We Heal To Rebuild: Black Queer and Trans Healing Justice and Resistance in Minneapolis

Abstract

This paper queers Minneapolis by understanding this dynamic city as a site of radical queer and trans Black healing justice possibilities that transform how we understand the Midwest. Through an analysis of interviews with Black queer and/or trans healing justice facilitators, I contend that Black liberation requires centering communal care and attending to historical and generational trauma. It is not enough to acknowledge systemic injustices; we must also attend to their impact on our bodies. I argue this is the work of healing justice facilitators. A concern with embodiment and the aftermath of what we live through leads us to seriously consider what our bodies, minds, and souls need and how we hold space for those processes. I examine the multiple ways my collaborators understand the work of healing and their healing justice practices from being bodyworkers for social movements to sexual education to leading organizations from a healing justice philosophy. Contrary to a Midwest that is imagined as void of Black folks and queer and trans folks, this paper uplifts the vibrant ways Black queer and trans folks in Minneapolis make life possible by creating spaces for communal care and transformation.