples inside me as I create as a researcher and healer committed to Black womxn’s wholistic wellness and sexual/reproductive health. I was born and raised with my hands in the same soil as bell hooks and my ancestors, whom some described as “unruly” during enslavement. I carry their spirits forward through ancestral offerings (e.g., water, the dirt from their land) and my tattoo sleeve, featuring flowers from their life celebrations (read: funerals).
Professionally, I am a yoga practitioner and a counseling psychology doctoral intern who recently completed a dissertation focused on Black womxn’s embodiment. Black womxn’s bodies and beings are my specialties. I mentor the first author and share in Their remembering and returning to ourselves, each other, earth, and the cosmos. I have immense gratitude for her, the CAB, and this study’s participants for their trust and accountability in honoring the stories and lived experiences of NBBW. I bring my intuitive knowledge as a Black ciswomxn to this work, centering on NBBW as its sacred beneficiaries.
Theoretical Framework: Afro-Indigenous Ecowomxnist Cosmological Thought and Gothic Black Feminism
A combined theoretical framework of Afro-Indigenous Ecowomxnist Cosmological Thought (AIECT) and Gothic Black Feminism guides this study. AIECT conceptualizes the experiences of Black womxn via Afro-Indigenous cosmology and ecowomxnist theory (Forbes, 2001; Harris, 2017; Maparyan, 2017). Gothic Black feminism strengthens AIECT. Black queer feminism is an intersectional and revolutionary justice politic-based literary tradition that critically examines the experiences of Black womxn within matrices of power (Collins, 2022; Taylor, 2017). Gothic Black feminism extends Black queer feminism by examining Black womxn’s lives within the Gothic tradition (Morrison, 2004; Taylor, 2019)–examining parallels between such Gothic themes as otherness, duality, liminality, abjection, the supernatural, monstrosity, and dilapidation and the experience of Blackness, specifically Black womxness, in America (Kerney, 2025)–to further the sociocultural understanding of US Black womxn’s experiences’ navigating the Gothic American soul (Wester, 2022). In addition to death and destruction themes, Gothic Black feminism frames the US construction of Blackness, queerness, and womxness as monstrousness (Kerney, 2025). In doing so, it offers a lens to understand Black womxn’s isolating experiences of surviving oppressive systems.
Afro-Indigenous Ecowomxnist Cosmological Thought (AIECT)
Holism and the interconnectedness of being are central to AIECT’s onto-epistemology (Forbes, 2001). Research demonstrates the importance of holism to Black conceptualizations of mental health, including the mind, body, psyche/soul/spirit, and environment (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024). AIECT postures that Black wellbeing cannot be achieved by fragmenting the self from others, Spirit, and Nature (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024). According to Forbes (2001), humans are in a living universe where kinship exists between all things. Being in a living connection, we are part of the earth, as the earth is part of ourselves. Provisions mutually occur through this interconnectedness of nature and the self (Harris, 2017; Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). By extension, AIECT views the human destruction of the earth as the inevitable destruction of ourselves.
Being in an ongoing relationship and sharing the same environment and experiences of being (e.g., an eco-identity; Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024), humanity gains much of its wisdom from interacting with both our human and nonhuman ancestors. As such, the current study utilized an Afro-Indigenous cosmological vision, reified by ecowomxnism and Gothic Black feminism, to examine how NBBW perceive the connection between their gendered-racial identity and the natural environ.
Ecowomxnism
Alice Walker’s (2004) Womanism conceptualizes Black womxn in connection to their [meta]physical and [super]natural environments (Krishnan, 2019). Walker (2004) described a womanist as someone who loves and appreciates women’s culture and is “committed to survival and wholeness of an entire people, male and female” (p. xi). A womanist loves her/themself just as much as the moon, Spirit, Folk, and the struggle. References to the moon and Spirit reflect an eco-womanist approach (Harris, 2017). Ecowomanism has three core principles reflected in the onto-epistemological stance of AIECT: (1) Livingkind (all living things are of a type), (2) Aliveness (life pervades all creation, visible and invisible), and (3) Luminosity (all living things are filled with light and spirit; Maparyan, 2017). Accordingly, ecowomanism asserts the existence of interconnected, living threads.
The ecowomanist paradigm urges the recovery and reclamation of the African descendants’ connection to the earth and land (Harris, 2017) through critical deconstructivism. In practice, ecowomanism uses a race-class-gender analysis of African cosmological eco-wisdoms, proffering the interconnectedness of African descendants to community, nature, Spirit, and humanity, and draws parallels between the violation of the African woman’s body under White supremacist regimes of colonization and domination, and the violence suffered by the earth’s body politic. Spiritual, intellectual, and strategic resilience are championed as liberatory methods for recovering the earth community.
Like womanism, eco-womanism is deeply sexed as it primarily refers to Black women and the Black woman’s body as something inherently feminine and cisgender (Harris, 2017) and therefore may not fully account for the experiences of non-cis Black womxn identities. Because of this, this study proposes an ecowomxnist framework that centers the experiences of Black, queer, nonbinary, and trans Black womxn 1 identities and provides a Black, queer, intersectional, and eco-centered approach to understanding non-cisgender and non-heterosexual experiences specifically of Black womxnhood (i.e., queer, nonbinary, and trans) in relation to historic, present, and future [meta]physical and [super]natural influences, and systems of power. Certainly, decolonial and Afro-Indigenous feminisms (Curiel & Pión, 2022) challenge the essentialist categorization of “woman.”
Gothic Black Feminism
Gothic Black feminism attends to themes of death, duality, abjection, otherness, dilapidation, isolation, madness, and monstrosity as they relate to Black womxn’s experiences in America (Kerney, 2025). Through its ecological lens, Gothic Black Feminism addresses themes of Black womxn’s lived experiences as they pertain to the paralleled destruction of the environment under oppressive colonial structures of power, domination, and subjugation (Harris, 2017; Kerney, under review). Literature demonstrates that Black womxn describe the American environment as “haunting” (Kerney, 2025; Taylor, 2019); an environment saturated with political darkness, moistened with ancestral blood, and fertilized with ancestral bone (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Accordingly, identifying and exploring Black womxn’s relationship to ecology requires a Gothic frame that explicitly foregrounds the grim sociopolitical realities of American darkness.
Gothic Black Feminism is Black ecology. It remembers the wisdom of Black freedom by fire — the burning of Black flesh (Holiday, 1939) and White plantations (Figueroa & Morrison, 2025). It invites the inherited memory of Black consumption by oceanic waves—Black bodies beseeching watery graves rather than be torn asunder by the jaws of chattel slavery (Snyder, 2015). It conjures the collective recall of Black ancestors tending to the American land with sweat in life, and decaying tissue in death (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Gothic Black Feminism delves into the darkest recesses of Black embodied memory, examining the African descendants’ connection to American nature. In all its horror and in all its beauty, the American landscape provides a portal — an ecological mirror— connecting the spirits of the Black living and the Black deceased—a portal of soil where the intergenerational transmission of Black ecological wisdoms and power may occur.
Black Womxn’s [Eco]Spirituality
In The Color Purple, Alice Walker (1982) introduced audiences to Black womxn’s ecospirituality through Celie’s first written words, “Dear God,” and concludes the novel with the greeting, “Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God.” Celie’s relationship to God extends beyond traditional religious theology, revealing an Afro-Indigenous cosmological construction of ecospirituality that encompasses nature, people, and the Divine. Black womxn’s engagement with ecospirituality is longstanding and evidenced within African Diasporic spiritual practices and humanities.
Regarding spiritual practices, historical and contemporary evidence reveal how diasporic practices, such as Hoodoo (Hazzard-Donald, 2012), Conjure (Chireau, 2003), and Rootwork (McQuillar, 2010), within the Black US populace necessitate communion with nature. Hoodoo is a tradition of healing and harm that emerged in the US with enslaved African Americans and has been continually practiced by their descendants, with Black womxn serving as central figures in the intergenerational transmission of its wisdom (Kordas, 2016). Hoodoo combines spiritual and medicinal functionality by integrating traditional African beliefs, practices, and Afro-Indigenous herbal healing knowledge (Hazzard-Donald, 2012). Through the engagement of ecospirituality and herbalism, Hoodoo practitioners heal the spiritual and physical maladies of Black Americans and protect against the oppressive evils embedded in US soil (e.g., gendered racial injustice). Rootworkers within the Hoodoo tradition engage in spiritual and medicinal healing, utilizing the four elements of water, fire, earth, and air to address communal and individual needs holistically (Martin, 2025).
Hoodoo and other African traditional and derived religions surface within Black adaptations of dominant religions in the US, like Christianity. For example, Harriet Tubman’s story is revered for her deep connection to God and reliance on nature’s wisdom during her journeys to lead enslaved Africans to freedom. Tubman reported navigating toward freedom by following prominent natural signs, such as Polaris—the North Star, a powerful symbol in biblical and astrological contexts—and moss, which typically grows on the north side of trees (Bradford, 2021). Indeed, the [meta]physical and Black revolutionary-justice politics share a collaborative history in Black womxn’s survival, instinct, and resistance.
The humanities, particularly Black womxn’s expressions through music and literature, exhibit ecospiritual wisdoms for the intergenerational transmittance of knowledge. In the Queen of Neo soul, Erykah Badu’s (1997) Appletree, she sang “See I picks my friends like I pick my fruit/And Granny told me that when I was only a youth.” Badu’s wisdoms regarding friendships are passed on from a matriarch (i.e., Granny) and closely mirrors her relationship to fruit. Similarly, contemporary Black womxn artists, including SZA, Solange, and Jhene Aiko, incorporate the voices of ancestors and mentors through song recordings, providing ecospiritual knowledge to other artists and their listeners (Aiko, 2017; Knowles, 2019a, 2019b). For example, Aiko’s (2017) Oblivion included earth wisdom from her father, Dr. Jaramo Chilombo, who said, “From the metaphysical to the physical, let there be no doubt […] If you talk to your plants, they will talk to you and they will nourish you/Nourish you to greater creation.” Notably, Chilombo provided this nature-informed guidance following Aiko’s Gothic reflections of her Black womxn reality: “The world’s a fucking mess, it’s gone to shit and I am every bit a part of it. I may have started it/I try to find a brighter sight/An elevated, higher sight, it’s out of sight, out of mind” and “My life’s a fuckin trip/It makes me sick/I am so jaded and I hate it/I’m faking it.” Black womxn’s connection to nature and spirituality, as it relates to understanding and navigating their Gothic experiences, then holds many implications for Black womxn’s healing.
Black feminist writer bell hooks (2014) explained in Sisters of the Yam the importance of nature in Black womxn’s self-recovery. She positioned her explanation within Kentucky soil - a US state described as the land upon which a “brutal slave enterprise” occurred (Talbot, 2025): When we love the earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully. I believe this. The ancestors taught me it was so. As a child, I loved playing in the dirt, in that rich Kentucky soil, that was a source of life…I knew that my grandmother Baba’s backyard garden would yield beans, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and yellow squash, that she too would walk with pride among the rows and rows of growing vegetables, showing us what the earth will give when tended lovingly” (hooks, 2004, p. 135).
hooks’ ancestors, including her grandmother, taught her the importance of fostering a loving relationship with the land, as she and the land are one, echoing the wisdoms of ecowomanism (Harris, 2017). Cultivating such relationships for Black womxn is sacred, as it fosters the route back to self-reclamation and self-recovery as evidenced by Black feminist wellness models (Jones & Guy-Sheftall, 2017; Mosley, 2023). According to hooks, Black womxn’s healing and self-recovery cannot be parsed from our relationship to the land.
NBBW report the importance of spirituality, the sacredness of the land, and the wisdom of ancestors as central to their experiences of navigating systemic oppressions as queer, Black, nonbinary and trans persons (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024); thus, there is a need for the advancement of counseling empiricism and psychotherapeutic healing modalities that understand, tend to, and facilitate Black womxn’s ancestral connection to nature.
Ecology, Spirituality, and Decolonizing Healing
African and Indigenous wellness practices challenge the colonial logic of wellness within Western contexts (Gamby et al., 2021). This is necessary because a Western context heavily influences psychology’s approach to healing. Accordingly, African and Indigenous perspectives of mental health and wellness are largely devoid (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024). For example, Halbert Dunn's (1961) wellness model comprised a health axis and environment axis, conceptualizing “high-level wellness” as the absence of disease and an optimal biopsychosocial environment. Halbert’s model continues to influence the US health and wellness industrial complexes by a tendency to pathologize rather than hold individuals and systems accountable for their impact—particularly on marginalized groups, such as Black womxn (Mullan, 2023). In contrast, disease-free is not equivalent to optimal well-being within Afro-Indigenous conceptualizations of wellness (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024; Myers, 1993). For example, Optimal Conceptual Theory (OCT) draws on African sociopolitical values of holism and unity to offer a sustainable framework for understanding wellness along a continuum that accounts for the individual, community, and systems (Myers, 1993). Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al. (2024) Healing Orb detailed five elements of mental health informed by the qualitative insights of Black Americans: Dynamic Balance, Orientation to Mental Health, Integrated Parts of a Whole, Existentialism, and Locus of Control; thereby, conceptualizing wellness beyond the absence of disease and specifying the integration of spiritual and existential phenomena (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024).
Research demonstrates the importance of engaging with spirituality for Black populations (Bojuwoye & Edwards, 2011; Kerney et al., 2025; Malone & Hargons, 2021). Reed and Neville (2014) found a statistically significant relationship between spirituality, religiosity, and psychological well-being and the mediating influence of spirituality on the relationship between religiosity and mental health and religiosity and psychological well-being in a sample of 167 Black women. Using a Black feminist approach to psychotherapy, Malone and Hargons (2021) conducted a case study demonstrating client-reported outcomes of relaxation, a deeper knowledge of self, acceptance, and self-compassion from the integration of culturally adapted mindfulness-based interventions (i.e., Healing Circle, ancestral healing ritual, convening with nature during session) for a Black queer ciswomxn client.
Research also demonstrates an association between improvements in mental health and wellbeing (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, cognitive and emotional functioning) and exposure to nature (Hossain et al., 2020; Kamitsis & Francis, 2013; Kamitsis & Simmonds, 2017). Trøstrup et al. (2019) conducted a systematic review of quantitative literature examining the impact of nature-based intervention (NBI) on the mental health of persons of diverse gendered-racial identities with physical disease. They found a significant effect on mental wellbeing. Coventry et al. (2021) similarly reported in a systematic review that NBIs, particularly gardening, green exercise, and nature-based therapy, effectively improve mental health outcomes in adult populations (Coventry et al., 2021).
Kamitsis and Francis (2013) found a positive relationship between engagement with nature (i.e., exposure and connectedness) and psychological wellbeing, with spirituality as a statistically significant mediator, emphasizing the importance of nature and spirituality to wellbeing. In 2017, Kamitsis and Simmonds used interpretative phenomenological analysis to examine ecotherapy practices qualitatively (e.g., nature-guided mindfulness and meditation, nature-based homework, and connection to nature facilitation) in counseling. For example, the study found [experiential] reconnection with nature, the use of natural objects in session, and nature-oriented metaphors to integrate Indigenous healing praxis and foster healing in psychotherapy. Notably, the Kamitsis and Francis (2013) study did not report including any Black womxn in its sample, thereby reiterating the need for empirical literature specifically centering on this population.
Research conducted by Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al. (2024) reported the significance of nature in forming an affirming relationship to one’s queer identity among NBBW. Yet, decolonial praxis within applied psychology and similar [Western] healing traditions is limited (or absent from classrooms). Mullan (2023) critiqued the colonial underutilization and intentional erasure of Indigenous healing beliefs and practices in favor of an individualistic, pathology-oriented conceptualization of mental health in the West. Similarly, Curiel (2022) emphasized the importance of centering decolonial feminisms in research and practice to disrupt the coloniality of knowledge. There is a clear need for research and healing intervention, such as the current study, examining the role of nature in Black womxn’s wellbeing to inform the development of culturally relevant and queer-affirming clinical approaches. Understanding how NBBW perceive themselves in relation to nature may be a preliminary step to engaging spirituality, ancestry, and nature-derived praxis in session.
The Current Study
Within the field of counseling psychology, existing literature concerning Black nonbinary identification is scant (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). Project NBBW, an endarkened Black queer feminist and decolonial community-based project, is the first study to consider the experiences of NBBW. Originating from Project NBBW, the current study qualitatively examined how a sample of NBBW perceived their gendered-racial identity in connection to nature. Deepening the phenomenological understanding of NBBW’s gender-racial identity by incorporating nature represents a decolonized scientific endeavor consistent with Gothic Black feminism (Kerney, 2025; Kerney, under review). Additionally, this study provides insight into how ecology may inform decolonial, culturally responsive, and queer inclusive healing work (i.e., psychotherapy, case conceptualization, assessment, intervention) for queer, nonbinary, and trans Black folx. The guiding research question was, “How do NBBW perceive the connection between their gendered-racial identity and nature?” We anticipate that participants’ connections are important to their gendered-racial being and essential to their healing.
Method
I exist in the ecology of my Shinnecock ancestors, who have been in sacred relationship with Atlantic Right Whale for centuries, and my Ashanti ancestors, who call the name oVf the whale as one of the names of god. –Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
Project NBBW: A CBPAR Endarkened Black Queer Feminist Project
Data were from Project NBBW – a community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) project guided by the Endarkened Black Feminist Decolonial Paradigm and ecowomxnism. This study examined the gendered racial, sexual, spiritual, and ecological experiences of NBBW (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). EBFDP prioritizes the diasporic spiritual and religious wisdoms, experiences, and identities of African descendant women (Dillard, 2012; Evans-Winters, 2019), while asserting the importance of recentering the authenticity and agency of Black feminist researchers and subjects in the collection, interpretation, and textual play of qualitative data, thereby substantiating a CBPAR approach. Broadly, the project aimed to expand empirical and clinical understanding of Black queer identities and experiences to advance decolonial healing approaches within counseling psychology. A collective of NBBW community members and sexual and gender minority Black womxn university researchers called the C.I.R.C.L.E. (the Collective Infiltrating Research to Center Community Liberation and Embodiment) developed the project. See Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024 for more information on Project NBBW’s CBPAR design and combined paradigm.
The community advisory board (CAB) consisted of five Black womxn, aged 25–31, located in the Northeastern and Southern US. Four members identified as NBBW and one as a Black ciswoman. All members were sexual minorities, college-educated, and ethnically African and/or African American. The first board member was a queer NBBW artist and nonprofit operations director. The second board member was a PhD student in clinical sexology, an Orisha devotee, and a spiritual and queer NBBW. The third board member was an African Lesbian/NBBW and a research specialist. The fourth board member was an associate project manager in clinical product development who identified as queer. The fifth board member was an executive assistant and social worker who identified as a queer, fat NBBW.
Participants and Procedure
Pseudonyms and Sample Demographics
aGender Identity provides further specificity regarding individual gender identification within the Nonbinary Black womxn umbrella.
bParticipant indicated cultural religious identification rather than personal religiosity.
This study operated per the university’s institutional review board’s ethical research standards. The C.I.R.C.L.E. co-developed all study procedures and centered community advisory board feedback. We recruited participants for Project NBBW through virtual flyer distribution and word of mouth. Nineteen interested respondents completed an online Qualtrics screener to assess study eligibility. Eligibility criteria were (1) African diasporic descent (2) nonbinary identification (e.g., fluid, trans*, two-spirit), and identifying as a Black womxn, (3) living within the US, and (4) 18 years or older. Upon reviewing the eligibility criteria, the C.I.R.C.L.E. determined that 15 respondents met the full eligibility requirements. The PI then contacted respondents via email to schedule individual interviews—resulting in a final sample size of 11 participants. Smith and colleagues (2022) stated that a sample size of six to ten participants, particularly at the doctoral level of study, is a sufficient sample size for interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Interview procedures consisted of verbal questions and photo elicitation. The C.I.R.C.L.E. collectively agreed that individual interviews with identity-congruent (i.e., Black womxn) university-trained researchers were the optimal approach for establishing trust and safety with participants (Walton et al., 2022). Before interviews, the PI, a NBBW, led a gender-affirming interview strategies session, including strategies for establishing and repairing rapport with gender minority participants (Mosher et al., 2017). The community advisory board volunteered as mock interview participants.
Photo elicitation is a research technique and interviewing method used to encourage participant reflexivity (Harper, 2002). To prepare for this interview portion, each C.I.R.C.L.E. member gathered a minimum of four images in accordance with the following criteria: (1) Each image must be photographed by the C.I.R.C.L.E. member themselves (i.e., no internet-generated images) and (2) Each photo should capture at least one of the four natural elements (water, earth, air, fire). Of the 51 collected images, we removed 25 due to blurriness, duplication, and/or failure to meet the agreed-upon criterion, resulting in a final slide deck of 26 images. The 26 images varied in elemental, seasonal, and regional representativeness, though all images were reflective of the US natural landscape. The slide deck accompanied the interview prompt, “Please pick the photo(s) that you feel best represent what being a nonbinary Black womxn means to you.” Interviews were audio-recorded and conducted virtually using HIPAA-compliant Zoom. The informed consent process included a discussion of voluntary participation, terms of compensation, and potential risks. Participants could withdraw their consent at any time during the interview process. Interviewers checked for participant understanding and obtained verbal consent before starting the audio recording. Participants received $15 for compensation. To maintain participant confidentiality, only university-trained C.I.R.C.L.E. staff had access to identifiable participant data.
Data Collection and Analysis
Semi-structured, in-depth, one-on-one interviews with open-ended probes elicited rich participant narratives. Each audio-recorded interview lasted 36 to 84 minutes, averaging 64 minutes. Although all participants responded to all interview questions, the detail provided in their responses varied, accounting for the variation in interview length (i.e., 36-84 minutes). Example interview questions were: 1) What role, if any, does spirituality and/or religion have in shaping your gender identity (as a nonbinary Black womxn)? and 2) What influences who and when you choose to share your identity with people? This study prioritized the following prompt from the interview protocol: “Please pick the photo(s) that you feel best represent what being a nonbinary Black womxn means to you.” Interviewers from the research team then showed the participants images from the photo deck one at a time, moving on to the next photo only when instructed to do so by the participants. The PI used a professional transcription software to de-identify and transcribe all audio files after each interview. Next, the PI reviewed each transcript for clarity and accuracy by comparing the audio files to the generated text. Following these checks for accuracy, we (the study authors) began data analysis. CAB members were only made privy to the deidentified data set.
We used Smith and colleagues' (2022) seven steps for interpretative phenomenological analysis informed by the is (i.e., descriptive) and means (i.e., interpretive) phenomenological method to examine the manifest and latent content (Saldana, 2021). First, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the first case to familiarize ourselves with the initial data sample. Next, we engaged in exploratory noting by recording initial impressions and reflections through memoing. Then, we constructed experiential statements by identifying emerging descriptive and interpretative themes within the data (step three). For step four, we connected across themes by examining relationships and patterns among the emerging themes. Step five involved consolidating and organizing these themes into tables and figures to represent the developing thematic patterns visually. We repeated this analytical process for each participant’s dataset (step six: cross-case analysis). Finally, we conducted an inter-case comparison (step seven) to identify patterns and points of convergence across participants.
The author met with the C.I.R.C.L.E. to discuss preliminary data analysis findings and incorporate CAB feedback into the finalized analysis. Endarkened Black queer feminist (Evans-Winters, 2019; Collins, 2022) and ecowomxnist lenses (Harris, 2017) provided the guiding framework for interpreting the data, with a focus on understanding gendered-racial identity in relation to ecological phenomena.
Data Trustworthiness, Transparency, and Openness
This report included sample size determination, author positionality and reflexivity, and the data analytic process. The Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS; Kazak, 2018; Levitt et al., 2018) guided the production of this paper. We used the following mechanisms to enhance qualitative rigor: bracketing, triangulation, and peer debriefing with community advisory board members (for more information on these strategies, see Alase, 2017; McLeod, 2024). Our reflexivity, detailed previously, provides insight into our bracketing process. Additionally, all C.I.R.C.L.E. members discussed how the study findings converged and diverged from our lived experiences. Memos bolstered triangulation.
A Note From the PI
As an additional measure of data trustworthiness, I participated as a pseudo-research participant. A research team member interviewed me; however, my narratives are not included within the presented findings. In line with this study’s paradigmatic position and as a Gothic Black feminist NBBW, my reflexivity as a pseudo-research participant and transparency regarding my connections to the study echo the culturally congruent qualitative practices of sista circle methodology (Palmer & Udoh, 2024) and decolonial feminism (Curiel, 2022). My embodied understanding of the NBBW lived experience enriches the interpretative and intersectional lens of this study. For data analysis, I leveraged this strength in conjunction with the aims of IPA and utilized memoing, journaling, and reflexive conversations with the C.I.R.C.L.E. throughout the research process to explore how my social locations and potential biases might impact data trustworthiness.
Community Advisory Board
Within CBPAR, advisory boards enhance the realness or veracity of study findings (Vasquez Guzman & Heintzman, 2024). The C.I.R.C.L.E.’s community advisory board convened with the research team throughout the entire research process, including data analysis and interpretation. During the peer debriefing process (McLeod, 2024), the community advisory board provided additional insight into data analysis and interpretation by situating themselves within the emerging themes and reflecting on the nuances of their personal identities and experiences related to their connections to nature. They asked challenging questions and provided diverse perspectives that enriched the process of preparing this manuscript.
Results
Regarding participants’ interpretation of nature, overlapping wisdoms emerged across the four natural elements (i.e., earth, water, air, fire). We co-constructed seven ecological wisdoms (i.e., themes) from participant responses: Wisdom 1: Tripartite Consciousness and the Multidimensionality of Being, Wisdom 2: Boundlessness and the Expansivity of Existence, Wisdom 3: Seasonal Transformation and the Fluidity of Change (sub-wisdoms: Seasonal Transformation and Constant State of Flow), Wisdom 4: The Deep Dive of Self-Discovery, Wisdom 5: Hardship and Perseverance, Wisdom 6: The Complexities of Community (sub-wisdoms: Community in Balance and The Imbalance of Power, Provision, and Reciprocal Care), and Wisdom 7: Diversity is Naturally Occurring. The elements and wisdoms constituted The Ecological Mirror presented next.
The Ecological Mirror
In line with AIECT and Gothic Black feminism, participants positioned themselves within the earth, and earth within themselves, utilizing the Ecological Mirror (See Figure 1). The Ecological Mirror expands upon Afro-Indigenous ecowomxnist cosmologies, which position all things in a living relation to one another, honoring parallels between the earth and the experiences of African-descendant womxn via intersectional womanist analysis (Harris, 2017). Conceiving NBBW as physically and spiritually interwoven with ecological phenomena, the Ecological Mirror suggests that in convening with and observing the processes of nature, womxn of African descent will observe similarities regarding experience and identity. Within a Gothic Black feminist frame, the deterioration of the American environ may then spur paralleled reflections of otherness, liminality, monstrosity, and dilapidation when Black womxn peer into the mirror. The Ecological Mirror
As interconnected kin, the Ecological Mirror purports the existence of shared qualities and ways of being in the world among Black womxn, from which mutually relevant and intergenerational wisdoms may emerge. Just as blood relatives share heritable predispositions and may develop analogous learned traits, so too may Black womxn’s environmental kin mirror back a kindred nature, as reported by participants. As such, Black SGM populations, such as NBBW, who have been societally constructed within racialized and cisheteronormative hegemonies as unnaturally queer and deviant, may find queerness evinced within nature. Correspondingly, if queerness is unnatural yet nature is queer, then the Ecological Mirror becomes a fundamental site of highlighting and deconstructing such a paradox. Similarly, observing the processes, experiences, and consequences of nature as subjected to colonial logics of domination and subjugation may reveal compelling wisdoms concerning how Black womxn navigate and survive within the Gothic American reality. Thus, the Ecological Mirror functions as a deconstructive and constructive tool of countermemory —an ecowomxnist tool that challenges generalizations, stereotypes, and oppressive narratives (Harris, 2017) related to gendered-racial identity. It may also function as a tool of the Gothic, mirroring back themes of liminality, duality, and the supernatural, as Black womxn make sense of their Gothic American condition (Kerney, 2025).
The Ecological Mirror–featuring the four elements and the seven wisdoms emerging from this study’s NBBW participants–functions as a portal for Black womxn to see, know, understand, and affirm more about the self; and as such, becomes a powerful tool for healing intervention. The Ecological Mirror and its seven wisdoms were inductively derived from the data analysis. Next, we present each Wisdom and provide substantiating quotes from participants. Quotes include pronouns, references to relevant photo deck images (denoted by “P#”), and references to the four natural elements (denoted by “E”). Additionally, we provide evidence that The Ecological Mirror materializes for participants.
“…but also, here’s my leaf – Wisdom 1: Tripartite Consciousness and the Multidimensionality of Being
In Wisdom 1: Tripartite Consciousness and the Multidimensionality of Being, participants described the experience of tripartite consciousness and multidimensionality evidenced within the Ecological Mirror, namely referring to the elements of earth and water. They navigated a tripartite consciousness shaped by racial salience in America (Du Bois, 1968), the intersection of race and assigned sex at birth (Lorde, 1984), and a split marginalized gender identification (i.e., nonbinary and Black “woman; ” Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). Accordingly, participants’ self-identification as NBBW was often incongruent with individuals’ perceptions of them as cisgender Black women and subsequent interpersonal treatment informed by those perceptions. Participants felt individuals could not fully grasp the multidimensionality of their gendered-racial being through external observation, thus generating a Gothic sense of duality. While studying the characteristics of P26, Jasper (she/they) shared: The mountain tree image and then the reflection, I guess, are kind of this duality, especially how Black womxn are seen and treated and exist in society. You can kind of see the murky vision in the water, but it's not showing you what it's made up of or what it really is. (P26; E: water, earth)
Jasper interpreted the fullness of the trees, which represented Black womxn
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, as partially reflected within the distorted reflection of the water; thereby mirroring how [nonbinary] Black womxn are only partially perceived and understood within society (i.e., tripartite consciousness). The “murky vision in the water” obscured the finer details of the trees, illustrating how dominant modes of perception render the multidimensionality of NBBW invisible to external observers. Furthermore, Jasper’s statement suggested that the limitations of the murky water’s two-dimensionality erased the three-dimensionality of the mountains. Therefore, the murky water represented the limited perceptions of individuals in dominant society observing NBBW - perceptions that were only partially reflective and largely devoid of (“it’s not showing you what it's made up of or what it really is”) the true complexities of NBBW’s gendered-racial identities and experiences. This distortion created the sense of a Gothic double (Strengell, 2003) — a public and private, external and internal sense of self and experience. Opal (she/they) found similar resonance with P26 stating, The reflection [of the mountain in the water], and how it's a little bit distorted, as most reflections are. Like how people might perceive you on one way, but the real mountain or whatever that is on the top half [...] You look at the reflection and think that you’re seeing the real thing, but you're not. (P26; E: water, earth)
Like Jasper, Opal (she/they) commented on the mountain’s distorted reflection as mirroring the partial perception of NBBW through the external gaze. For Opal, the mountain itself symbolized true identity and experience (“the real mountain”). The reflection of the mountain represented a turbid replica of truth. Notably, Opal expanded hers and Jasper’s musing, explaining that some individuals may fail to consider that the mountain’s reflection in the water is flawed or distorted when compared to the mountain itself (“you look at the reflection and think that you’re seeing the real thing, but you’re not”). Accordingly, the reflection becomes the mountain for these viewers, becoming the perceived truth of the mountain’s existence. If the mountain represents NBBW’s true identity, Opal’s elaboration revealed that individuals often remain unaware of the complexities of NBBW’s identities that they have missed and remain confident in the accuracy of their distorted view. Consequently, the external invalidation and erasure of NBBW’s multidimensionality may occur within and outside of conscious awareness (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). This distortion may also sequester Black womxn to a state of perpetual otherness and liminality–one where the real self is never afforded a firm place within the public world and is thus damned to a never-ending sense of in-betweenness.
Emerald (she/they) observed her likeness within a family of fuchsia flowers: Your eyes are drawn to the flowers, which are very feminine and gorgeous. It's a really beautiful color. But then there's so much below it and so much that’s helping it to grow. Just because I feel, in my experience, the way people look at me is the flower, but then there's everything else. There's dirt down there, and there's a plant, and there's leaves, and there's all these other things, but people are just like, “You look like a beautiful flower.” It’s like, “Yes, I love this flower, but also here's my leaf.” (P5; E: earth)
The vibrant hue of the flowers in P5 caught Emerald’s eye; yet as they noted, the flower’s body was more significant than its petalled presentation on the earth’s surface and included other observable (and just as captivating) components (e.g., soil, leaves) central to its growth and existence. As a NBBW, Emerald drew a parallel between the oft-unacknowledged multidimensionality of the flowers and the ignored depth of their own identity (“the way people look at me is the flower, but then there’s everything else. There’s dirt down there and there’s a plant and there’s leaves”). Being only partially seen and therefore only partially experienced by others as solely a “beautiful flower,” neglected the fullness and multidimensionality of Emerald’s gendered-racial being. Like the dirt and leaves, the intricacies of participants are readily apparent, though perhaps subconsciously neglected by external perceivers who hyper-fixate on a “very feminine and gorgeous” presentation (i.e., binary gender assumptions). This inability and/or refusal to see beyond the surface beauty of the environment mirrors the ecowomxnist observations (Harris, 2017) of White colonial tendencies to dominate and subjugate the environment through exploitation rather than cultivatCing a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship.
Furthermore, the dirt mirrored a veil between two worlds, perhaps the private and public realms, that created a sense of splitness for Emerald. That which others acknowledged above the dirt and that which remained othered beneath it seemed to constitute two distinct but related worlds in which NBBW perceive themselves as inhabiting. This suggests a perpetual sense of liminality.
Using the Ecological Mirror, Onyx (she/her) similarly observed the multidimensionality of NBBW’s gendered-racial being as reflected in the fuchsia flowers’ duality. She explained, “…femininity and masculinity. We got flowers, but we got a lot of dirt too. Trees and stuff like that. So, to me, all the different things coming together is more of what I think about being a Black womxn and nonbinary” (P5; E: earth). To Onyx, the flowers, dirt, and trees represented the integration of masculine and feminine elements within one earthly body. This reflection paralleled the West African god MawuLisa, who controls sky elements (e.g., thunder) and simultaneously is and expresses “male-femaleness” (Agboada, 2024, p. 1029). The coexistence of these elements (“all the different things coming together”) affirmed the simultaneity of femininity and masculinity and the concurrence of Black womxn and nonbinary identification (i.e., NBBW).
The inability and/or refusal of others to acknowledge the multidimensionality of the NBBW beyond assumptions of cis-ness speaks to an ongoing sense of otherness and perhaps even monstrousness experienced by the participants. While NBBW described themselves as multidimensional, they reported being experienced as an incomprehensible assemblage of identities and experiences — a Frankensteinian creation of sorts — that metaphorically splits and buries parts of the living self beneath “the dirt.” Thus, this incongruence between the truth of the mountains, the multidimensionality of the flowers, and the restricted observation of perceivers contributed to the NBBW participants’ described Gothic experiences of tripartite consciousness, liminality, and otherness. Indeed, NBBW participants described a sense of being buried alive.
“…that feeling of infinity” - Wisdom 2: Boundlessness and the Expansivity of Existence
Boundlessness and the Expansivity of Existence referred to the sense of limitlessness that participants observed within ecological phenomena, paralleling their own embodied experiences of boundlessness, expansiveness, and limitlessness, which were freed from binary gender constructs (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). Participants felt that the air — the phantom element — affirmed these characteristics. While viewing P16, Jasper (she/they; P16, E: air) said, “…that feeling of infinity…” while Onyx (she/her; P19; E: air) noted “the openness” of air reflecting being a NBBW. Emerald (she/they) similarly stated, A defined horizon. That’s where I feel I would be. I feel very 50/50 most of the time. It's like, that's why I couldn’t just pick or want to date guys or girls or pick to want to identify as a woman or a man. There’s so much things that just exist in the fuzziness of the horizon. There’s an airiness to it. You’re just floating around and you’re floating in between spaces, and that's what this feels like to me. I guess something about the expansiveness of it… It's like you could go anywhere. That’s what it feels like sometimes. It’s just floating in between this horizon and the clouds below you, and you're just somewhere in the mix of it. (P16, E: air)
For Emerald, the horizon represented the liminal meeting of earth and sky—a convergence of infinite possibility and in-betweenness. The horizon represented the synchrony of earth and sky and thus validated Emerald’s perceived existence at the intersection of otherwise binary sexual and gendered concepts (“that’s why I couldn’t just pick or want to date guys or girls or pick to want to identify as a woman or a man.”). Air gave Emerald a phantom-like sensation of “floating between spaces,” creating a sensation of osmosis — a characteristic and power NBBW associate with sacredness (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Accordingly, Emerald revealed that the gendered-racial potentialities of NBBW were without bounds, allowing NBBW to “go anywhere,” existing “just somewhere in the mix of it.” The limitless expanse of the sky (i.e., air) mirrored the divinity of NBBW’s gendered-racial existence, aligning with the eco-spiritual conceptualizations of AIECT. Similarly, the spirit-like quality of floating around and between spaces reflected a supernatural and Gothic sense of gendered racial experience.
Garnet (she/they; P3, E: air) remarked, “There’s this element of it [air] that reminds me of divinity... like beyond. It's in the sky, it's endless, it's boundless.” The infinite nature of the sky evoked a sense of divine omnipresence for Garnet, engaging them with her [eco]spiritual nature - an inherent quality of NBBW (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). According to Garnet, the sense of “beyond” observed by air and evidenced by the sky mirrored NBBW’s existence as endless, all-encompassing, and omnipresent; again, alluding to the sacredness of NBBW’s osmosis (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024) and the phantom-like quality of their (un)embodied experiences. Onyx (she/her; P3; E: air) observed the boundlessness of the sky in P3 as reflective of NBBW’s liberative orientation: “The expansive, it's not nothingness, but…there's nothing stopping us from being who we are.” Though there were clouds present within P3 (“it’s not nothingness”), Onyx determined their presence to be navigable (“there’s nothing stopping us from being who we are”). The clouds seem to represent challenges posed to NBBW’s existence that are tangible yet surmountable in the journey of authentic boundlessness.
Air was not the only relevant element for Wisdom 2. Jasper (she/they) found the expansiveness of water reflective of the expansiveness of Black womxn’s love: The expanse of love and care, or that feeling of being engulfed in it. Even when you are having a rough day and you're walking down the street, and a Black womxn’s like, “Okay, I see your eyeliner!” It kind of just engulfs you and takes you in. (P12; E: water)
While the expansiveness of air reflected the boundlessness and divinity of NBBW, Jasper added that the expansiveness of water mirrored the all-encompassing nature of Black womxn’s care ethic (“It kind of just engulfs you and takes you in”) (hooks, 2005). Their inability to see the depth of the body of water in P12 evoked a sense of similarity in the unending tenderness of Black womxn’s affection for each other. The captured movement of the calm water with gentle, lapping waves echoed Jasper’s quotidian exemplar used to illustrate Black womxn’s love and care (“Okay, I see your eyeliner!”); thereby demonstrating a significant cultural impact (“that feeling of being engulfed”) rooted in the power of Black womxn’s existence and the Black feminist politics of communal love. Certainly, participants’ reported reflection of air’s spectrality and water’s perpetuity conveys a Gothic sense of eternity.
Lazuli (she/they) found representation within the boundlessness of sunflowers. Though not infinite in body, such as air or water, the sunflower represented existing in an ungendered manner; thereby validating the gender expansiveness of NBBW. I know [a] sunflower is definitely, I don't know, a symbol, an emblem in my life. And I think in terms of gender, I almost want to be like, “Yellow is such a neutral color in my opinion.” Where I'm like, “That can be feminine, it can be masculine.” I’m also like, “If we’re not gendering flowers, why do we gender people?” (P15; E: earth)
Unlike the fuchsia flowers whose color participants named is commonly associated with femininity, the sunflower’s color negated binary gendered categorization. Yellow was free from gendered connotations such as “girls like pink” (Opal; she/they), and symbolized gender neutrality within nature (“Yellow is such a neutral color in my opinion… That can be feminine, it can be masculine”). Lazuli engaged an ecowomxnist and Afro-indigenous cosmological lenses by situating herself and other [nonbinary] Black womxn in conscious relation to nature and questioning the disparate treatment of plants and people (“If we’re not gendering flowers, why do we gender people?”). This query rests on the assumption of an inherent similarity in the existence of plants and people, suggesting that if flowers are permitted to exist ungendered, why then are not people? Furthermore, unlike water and air, the sunflower inhabits a more definitive body and yet remains unbound by its corporeality. Similarly, the NBBW seems to suggest a freedom from being unbound by embodiment–the ability to transcend the perceived limitations of the physical self. The ability to inhabit and remain unbound to one’s corporeality suggests a supernatural sense of being. The sunflower thus garners the Gothic possibility of an un/gendered and un/embodied existence of NBBW.
“…constantly evolving, constantly shifting - Wisdom 3: Seasonal Transformation and the Fluidity of Change
Via the Ecological Mirror, participants noted change as a natural part of the landscapes in the photo deck. Observed within the earth (i.e., trees), fire (i.e., sun/solar movement), and bodies of water, participants described the Seasonal Transformation and Fluidity of Change in nature as reflecting and affirming NBBW’s ongoing gendered-racial transformation (e.g., gender expression, self-understanding). Participants identified two manifestations of transformation evident within nature and, therefore, themselves: (1) Seasonal Transformation-recurring variance evident within nature due to seasonal shifts mirroring variance in the journey of gender identity, and (2) A Constant State of Flow-the fluid ebb and flow of ecological and gendered transition mirroring the quality of water.
Seasonal Transformation
Seasonal Transformation naturalized variability within personal gender identity by positioning it within the naturally occurring iterations of the changing seasons. Emerald (she/they) described a daily fluctuation in individual gender identity as evidenced by the seasonal change of trees: You get to pick what you want to be based off the day because of the way the colors are changing in the trees. Yeah. There's something about that. It just feels so natural, and it took me a long time to feel natural in even wanting to wear makeup sometimes and not wanting to other times. But I think, yeah, it's seasons and these trees go through seasons. Especially when you're not fully aligned with one experience or another in terms of binary, you just go through seasons where sometimes you're like, “I feel a bit more femme today, or I feel a bit more masc today.” Yeah, it's what this tree reminds me of. (P10; E: earth)
Emerald expressed that the seasonal change of leaf colors affirmed and facilitated the frequent (i.e., daily) variability in NBBW’s gendered understanding and presentation (“You get to pick what you want to be based off the day because of the way the colors are changing in the trees”). She had previously conceived of their own dynamisms as unnatural but found solace in the naturalness of the changing trees. Seasonal tree transformation encouraged a sense of ease and comfort with Emerald’s self-metamorphosis. Her occupation of the in-between and the beyond, an alien space of partiality in alignment (“you're not fully aligned with one experience or another in terms of binary”), is rendered native within the iterative death of seasonal transformation (“you just go through seasons”). Certainly, the death and rebirth cycles of seasons seemed to reflect the participant’s sense of recurring self-death for the sake of transfiguration. The ability to move endlessly through sequences of death and life suggests a Gothic-like sense of immortality (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024).
Garnet (she/they) similarly identified the naturalness of transformation and the unnaturalness of stagnation via the seasonal change of trees, saying, I feel like I am somebody who feels deeply connected to nature because it has its seasons. It's never really stagnant, it’s always... It shifts and... We are existing in this space, but there's so much that is maneuvering around us, and then we are within it. (P5; E: earth)
Garnet described a deep connection to nature, shaped by the seasons. Seasons confirmed the inherent transience of their ecological being (“It’s never really stagnant, it always… It shifts”). Seasonality substantiated her continual gender evolution and confirmed the constant movement of internal milieu within an infinitely shifting ecology (“We are existing in this space, but there’s so much that is maneuvering around us, and then we are within it”). Furthermore, Garnet’s existence within a space located within a larger and more dynamic space suggested their simultaneous occupancy of multiple realms of existence. One imagines a flurry of ghosts flying around an otherwise peaceful graveyard. Thus, the relationship between death, life, and transformation, as suggested by the participants’ allusion to seasonal transformation, exists within co-occurring, dynamic, and multilayered realms of existence. Accordingly, participants’ meaning-making processes through seasons have important Gothic implications of the nature of existence - particularly how NBBW grapple with life, being, and existence.
While Emerald and Garnet observed the evolution of trees, Lazuli (she/they) perceived the transformation of fire: Phoenix …When I think about the evolution of your gender and those different iterations, I think that you can burn it down and you can start again if you're like, “I didn't like how I identified 10 years ago, I found a new term or a new phrase that best describes me.” (P18; E; fire)
Lazuli began by referencing the phoenix, the sacred symbology of resurrection and life after death (Hill, 1984). Like the phoenix, she identified with constant evolution (“you can burn it down and you can start again”) - specifically in language, understanding, and identity. Gazing into the flames of solar fire depicted in P19, Opal (she/they; P19; E; fire) observed “that spiritual energy…the sun setting, going into the night.” The transience of the sun’s diurnal dance evoked a sense of “spiritual energy.” A sacred cycle of rising and setting, patterned by day and night, confirmed the vacillating nature of Opal’s gender and their divinity as a NBBW. This transience supported the liberative vision and energy reported by NBBW. As Sapphire (they/she) stated, “you're not going to be in something forever” (P10; E: earth).
Liberative Transformation by Fire and Water
One participant, Amethyst, largely observed Liberative Transformation within the fire and water elements. Amethyst (any pronouns) expressed, “it’s like fire is a chemical reaction, so I think it’s just the intersection of race and gender is pretty transformative, like fire” (P18; E; fire). Liberative Transformation captured how participants were catalysts of change, capable of conceptual deconstruction, within their seasonal transformations. Amethyst continued, But I mean, like a river through a canyon, it [water] cuts through... Not cuts through. I don't know, grinds it down, but that's pretty negative. I don't know, like erosion - a pretty consistent force of nature. I think eroding, well, just a lot of White standards of beauty, White standards of what a woman is, just because a lot of Black womxnhood requires you to do stuff that isn't generally expected of a woman. At least, in the US, Black womxn have always worked. So, wearing away a lot of gendered expectations. (P8; E: water)
As water erodes rock, so do [nonbinary] Black womxn wear away at the compilation of sedimented gendered-racial standards and expectations (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). Through Amethyst’s perception, NBBW, like water, constituted a “consistent force of nature,” cutting through concretized concepts of Whiteness (“White standards of beauty”), gender (“White standards of what a woman is”) and Black womxnhood (“a lot of Black womxnhood requires you to do stuff that isn’t generally expected of a woman”). His quote suggested that, with time and constant pressure, NBBW erode otherwise enduring, inflexible masses of obstruction. Yet, “despite what you have to go through, what others put you through, the day will still come to an end, and it’ll still be okay, and it’ll be okay in the end” (Jasper, she/they; P25; E: fire). Just as the sun sets and the day ends in P25, so too will the challenges NBBW experience all “be okay in the end.” However, this sense of resolution seems to be rooted in Black womxn’s ability to effect change, as suggested by the transformative power of fire and water. Transformation by force of nature, such as through the act of burning suggested by Lazuli, reflects both Afro-Indigenous (Agboada, 2024) and Gothic sensibilities of justice and rebirth (Brontë, 1847/2006). Therefore, the seasonality of nature reflected NBBW’s ability to envision a future forged by death and fire.
A Constant State of Flow
A Constant State of Flow referred to the ebb and flow of transition, commonly observed by participants within water. Water affirms that transition need not be static or iterative; instead, transition can be fluid, without shape, without a linear or circular pattern, and without a set form. Thus, like air, water also functioned as a phantom-like element. For participants, “the fluidity” (Onyx, she/her; P12; E: water) of gender represented a constant state of fluid transition. Lazuli (she/they) observed, I just think water is constantly ebbing and flowing. And I think that you can be in the water in one part today, and if you come back tomorrow, that same part, it's going to be different. There's just a constant reiteration of, I think, the ocean or the lake. I think that really connects to how I just view my gender identity. I think constantly evolving, constantly shifting, and that it can look many different ways, and it comes in many different forms. (P12; E: water)
Lazuli reflected that, even within the same environment and body of water, one never encounters the same water twice; such is the wisdom of water’s ebb and flow in African cosmological eco-wisdoms - particularly those derived from Yoruba culture, which capture the continuous transitions of life and identity (Raheem, 2024). Like their African ancestors, NBBW live within a constant state of evolution and reformation, moving as water does (“constantly evolving, constantly shifting”). Though P12 depicted water in a state of flow, Lazuli considered water beyond its liquid state (“it can look many different ways, and it comes in many different forms”), alluding to the diversity of gender transfiguration.
Opal (she/they) similarly shared, Even though it's not a path in ground, it’s a path in water. And that in itself kind of connects to, well, not kind of, it connects to Black womxnhood in that flow. And it makes me think of that Pocahontas song, Just around The River Bend. What I love most about rivers is you can't tell where the river first starts. Water’s always changing, always flowing. That's exactly how it felt on the course of, I guess, self-discovery for me. It's always changing, always growing. It’s never the same twice. You're not experiencing me the same way twice. Somebody that knew me two years ago, you do not know the same me. I'm sorry. (P4; E: water)
Opal connected water’s flow to Black womxnhood through the ability for [nonbinary] Black womxn to carve a “path in water,” moving through an environment unlike itself. The water in P4 lacked a finite beginning or ending. In parallel, Opal felt that gender may not have a finite starting point (“you can’t tell where the river first starts”). In their self-discovery, Opal’s gender constantly shifted, resulting in previous versions of herself potentially never existing again (“It’s never the same twice. You’re not experiencing me the same way twice”). Accordingly, Opal remarked that those who encountered her would continue encountering different versions of themselves as time passed. It is important to note that the molting described by Opal is a fundamental aspect of ecology. For example, Garnet (she/they) said, I think water in general is a good... It is also expansive. It can look a lot of different ways, but I also feel like the way that it just kind of flows, it just kind of maneuvers through different things, is really nice. Water also reminds me a little more of like... Well, it can, but it also cannot. Sometimes water reminds me of what we societally conceive as the feminine. But other times it can remind me it can be pretty sturdy. It can be pretty strong. (P12; E: water)
According to Garnet, adaptability allowed water to maneuver through various obstacles (“it just kind of flows, it just kind of maneuvers through different things”), potentially mirroring participants’ ability to navigate intersecting oppressions (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024; Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024). Echoing Lazuli’s observation of water’s capacity for transfiguration, Garnet (she/they) also observed water’s ability to “look different ways,” alluding to the multidimensionality of NBBW’s gendered-racial being. Garnet perceived similarity in water’s ability to embody androgynous characteristics, flowing between otherwise societally conceived immutable attributes of what constitutes femininity and masculinity, and NBBW’s gender fluidity. This further supports the reported sense of a phantom-like existence — moving between and beyond spaces — and the perceived sense of un/embodied corporeality among other participants. Thus, water’s wisdom regarding the fluidity of being confirmed the nonlinearity, aqueous motility, and multiformity of participants’ gender.
“…each drop of water pulls into this ocean - Wisdom 4: The Deep Dive of Self-Discovery
Participants located The Deep Dive of Self-Discovery within the water element. Through the Ecological Mirror, participants suggested that gendered-racial self-exploration necessitated the depth and transparency of large bodies of water, such as the ocean, but clarified that comprehending the totality of the self was akin to attempting to understand the fullness of the ocean. Here, the depth of self for participants mirrored the depths of oceanic bodies. As a result, greater uncertainty accompanied deeper self-exploration. Though an endless and uncertain journey, participants viewed self-exploration as necessary for deconstructing and divesting from harmful gendered-racial beliefs. Sapphire (they/she) explained, I’m a Cancer sun, and then I'm a Pisces moon, so I relate to water. And water, I think it's both scary and beautiful, because there's so much that we don't know that goes on the water. We know some elements, and some animals, and some plants within it, but the deeper that the ocean goes, the less that we know what's going on, the less that we know what things look like. I think with just growing and going to new places and experiencing things, again, you get that feeling of the unknown. That can be scary and beautiful at the same time. (P12; E: water)
Water governing Sapphire’s Sun and Moon placements facilitated their proximal relationship to water qualities (“so I relate to water”). The depths of the unknown within bodies of water elicited a sense of fear and awe, mirroring Sapphire’s sense of self-discovery. Furthermore, she explicated that with deeper exploration, one realizes the extent to which their self-understanding is limited, reflecting humans’ relation to water (“We know some elements, and some animals, and some plants within it, but the deeper that the ocean goes, the less that we know that’s going on”). Thus, Sapphire’s gendered-racial self-discovery paralleled an oceanic journey described as “scary and beautiful,” where deeper exploration revealed an ever-expanding unknown. Here, the depth of self-discovery is tethered to the death of certainty. Participant reflections suggest that journeying into the unknown is a scary, yet beautiful and necessary, process of self-discovery. Thus, death seems to be a recurring symbol and process for the NBBW.
Emerald (she/they) similarly acknowledged the paradox of exploration and knowledge, expressing that exploration generates more questions in a process of active deconstruction. She noted that the transparency of water facilitated deconstruction. That water is really clear, and I'm trying to figure how to phrase this. I feel sometimes, and I don't mean this in a rude way, but I do feel like sometimes cis people are able to hide behind gender in a way of certain decisions or ideals you never have to challenge because you've never had to think about it. It's just always like, “This is what I've been told, this is what I expected,” and you just get to move forward with that. Where I feel like you have to really seep through yourself whenever you start to question your gender. If you don't identify as cis, you have to look to your core, just like looking through this water at the rocks to answer even the smallest question of, “Do I want to paint my nails or not?” It's something that's so trivial. But when you're not cis, I feel like it's just like… If you were cis, it's like “for a girl, ‘yes,’ for a boy, ‘no’”. But if you're not, then it's like, “Okay, well, what does this mean and why would I want to do it, or why would I not?” Yeah, it requires so much transparency with yourself. (P23; E: water)
The transparency of water allowed for the deconstruction of binary concepts, which facilitated an expansiveness of thinking and being for Emerald (“what does this mean and why would I want to do it, or why would I not”). Just as the water’s transparency allowed Emerald to see the stones in the stream, transparency with self allowed participants to break the surface tension of unchallenged gendered concepts for greater self-understanding (“If you don't identify as cis, you have to look to your core, just like looking through this water at the rocks to answer even the smallest question”). Topaz (all pronouns) likened the intricacy of their self-discovery and the ocean. The depth…It's all connected. Each drop of water pulls into this ocean and makes the oceans. The cultural... the everyday cultural experiences as a Black girl or a Black womxn, forming into the complexity and depth of being - also [being] a Black nonbinary person in this world. (P12: E: water)
According to Topaz, to understand the complexity and depth of NBBW is to understand each drop of water forming the oceans. As the ocean’s droplets cannot be parsed from the ocean itself, neither can any element of her lived and cultural experience as a Black womxn and Black nonbinary person be separated from his NBBW identity.
While participants largely associated the depth of self-discovery with water, Peridot (they/she) found wisdom within the earth’s stones. They explained, “Those rocks could be so many beautiful crystals. You just got to polish them, crack them open, and find out what they're going to be like” (P23; E: earth). The rocks resting beneath the stream in P23 are observable through the water’s transparency. Yet, what lies within each rock remains to be discovered. In this way, self-discovery was an iterative process for Peridot. Transparency (water) initially facilitated Peridot’s self-discovery, but truly discovering what lay within (“find out what they're going to be like”) required further exploration. Her statement suggested that NBBW maintain a continuous process of turning inward (“crack them open”) to truly understand the self. Sapphire (they/she) reflected on the forest’s depths in P2. I feel like growing up, a lot of times, I feel like I had to conceal things. And that's something that I'm working on to this day still… feeling like I have to go through the forest to really dig through who I am or who I'm trying to be. So, I think the trees are really symbolic with that. I like how the path also, it's clear in a way, but you still see that there's other elements within it. I think when you're going through your journey, you're figuring yourself out, especially when you're towards that journey of knowing yourself more and you're more confident in that. That's how it looks like. There's still those other elements. You still see the trees and some of the debris, and you have to still go through those elements, but you're consistently noticing like, hey, this is who I am. I can continue walking through, and I can continue seeing there's beauty around. (P2; E: earth)
For Sapphire, the forest’s depth reflected the journey of self-discovery. While clear in its direction, the forest’s path was only partially clear to the eye (“There’s still those other elements, you still see the trees and some of the debris”), mirroring the partial understanding that accompanies an otherwise obscure journey to self-discovery. Though the path remained partially covered, Sapphire’s self-discovery journey continually unfolded, revealing greater self-understanding in the midst of uncertainty (“but you’re consistently noticing like, hey, this is who I am”). Similarly, just as the depths of oceans were unknown yet beautiful, the path of self-discovery, reflected in the depths of forests and stones’ featured beauty, if participants were willing to journey forward (“I can continue walking through and I can continue seeing there’s beauty around”). Thus, participants described the prototypical Gothic journey of leaving otherwise familiar, predictable, and safe environments to journey into unknown darkness, riddled with death, and with important implications for self-identity development (Fujiwara, 2018). Understanding how Black womxn experience themselves, the development of their selves, and the impact of that journey on their mental health is imperative to the work of Gothic Black feminism (Kerney, 2025).
“And with the rain, they still grow - Wisdom 5: Hardship and Perseverance
Earth and water elements mirrored participants’ experiences of Hardship and Perseverance. Hardship and Perseverance referred to naturally occurring challenges within nature, requiring an ecological fortitude akin to the perseverance of Black womxn/hood. Jasper (she/they) felt rain, thunderstorms, and trees symbolized the perseverance of Black womxn, stating, [This mirrors] the way that Black womxn exist in the world that does everything to make them stop existing. And with the rain, they still grow in spite and because of some of these challenges or some of these environments, like the trees. (P20; E: water; earth)
According to Jasper, the imagery of trees in P20 standing against the anticipation of an impending thunderstorm mirrored Black womxn’s perseverance (“the way that Black womxn exist in the world that does everything to make them stop existing”). Under an ominous sky, the winter trees remained tall, unmoved by the threat of storm. In addition to surviving the thunderstorm and rain, Jasper pinpointed the trees’ ability to use the rain for growth (“And with the rain, they still grow in spite and because of some of these challenges or some of these environments, like the trees”). This observation suggested that, like the trees, [nonbinary] Black womxn persevere despite and because of hardship. Additionally, they transmute their challenges into opportunities for growth. As Opal (she/they; P6; E: earth) observed from the wisdom of mountains (i.e., earth), “…sturdy, grounded…Yeah, we be climbing mountains, metaphorical, literal mountains.” Amethyst (any pronouns) similarly shared, How beaches are formed just from the ocean really grinding stuff down over a while, I guess, it's just how nice things can come out of hardship - really nice, beautiful things out of hardship. And also, just, I don't know, the culmination of that hardship adding up to really nice soft sand. Not every place has nice sandy beaches. A lot of places have really rocky or shelly beaches that suck to walk on. (P22; E: earth, water)
In this statement, beaches reflected the continual process of weathering and erosion, as well as the outcome of persistent hardship. Without the “grinding” Amethyst identified, beaches would not exist. Yet, he was careful not to glorify hardship, nor equate its persistence with assured beauty. Rather, she specified that while the beauty of beaches can result from hardship, “not every place has nice sandy beaches.” Hardship, then, can have deleterious consequences to one’s being. While hardship may result in a desirable outcome (“really nice soft sand”), it may also result in suffering (“A lot of places have really rocky or shelly beaches that suck to walk on”). Opal (she/they) similarly provided a caveat to NBBW’s experience with hardship, saying, It [barren tree] said it hurt if you try to touch, that makes me want to say no [it doesn’t represent NBBW]. But that also makes me want to say yes, because sometimes all the stress put on you, you can't even hold onto your leaves. (P14; E: earth)
Although the barren tree survived the winter, its leaves did not; this mirrored the toll that stress and hardship can have on NBBW. This sullen yet vulnerable reflection reveals a more Gothic disposition — one that is more hesitantly divulged compared to the prior reflections on Black womxn’s strength, survival, and hardship. Opal moves beyond the tree’s persistence as a reflection of Black womxn’s objective survival and speaks to the pain of enduring such realities; that though the tree lives, parts of itself have died. Therefore, the barren, leaf-less tree seems to represent Black womxn’s sense of being the living dead–a group self-characterized by its fortitudinous ability to survive within the harsh American soil but at the expense of “your leaves.” Thus, while beaches reflected NBBW’s ability to turn hardship into beauty, the bare winter tree mirrored its potential consequence. Understanding this liminal experience of living deadness, as well as understanding Black womxn’s awareness of but simultaneous hesitance in acknowledging the impact of chronic stress on their wellbeing, beyond their uncanny ability to survive objectively, may have important implications for conceptualizing and addressing Black womxn’s mental health needs.
“…encouraging each other to grow - Wisdom 6: The Complexities of Community
Participants described navigating a unique relationship to Black womxnhood and the larger Black community. The Complexities of Community represented the healing power emerging from a community in balance, as well as the harmful effects experienced by communal imbalance. While studying stones in P9, Emerald (she/they) said, “There’s something about being surrounded by things that look so much like you but aren’t living the same experience or are exactly like you” (P9; E: earth). The larger, heart-shaped stone in P9 aligned with and diverged from the smaller stones around it. The heart-shaped stone represented Emerald’s alignment and divergence from Black womxnhood (“they look so much like you but aren’t living the same experience or exactly like you”). Though sharing overlapping identities, experiences, and culture with Black womxn (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024), NBBW maintain an identity of their own and separate intersectional hardships, potentially resulting in feelings of loneliness, isolation, and otherness. Emerald continued, I think it's the space of everything. It's very lonely sometimes, but you're not far from everyone around you in your community. So, this picture, I feel like the trees are either all the nonbinary people or all the Black womxn there, and I'm a tree that's, from the perspective of this photo, which I'm like, I'm kind of by myself, but I'm kind of not. Like everyone's definitely there, but they're not, because our experiences are just really close, but not perfectly aligned the way that they are perfectly aligned. (P7; E: earth)
Emerald positioned herself as a NBBW within close yet distant proximity of community (“I'm kind of by myself, but I'm kind of not”), imbued with a sense of loneliness (“It's very lonely sometimes, but you're not far from everyone around you in your community”). The imperfect alignment with nonbinary and Black womxn communities situated Emerald, as a NBBW, within a liminal space, garnering a Gothic sense of isolation and loneliness.
Community in Balance
When the relationships between participants and community were in balance, participants experienced community as a source of safety, reciprocity of care, and belonging. Jasper (she/they) described the family of flowers in P5 as “Community. It seems like they’re all encouraging each other to grow” (P5; E: earth). Lazuli (she/they) similarly reflected, I think about that community piece. I think they're all interconnected and supporting each other. And I think this is what reminds me of Black womxnhood and all those elements and the things that we can plant and harvest and foster together (P5; E: earth)
The grouping of flowers sharing the resources within the same environment mirrored “the things that we can plant and harvest and foster together.” Therefore, a balanced relationship between Lazuli and her community garnered mutual flourishing, as evinced by the earth’s floral wisdom. Topaz (all pronouns) selected the image of a partially covered waterfall (P24; E: water, earth), noting the sense of safety, intimacy, vulnerability, and protection it offered: “It feels like an oasis to me. Covered but still open. And I think that's how my gender identity feels. The people who know what it is and where it is know how to get there.” For Topaz, a community leading with understanding (“know what it is and where it is”), offered an oasis for NBBW. As was a partially hidden waterfall by the covering of foliage, so was he, “covered but still open,” vulnerable yet protected within a balanced community.
From the healthy balance of communal connections, [nonbinary] Black womxn’s love carried a ripple effect. Opal (she/they) expressed, I love these waves, little ripples…the ripple effect that even Black womxn's love can have, like a Black womxn loving a man who then is able to better love their child, who's better able to love their friend. It passes on and on, like the ocean. (P12; E: water)
The love stemming from [nonbinary] Black womxn rippled throughout the community and facilitated a series of more loving relationships, like the connectedness of the ocean (“It passes on and on, like the ocean”).
The Imbalance of Power, Provision, and Reciprocal Care
While a balanced community fostered support and mutual harvest, communal imbalance exploited the power and care of NBBW. Within traditional gendered-racial expectations, [nonbinary] Black womxn may be expected to provide communal care without the guarantee of reciprocity (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Vigil et al., 2024). Consequently, this imbalance may result in destruction. Peridot (they/she) explained, If you're not too careful, it [fire] can burn shit down. But when you use fire correctly, it can warm people, it can warm villages, it can heat people up, it can feed people if you know how to manipulate it the right way (P18; E: fire)… And you just got to be really careful in the same way with fire, water can overcome you, but it's really comforting too. The same way that fire can burn down a village, water can put that fire out and bring people comfort.
In this reflection, fire and water represented powerful forces within nature. When balanced, fire and water offered healing; however, when imbalanced, these elements inflicted harm. Peridot cautioned, one must know “how to manipulate it the right way.” Manipulation, here, did not insinuate exploitative intentions. Instead, it suggested Peridot's acknowledgment of their power and the ability to discern whether to use that power to warm or to destroy.
Emerald (she/they) expounded upon the need for balance in provision through the wisdom of berries (i.e., earth): “I want to use some of those berries and eat some of those berries, but there’s a whole plant that has to be tended to and taken care of and you’re not just a bunch of fruit” (P13; E: earth). While berries provided for the needs of the self and community (“I want to use some of those berries and eat some of those berries), Emerald noted that they also required care themselves (“there’s a whole plant that has to be tended to and taken care of”). Congruently, while NBBW care for and provide for the needs of the community, they too require reciprocal care. Without reciprocity, the berry plant is reduced to what it can do for others, rather than honored holistically for its existence. Emerald shifted from the Ecological Mirror to speak to NBBW directly, stating, “You’re not just a bunch of fruit.” She emphasized that NBBW cannot be reduced to their perceived usefulness for the benefit of others. The exploitative use of the fruit and its suggested similarity to the experiences of NBBW echoes ecowomxnist theory concerning the paralleled degradation of land and Black womxn under colonial logics of domination and subjugation (Harris, 2017).
In observation of an impending thunderstorm in P20, Opal (she/they) expressed “Something is brewing, which I could translate into a storm brewing or brewing tea or something to warm someone, which either of which I could and would connect to Black womxn” (P20; E: air, water). The nearing thunderstorm mirrored [nonbinary] Black womxn’s capacity for force (“a storm brewing”) and lovingkindness (“brewing tea or something to warm someone”). While participants described Black womxn maintaining both energies, they described the im/balance of community as influencing which power emerged. Attending to the power Black womxn wield, specifically when that power is neither in service to nor readily embraced by America, is a first and valuable step in embracing Black womxn’s darkness. This Gothic grappling with Black womxn’s shadows disrupts the longstanding characterization and treatment of Black womxn as the mules of America (Porter et al., 2025) and instead remembers the truth of Black power and revolution in the face of injustice. Thus, understanding the implications of and Black womxn’s responses to their longstanding exploitation in America may foster a means of re-experiencing and rediscovering the self within and beyond the confines of the American Gothic.
“…different shells, different stones - Wisdom 7: Diversity is Naturally Occurring
Participants reflected on nature’s diversity, noting how it mirrored the variation within and across NBBW. Lazuli (she/they) observed the diversity of NBBW internally and interpersonally within the variance of stones: [It mirrors] gender, as a hodgepodge of different things, different shells, different stones. Maybe there's crystals in there. I almost said, it reminds me of just like that bag of goodies, a bag of genders. And there's no right one, wrong one, they're all just beautiful and coexisting… It feels like there's not a particular color or focus, and it feels energetic, and it just feels like it's fluid. And that's how I feel in my gender identity is like, “Yeah, I can move through it.” It might change. There's many different shades and colors and hues when it comes to my queerness. (P23; E: earth)
Lazuli identified the myriad shells, stones, and potential crystals as reflective of gender diversity (“a hodgepodge of different things…a bag of genders”). The collection of shapes, colors, textures, and types of stones within the same environment illustrated the inherent diversity of ecology and mutual coexistence without hierarchical ordering or judgment (And there's no right one, wrong one, they're all just beautiful and coexisting… It feels like there's not a particular color or focus”); thereby substantiating the validity and value of NBBW’s gender diversity within a binary gendered world. In addition to mirroring diversity across beings, the “hodgepodge” of stones and shells mirrored an inner diversity experienced by Lazuli. Just as variance existed within the family of stones, so too did Lazuli’s queerness manifest variably. Correspondingly, Jasper (she/they; P23; E: earth) noted, “They can all look different and be made up of different materials, but they're still in the same environment and still kind of part of one community or area or existence.” Thus, nature substantiated the naturalness of diversity and its ability to coexist within the same environ. Jasper (she/they) reflected, This is more so the view that some people have: “How can you be a Black womxn without what we define as womxnhood?” But looking at the tree in this state versus in the summer when it's full of leaves, or the different stages. (P14; E: earth)
Depending on the season, trees demonstrated variance; yet the tree’s essence remained. Congruently, Jasper noted that NBBW represent a variation of Black womxnhood but remain Black womxn. It is neither the presence nor absence of leaves that constitutes trees, but rather the tree itself.
For Emerald (she/they), the vibrance of fire shrouded in darkness reflected the uniqueness of NBBW against a rigid binary landscape. She elaborated, “It's how vibrant it is in contrast to the background. Something about being nonbinary is just really cool…It's super bright. It's super colorful, like you're just existing” (P18; E: Fire). The mere existence of NBBW, against a binary background, highlighted participants’ vibrance. As fire in shadows, participants’ gender diversity was vibrant and colorful within a society that restricts gendered expansivity.
Garnet (she/they) found the rootedness of trees in a clearing symbolic of the longstanding diversity of NBBW: I think there's this element that happens now, where people are like, “All these identities that are coming out of nowhere.” But it's always been here. There's definitely a rootedness in where we are. We're just now starting to see what we can see and how we describe things, but it's always been here. (P7; E: earth)
Just as trees do not grow overnight, nonbinary identification does not emerge spontaneously. Garnet positioned gender diversity as rooted and abiding (“But it’s always been here. There’s definitely a rootedness in where we are”). They proposed that it is not gender diversity itself that is new, but rather the recognition of these identities that has emerged only recently. Certainly, Garnet described a process of emerging from the shadows of society’s margins and embracing the light of day. Black womxn’s gender diversity, then, exists not merely as an organic facet of ecological being; it is a presence as deep-rooted and abiding as the trees.
Discussion
–Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
This study examined nonbinary Black womxn participants’ intuitive knowledge of their gendered racial identity and experiences in relation to the American natural landscape. Participants’ engagement of the Ecological Mirror reflected a Gothic Black Feminist orientation, eliciting themes of liminality, isolation, death, otherness, monstrousness, and duality as dark parallels between the processes of nature and their experiences as American Black womxn. Participant reflections also suggested the salience of Afro-Indigenous Ecowomxnist Cosmological Thought (AIECT) in their conceptualizations of life, being, and gender. Thus, this study’s inductive development of the Ecological Mirror establishes authoritative knowledge (i.e., empirical) of Black womxn’s intuitive understanding (Toliver, 2021) concerning their connection to nature (Harris, 2017). Drawn from the shared wisdom of the participants and the environment alike, this model provides a foundation of empirical evidence that encourages the integration of nature and Gothic Black feminist theory in the conceptualization and development of Black womxn’s healing praxis.
The Ecological Mirror is the process of convening with nature as a portal to the self. Through their engagement with the Ecological Mirror, participants described seven ecological wisdoms: (1) Wisdom 1: Tripartite Consciousness and the Multidimensionality of Being, (2) Wisdom 2: Boundlessness and the Expansivity of Existence, (3) Wisdom 3: Seasonal Transformation and the Fluidity of Change, (4) Wisdom 4: The Deep Dive of Self-Discovery, (5) Wisdom 5: Hardship and Perseverance, (6) Wisdom 6: The Complexities of Community, and (7) Wisdom 7: Diversity is Naturally Occurring. Understanding NBBW’s contemporary phenomenological perspective on their relationship with nature, along with the decolonial efforts of remembering, relearning, and recentering ancestral wisdoms (Dillard, 2012; Mullan, 2023), reiterates the importance of integrative approaches to Black healing thatCC inherently center Black womxn and gender expansivity (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024), spirit/uality (Hargons et al., 2022; Kerney et al., 2025), queerness (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Vigil et al., 2024; Reyes et al., 2022), sacredness (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024), and the environment (Hossain et al., 2020; Kamitsis & Francis, 2013; Kamitsis & Simmonds, 2017).
Although not termed the Ecological Mirror, the act of engaging with nature as a portal of wisdom reflected in the art of sweetgrass braiding — a tradition among Indigenous peoples that involves engaging with ecomemory by sharing the wisdom of strawberries, beans, and a Maple Sugar Moon (Kimmerer, 2013). Likewise, in Black feminist literature, Grumbs (2020) seeks the wisdom of marine mammals, uncovering lessons of healing and social justice. Beyond literature, there is ample evidence of Black womxn’s engagement with nature for self-understanding in their artistry; hence the significance of contextual multiplicity (Toliver, 2021). As exemplified in Solange’s (Knowles, 2019b) interlude, We deal with the freak’n: “First, I’m tryna get the woman to understand the dynamic power and the spiritual energy/Do you realize how magnificent you are?/The god that created you is a divine architect/That created the moon, the sun, the stars, Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, Venus/We are not only sexual beings/We are the walking embodiment of god’s consciousness.” Hence, we present the Ecological Mirror as a novel and crucial tool for Black womxn’s self-psychology that remembers and recenters Afro-Indigenous ancestral knowledge concerning the wisdom of nature. Furthermore, this work asserts the importance of a Gothic Black feminist frame that explicitly attends to themes such as dilapidation, death, duality, and liminality, as experienced by both Black womxn and the environment alike. Thus, it is not only the connection of Black womxn to nature, but also their connection through a Gothic frame, that constitutes this work’s novel contribution to the literature and the field of counseling psychology.
The Seven Wisdoms
Regarding Wisdom 1: Tripartite Consciousness and the Multidimensionality of Being, participants described a spectral sense of existence, where others perceive only a partial, distorted image of their identity and experience, and thus fail to grasp their fullness of being. This multidimensionality within a colonial landscape fosters a Gothic sense of intangibility, liminality, and duality that eludes full comprehensibility in language, concept, and corporeality (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). This incomprehensibility parallels the natural world’s refusal to be reduced to simple, binary categories (Hauk, 2016). Through the reflected wisdoms of the Ecological Mirror concerning the unnaturalness of rigid categorization, participants critiqued the limiting and unnatural imposition of [gender] binaries. Indeed, binaries negate the very queer nature of nature (Kaishian, 2025), and in a parallel process, subvert the queerness inherent within Black womxn in America.
Substantiating existing research (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024; Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024), participants described how external invalidation and the erasure of their multidimensionality can occur within and/or outside of conscious awareness yet nonetheless mirrors the irreducible complexity of nature. They described a phantom-like expansiveness of air and water elements as reflective of the boundlessness and fluidity of their gendered-racial identity and experience (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). Participants cited examples such as the limitless sky, the fuzziness of horizons, and the gender neutrality of sunflowers as naturally occurring evidence of expansiveness and the ability to transcend corporeal boundaries. For instance, the infinite, boundaryless nature of air mirrored the sensation of “floating between spaces” (Emerald), thereby echoing the osmotic and sacred power of NBBW’s liminality (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Certainly, the multidimensionality of Black womxn within the US context is often reduced to fixed prototypes (Cole et al., 2020) and controlling images (Collins, 2022). Participants described the exploitative potential of this reduction in Wisdom 6: The Complexities of Community. African cosmological eco-wisdoms, particularly those from Yorùbá culture, assert the continuous transitions of life and identity through elemental forces, such as water’s ebb and flow (Raheem, 2024). Such ancestral knowledge affirms the dynamic, multidimensional experiences of NBBW participants, who resisted imposed fixities through the wisdom of nature itself.
Previous research (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024, Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Vigil et al., 2024, Kerney, Malone et al., 2024) has illustrated NBBW’s association of their gendered-racial identities with fluidity, iterative journeys, self-discovery and development, and transformational change. These findings strengthen the present study’s insights regarding Wisdom 2: Boundlessness and the Expansivity of Existence, Wisdom 3: Seasonal Transformation and the Fluidity of Change, and Wisdom 4: The Deep Dive of Self-Discovery. In the current study, participants viewed the seasonal changes in trees, such as leaf shedding, as essential, naturally occurring patterns within a tree’s life cycle. Certainly, participants observed the relevance of repetitious death in nature and in themselves for the sake of self-discovery and transformation. For example, in Wisdom 5: Hardship and Perseverance, participants described their experiences as a sense of living deadness, akin to a barren tree. Neither fully alive nor dead, the wisdom of the barren tree represented a liminal realm of existence. Participants seemed to identify with the perceived pain of the tree, finding commonality in its objective survival but simultaneous inability to “hold onto its leaves.” Of important note, participants seemed to more readily describe Black womxn’s ability to survive and even transform hardship into beauty but appeared more hesitant to discuss the impact of chronic stress on their wellbeing. Participants’ greater willingness to observe and relay narratives of strength and resilience, as compared to discussing the tolls of objective survival, seems to echo existing research concerning the ongoing relevance of the Strong Black Woman schema (Parks & Hayman, 2024). The participants’ hesitance to share how nature reflects their “hurt” may speak to a perceived sense of precarious safety in exposing Black womxn’s vulnerabilities to outsiders (i.e., the consumers of this research).
Death, in all its forms, remained a salient theme throughout the participants’ reflections. Participants described shedding versions of themselves through an iterative process of self-exploration, identity fluidity, and rebirth (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024). This iterative process resonates deeply with Afro-Indigenous conceptualizations of nonlinear time and self, where identity is understood as existing concomitantly with the past (as Ancestors), present (as the self), and future (as spiritual versions of self and through posterity) (Angelou, 1978; Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Through the Ecological Mirror, participants reaffirmed the inevitability of identity’s evolution, observing parallels in nature’s refusal to remain static.
Wisdoms 3 and 4 also reflected a sense of existential grappling (Yalom, 1980) within nonlinear concepts of death and rebirth. For example, participants cited the imagery of autumn leaves and swiftly moving rivers as ecological reflections of their own constant state of flux. These metaphors captured the NBBW’s cosmic life cycle—one that transcends the individual lifespan and exists within a continuum of rebirth and ancestral (re)connection (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024, Kerney, Malone et al., 2024, 2025). Participants experienced this constant transformation not as a loss but as a necessary and sacred phenomenon, requiring an endless tolerance for uncertainty, self-death, and rebirth in pursuit of deeper self-understanding. In this way, nature’s seasonal shifts became both a mirror and a guide for understanding the nonlinearity and immortality of NBBW’s development across lifetimes, realms, and internal and external landscapes. Similarly, scholars emphasize the importance of queer identity rebirth in achieving queer liberation, joy, and authenticity (Morrow, 2021).
Nature’s ability to create beauty through hardship, such as in the weathering process of beaches, reflected the participants’ experiences navigating and resisting intersecting oppressions as Black womxn, and thus strengthened existing research (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Participants observed thunderstorm clouds, weathered beaches, and bare winter trees as metaphors for the potential consequences of enduring chronic hardship. Notably, participants did not differentiate between the innate hardships of the natural life experience (such as trees weathering thunderstorms or rocks experiencing erosion) and the added hardship of colonialism (such as manufactured destruction or climate change). Rather, in the reflection of innate ecological hardship, participants observed their own experiences navigating and resisting oppression as Black womxn in America. This finding seems to substantiate Black existentialism (Vereen et al., 2017) and Gothic Black feminist theory (Kerney, 2025), which suggest that Black womxn’s experiences of existential concerns regarding the human condition (i.e., death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness; Yalom, 1980) are not universal and must be examined in consideration of larger sociopolitical milieu. That Black death, for example, must be discussed within the context of power (Kerney, 2025). Accordingly, Wisdom 5: Hardship and Perseverance seems to have reflected the Black womxn’s experience of enduring the existential realities of the human condition as tethered to navigating a world of oppression (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024).
In the reflections of trees, flowers, and ripples in water, participants found the complexity of their experiences navigating community (Wisdom 6). Research confirms that community is a precarious place for Black, queer, and trans persons (Rood et al., 2016; Thorpe et al., 2022), especially NBBW (Kerney et al., in press). When the participants spoke of community in balance, they referred to being in community with Black womxn. Certainly, Black feminist principles of empowerment, reciprocity, love, and care (hooks, 2005; Oliphant et al., 2022) characterized the participants’ sense of a balanced and healing community. However, even within the warm embrace of other Black womxn, the participants described how their individual alignment and divergence from Black womxnhood, as NBBW, contributed to experiences of loneliness, isolation, and otherness. Accordingly, NBBW, as gender expansive Black womxn, may be the Gothic Other (Foster, 2023) even within the perceived safety of Black womxnhood (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024; Kerney et al., in press).
On the contrary, when participants spoke of community out of balance, they spoke of community more broadly–not of Black womxnhood. Participants described others reaping the harvest of Black womxn’s care and labor without reciprocity, leading to feelings of exploitation. Participants cited gendered-racial expectations of Black womxn’s provision without the guarantee of reciprocal care, substantiating existing literature (Banks, 2020; Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Vigil et al., 2024). The exploitative imbalance of the community seemed to function as a larger commentary on the Black womxn’s place in the world.
Within AIECT, the human relationship with nature rests on gratitude and mutual respect (Forbes, 2001). As the earth provides, so too do humans nurture, maintaining a sense of balance, loving reciprocity, and interconnectedness. From an earth ethic, the colonial logic of dominion and subjugation creates an imbalance, contributing to the destruction of both earth and the Black womxn (Harris, 2017). Accordingly, participants observed the healing and harming capacity of nature as evidence of their own power and righteous ability to respond to such disrespect. Participants described their power, in response to a mutually loving and reciprocal community, as nourishing–citing the qualities of water and fire. They spoke of Black womxn’s unique ability to heal themselves and others. Conversely, in response to perceived exploitation (e.g., domination, subjugation), participants described the justified potential of their destructive power. Here, destruction was neither positively nor negatively valenced but rather described as a necessary act of self-preservation against the exploitative harvest of their labor. Certainly, balance remains central to Black conceptualizations of mental health, as it helps maintain equilibrium between the various dimensions of well-being (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024; Mosley, 2023).
Participants concluded their ecospirituality derived wisdom with the natural evidence of diversity in Wisdom 7. They recognized their gender diversity as natural and expected because diversity is a natural phenomenon, as reflected in the world around them, from stones, plants, flowers, and trees. Thus, the natural divergence of the NBBW gendered-racial identity represented another manifestation of nature’s larger diversity. This perception naturalized queerness by positioning nature itself as queer (Kerney et al., 2025). In this way, the monstrous and marginalized queer Black womxn, damned to be the Gothic Other within and across the colonial landscape, found solace and affirmation in the company of nature.
Gothic Reflections
Participant reflections highlighted the significance of Gothic themes, including liminality, otherness, death, destruction, duality, the supernatural, monstrousness, and isolation. Resisting binaries and moving across and beyond spaces (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024, Kerney, Malone et al., 2024), embodying and disembodying certain gendered-racial expectations and performances while locating themselves within and across (meta)physical planes of existence (Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Orphe et al., 2024), NBBW seem to represent a sort of phantasmagoric monster within the American colonial imagination. Monsters often embody the worst fears of a society (Halberstam, 1995), which, in the American imagination, includes the wrath of a unified and educated Black [womxn] public, the haunting history of chattel slavery and Indigenous genocide, and the inability to fully understand and contain ideas and people within neat binary categorizations. NBBW are ghosts and monsters who continue to bring their ancestors back from beyond the grave (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). Like Shelley’s (1818/2020) monster—obsessively birthed, then obsessively sought after in a murderous rage—or Beloved (Morrison, 2004), who was lovingly murdered by her mother, NBBW—as American ghosts and monsters—are consistently subjected to a precarious sense of community and a “world that does everything to make them stop existing,” as Jasper relayed. However, NBBW locate themselves within the natural (and supernatural) worlds, reframing their diversity as naturally occurring—unmonstering the monster and bringing them back from the outskirts of society. As these themes reveal, there is an ecological and Gothic Black feminist spirit present in NBBW’s experiences that warrants clinical consideration (Kerney, under review).
Limitations and Future Directions
The present study is derived from the larger project, Project NBBW, which included participants aged 21 to 30. As a result, the transferability of findings to NBBW across the lifespan is limited. Future studies should consider purposive sampling of older adult NBBW to address this limitation. If researchers employ CBPAR, intentionally recruiting older adult NBBW as community advisory board members may aid in recruiting participants within this age demographic. Additionally, all participants reported having completed some college; therefore, future studies should consider purposive sampling of participants with varying educational backgrounds. This would allow an assessment of whether the level of abstraction observed in the responses is related to the participants’ formal education.
Several limitations concern the photo elicitation slide deck (see Appendix A). The slide deck did not contain photos of several natural occurrences, such as constellations and natural disasters, that participants inquired about during their interview. Additionally, because the community advisory board generated the photos, the images were limited to the southern and northeastern US. Third, most photos excluded winter imagery (e.g., barren trees rather than explicit images of snow and ice). Future studies should incorporate constellation images, along with other natural phenomena in different regions, into their photo decks to expand on this study’s findings. Other plants, flowers, and bodies of water may elicit different ecological reflections from NBBW participants. Researchers should seek to balance the representation of the four seasons. Furthermore, future studies may consider physically situating participants in natural environments, expanding beyond photo representations to examine the embodied effects.
Implications
Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear people. Dear Everything. Dear God. –Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose
We encourage the development and integration of Gothic, sacred, and earth-honoring approaches to clinical work with Black womxn, particularly nonbinary Black womxn (Kerney, Malone et al., 2024). For instance, clinicians working with NBBW clients may use photo elicitation (Richard & Lahman, 2015) as a therapeutic tool by introducing images of nature as portals for introspection centered on gendered-racial identity and experience. Encouraging clients to situate themselves within naturally occurring phenomena can foster mindful reconnection between the self and the natural world, supporting exploration and affirmation of their multidimensional identities in a healing and grounding way.
The Ecological Mirror can serve as a model for clinicians conducting eco-focused psychotherapy—integrating the natural world into the healing space—with NBBW and other Black womxn (Kamitsis & Simmonds, 2017). For example, clinicians can utilize the Ecological Mirror’s illustration of nature-focused metaphors, experiential activities in nature, and nature-centered mindfulness (Kamitsis & Simmonds, 2017) to facilitate reconnection (Mullan, 2023) and self-exploration. The effectiveness of this approach among Black womxn clients shows promise, given previous research demonstrating positive psychological outcomes associated with eco-focused themes in therapy (Kamitsis & Francis, 2013). Importantly, clinicians should not disregard what participants in this study described as a ghostlike quality in their American gendered-racial experiences, affirming the Gothic nature inherent to the Ecological Mirror. Therefore, future research should not only focus on ecological integration, but also on the implementation of a Gothic Black feminist lens (Kerney, 2025).
Gothic Black feminism is uniquely positioned to probe the shadows of the American experience. It not only attends to the intertwined degradation of land and Black womxn alike under colonial regimes (Harris, 2017), but it unwaveringly prioritizes the excavation of American darkness, or what Morrison (1993) might call playing in the dark. Indeed, Gothic Black feminism delights in the exploration of shadows, and thus models and supports Black womxn in reveling in their own. The current study illuminated the salience of liminality, otherness, duality, monstrousness, isolation, and death as Gothic themes in the shared experiences of Black womxn and the American landscape. Thus, findings support the relevance of ecology to Gothic Black feminist thought (Kerney, under review). Accordingly, as both Black womxn and the environment continue to suffer the effects of American colonialism (Kelly et al., 2025), employment of a Gothic Black feminist lens may be increasingly relevant. The ecological focus of Gothic Black feminism may be uniquely suited for Black womxn’s self-psychology and insight-oriented approaches to their healing.
Finally, centering Black queerness (e.g., gender expansivity) through the phenomenological perspectives of NBBW has implications for expanding frameworks of assessment, diagnosis, and intervention in clinical practice. The colonial lens of the field prioritizes pathology and diagnosis (Mullan, 2023) while downplaying Indigenous somatic and spiritual healing praxis. Existing theoretical orientations focus on cognitive and emotional changes at the expense of other essential and interconnected elements of Black wellbeing (i.e., body, environment, spirit; Kerney, Hargons, Peterson, Cannon et al., 2024); therefore, further necessitating the continued development of decolonial and ancestrally derived healing approaches.
Conclusion
The Destiny of earthseed is to take root among the stars. –Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower
In conclusion, NBBW seem to engage with nature as an Ecological Mirror—using observations found in nature as reflective wisdoms of the self, particularly relating to their gender-racial identity and experience. Using photographed representations of nature, NBBW observed wisdoms of natural variance, seasonal change, collectivism, community and interconnectedness, fluidity, expansiveness, perseverance, pain and hardship, growth, and im/balance as relevant to their identity and experience. They used their observations concerning the queerness of nature to challenge colonial conceptualizations of their own queerness as unnatural. Furthermore, NBBW reflections described a ghostlike sense of gendered-racial identity and experience within the US context, thus revealing a Gothic Black feminist ethic. Gothic Black feminist themes included liminality, otherness, isolation, monstrousness, death, and duality. Findings support the development and integration of ecological thought within Gothic Black feminist approaches to clinical intervention (Kerney, under review) and the importance of tapping into nature, the sacred, community, and the self as a means of healing—particularly for Black womxn in the US.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental Material - Decolonizing the Soil, Decolonizing the Soul: Gothic Black Feminism and the Ecological Mirror
Supplemental Material for Decolonizing the Soil, Decolonizing the Soul: Gothic Black Feminism and the Ecological Mirror by Monyae A. Kerney, and Natalie Malone in International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Footnotes
Consent for Publication
This publication was made possible by the APA Division 35 Section 4 Graduate Student Research Award. Its contents are solely the authors’ responsibility and do not necessarily represent the official views of the APA. The first author was a UNITE Predoctoral Research Fellow and a Lyman T. Johnson Fellow at the University of Kentucky
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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