By Kamora Herrington, Kamora’s Cultural Corner
There are many ways that folks ask why Kamora’s Cultural Corner exists. Sometimes they’re asking why we transformed the vacant lot on Sterling Street into the Sterling Street Sanctuary and Nature Reserve. Sometimes they’re asking why we have a herb garden, a labyrinth, host shared meals, and community gatherings. And at some point in the conversation they’ll ask about the three words that we use to describe our work: Black. Queer. Afrocentric.
Today we’re going to talk about those three words because those three words are often misunderstood. They aren’t a slogan or a list of who belongs here; they describe the educational framework that guides all of what you see and experience when you engage with Kamora’s Cultural Corner.
Our work begins by centering the experiences, history, and cultural knowledge of Black Americans who are descendants of American enslavement. While the term Foundational American can be controversial in some spaces, Black Americans continue to be marginalized, even in spaces that celebrate diversity or people of color. Understanding that each of us has a unique lens and view, and that Black Americans have been front and center in each and every moment of American history, we continue to center that lens and view, as well as ourselves. Recognizing that every community deserves the opportunity to understand itself on its own terms before being asked to explain itself to others, we have literally carved out a space for that to happen for Black folks.
Queer, as we practice and define it reaches far beyond sexual orientation or gender identity. It is a liberatory framework rooted in LGBTQ lived experience that asks us to question assumptions about belonging, power, and whose humanity is centered. It is an invitation to imagine communities where people are not required to edit themselves in order to belong and creates spaces for us to celebrate, mourn and just BE queer and free. It is not rainbow capitalism or performative inclusion, it is joy and liberation.
Afrocentricity, defined by and drawing on the work of Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, provides the educational lens through which all of our work is viewed. It reminds us to begin with people as the experts of their own lived experiences rather than interpreting them through someone else’s assumptions. It calls us to replace certainty with curiosity and to recognize that authentic learning begins by honoring the humanity of the person in front of and around us. And once those three ideas come together, everything else makes sense.
Black, Queer, and Afrocentric are the foundation of my professional practice as an educator. Over the past three decades, I have developed an approach to cultural humility that integrates lived experience, critical service-learning, somatic awareness, relationship-building, and experiential education. The Sterling Street Sanctuary and Nature Reserve serves as the Learning Lab where those ideas are continually practiced, refined, and shared. The gardens, the labyrinth, the workshops, the consultations, and the community experiences are not separate programs. They are intentionally designed educational experiences that help people move beyond intellectual understanding and into reflection, relationship, personal growth and discovery.
From the outside and from the inside, the Sanctuary looks like a neighborhood gathering place. Walking or driving by you’ll see herbs, gardens, volunteers, community events, and folks just hanging out visiting. And that is what it is, but it is also so much more.
Every element of the landscape exists because it helps teach something. The herb gardens provide aroma therapy and trigger olfactory memories which often lead to nostalgic stories and invite conversations about medicine, cooking, migration, and other musings. The Heritage Garden is a place to explore ancestry, foodways, the Diaspora, and allows us to give kale and collard greens away. This year we’ve added tobacco to add another layer to those conversations. So many of our families came to the Hartford area for jobs in the tobacco fields; many Black Americans and West Indians found themselves to be neighbors and friends due to separate waves of immigration and many of us know our own stories but not those of others. This is a place to share those stories. The dual-path labyrinth was designed to help participants practice remaining in relationship across difference without requiring agreement and is a full story in and of itself.
Basically, Kamora’s Cultural Corner exists because community is a verb, and authentic community, especially authentic community in 2026 is something that we need to consciously and intentionally practice, which requires spaces where people can show up fully, where difference can be approached with curiosity rather than assumptions or fear, and where shared experiences and thoughtful reflections can build real and meaningful relationships.
My hope has never been that folks leave the Sanctuary agreeing with me, that misses the fullness and beauty of a truly diverse society. My hope is that they leave more curious than when they arrived. Curiosity creates room for relationship, and relationships create the conditions where cultural humility can grow.
The gardens, the labyrinth, the art, the conversations, and the land all serve that purpose. They remind us that community is not something we inherit simply because we live near one another. It is something we practice, one relationship at a time.
This is the second in a somewhat sporadic series about what’s happening on Sterling Street. I’ll be sharing more information about our philosophy and events and hopefully answering any questions you may have about cultural humility, somatic abolition, The Sterling Street Sanctuary and Nature Reserve or anything else you’d like to know. I’m looking forward to seeing you at events AND introducing you to our practices and foundation; how we build, how we slow down, and how we stay in relationship with each other in a time that is asking a lot from all of us.
If you’ve been meaning to come through, this is your invitation. Come be a part of what we’re growing.
You can visit our website at: www.kamorasculturalcorner.com or sign-up for our newsletters at: https://tinyurl.com/MailMeKCC
