Purchase a unique Story Stick, hand crafted by a Harnessing our Gardens advisor, Phaye Poliakoff-Chen. These bespoke creations, inspired by mezuzahs, feature decoupaged wooden capsules that hold the last writing in the book, a cento poem threading language together from all the interviewees. This poem, "Harnessing our Gardens Cento Poem" beautifully captures the essence of our collective narratives. A select few are available; each stick is $25 + shipping, and can be purchased through this website clicking here.
Joanne
"Mrs. JoJo"
Caidor
Laila J. Franklin
Annalise
“River”
Guidry
Adrienne Hawkins
Sarah
“Nnenna Loveth”
Nwafor
Isaura Oliveira
Jenny Oliver
Ellice Patterson
Nailah
Randall-Bellinger
Lilly Rose Valore
Jessica Roseman
Saturn
Von
Makeda Wallace
Ella Wechsler-Matthaei
Pearl Young
Interviews With:
"Each reading of Harnessing Our Gardens is an invitation to feel free. Victoria shares each interview, poem, and essay with great care and tenderness. I found myself pausing after every couple of pages, sitting with the reflections on sensuality and pleasure, letting the words take shape in my own being. Throughout this book, we find examples of finding home in one’s senses, memories, movements, and desires and allowing oneself to be transformed by the art. Harnessing Our Gardens is a gift to dance studies and dance stories and belongs beside Black queer, femme, and womanist/Black feminist works in our personal and public libraries."
- Jamilah Bradshaw, Program Officer Arts + Creativity, Barr Foundation
"Victoria’s work here is an incredibly moving and in-depth exploration of community, movement, and self-love. My favorite parts were the moments that Victoria brought us into her own practice, like in her essay, The Uses of Dance: 'The deeper I let this authentic dance into my heart, the more I honor my own body. The more I honor my body, the harder it becomes to be complacent within violent systems that exist outside of my body.' Truly an extension of Audre Lorde’s work on the power of the erotic, Victoria's masterful collection of interviews is a must-read for artists looking for inspiration, wisdom, and joy."
- Devon Gates, Musician & Writer
Victoria Lynn Awkward is the editor and author of Harnessing our Gardens. She is a multidisciplinary creator, educator, and arts producer. In 2019, Victoria founded VLA DANCE where she directs contemporary art in performance and multimedia, aiming to cultivate a culture of liberation and collective care. If Victoria's not writing, dancing, or creating, she is likely on a luxuriously slow walk with her dog Tripp, swimming in a spacious lake, or sweating on the dance floor of a House music event. If reading this book sparks joy, hope, or curiosity, Victoria welcomes your response sent to administration@vladance.com.
Editor & Author: Victoria Lynn Awkward
Video of Victoria holding a stack of paper: the printed transcripts, having a dance break during a high stress editing period, and a timelapse of creating the bouquets seen at the Boston book launch party.
In Harnessing our Gardens, Victoria Lynn Awkward gathers stories of resilience, pleasure, joy, and love through the lens of Black Femme movement artists. The collective message celebrates dance as a practice to combat the harshness of this world. Poems, essays, and interviews with 17 artists speak to thoughts on liberation: how we continue forward in the face of oppression, how we create and maintain belonging, and how we coexist with the Earth to protect its abundance. Harnessing our Gardens has contributions from Sarah “Nnenna Loveth” Nwafor and illustrations by Katiana Rodriguez.
Video by Joseph V. Porter, Cultural Strategist
"The gift to weave together lived experiences into something tangible that we can return to while still letting it flow and breathe beyond. That was one of the things I loved most about this book, that the end doesn't feel much like an end and more so like a pause. A pause from which we can then create our own essence of it in real time with loved ones, our communities, and practices. Love is a practice, and Harnessing Our Gardens is a reminder of that.
Every time I sat with the pages of this book I was invited into either laughter, tears, pause, and/or new insight. I thought a lot about truth telling. How uncomfortable it can be sometimes but also how refreshing and liberating it is instead of silence or pretending. I thought about “Black liberation being everyone’s liberation.” I thought about intergenerational relationships, specifically those with our elders. I thought about bell hooks,’ All About Love.
I found myself referencing the book. Sharing it with loved ones. Journaling about it. I loved how you asked the questions and held space for the answers. Because in a world that is often more committed to weeding out everything that isn't a blade of grass, you made space for the garden. The ecosystems that present themselves when we make space to sit, listen, and tend to."
- Itzel Herrera Garcia, Somatic & Spiritual Movement Artist + Student & Tender of Pachamama
"Harnessing our Gardens was a reminder of things I knew about myself but had forgotten, a reminder of how multifaceted and expansive Black women are, and an introduction to people, places, and recognitions about the way Black women exist and move in this world. It was also a gentle nudge that I need to move my body - even if in only small ways and that movement and dance are a language and history I also embody."
- Christina Turner, Vice President of Programs and Grantmaking Cambridge Community Foundation
Additional Credits
Advisor Angelique Motunrayo Folasade Àyìnkẹ́ C-Dina
Advisor Phaye Poliakoff-Chen
Copy Editor Flinn Eng
Funding
Mass Humanities: Expand Massachusetts Stories
Barr Foundation
Cambridge Community Foundation
Boston's Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture
National Performance Network
Stay tuned for future bookstores and libraries where you can acquire, Harnessing our Gardens!
Gardens in the world
Boston book launch
June 2026, a celebratory lunch held at Urban Farming Institute.
April 2026, Victoria joined Danspace's Conversation Without Walls, with Jasmine Hearn, Myssi Robinson, and Charmaine Warren facilitated by Seta Morton. The conversation centered on Black femme dance writing and archiving; rooted in Hearn’s Memory Fleet, as an archive and performance project; Robinson’s role and practice as the Platform 2026 Writer-in-Residence and archivist; Awkward’s book Harnessing our Gardens; and Warren’s role as a curator, dance writer, and founder/producer/artistic director of Black Dance Stories. Photos above by Rachel Keane.
Danspace
Research for Harnessing our Gardens started winter 2024 with Victoria meeting monthly with advisors: Angelique Motunrayo Folasade Àyìnkẹ́ C-Dina, Phaye Poliakoff-Chen, and Sarah “Nnenna Loveth” Nwafor, to read and view Black femme writing, media and performance. Victoria also worked with Nnenna to develop essays and poems in response to the emerging themes, and joined a writing cohort under Phaye. Interviews began summer of 2025 and went until February, 2026. Mirroring the intimacy of the published stories, interviews were often held over food, tea, or coffee. Pictured above from left to right is Victoria with artists: Lilly Rose Valore, Ellice Patterson, and Pearl Young.
Research & Interviews