Hooks reflects on her return to her home state of Kentucky, framing it as both a spiritual and political decision. She describes the significance of such a choice, arguing that “choosing a place to die is as vital as choosing where and how to live” (6). Kentucky, she reflects, was the site of her earliest sense of belonging as well as her deepest personal grief.

Hooks recounts the division of her early life into two distinct phases: The “before” of living in the Kentucky hills, where nature and freedom shaped her identity, and the “After,” marked by the family’s move to town, where racial and class hierarchies became starkly visible. Her connection to the natural world is central, with her describing nature as “a place for healing wounds,” and the hills as offering a culture of anarchy, where “freedom meant self-determination” (8). She contrasts the racial integration and self-sufficiency of rural life with the structural racism and segregation she encountered in urban Kentucky and, later, in the broader United States. Her move away from the hills into the city was a loss of that original culture of belonging and initiated a long period of internal conflict, disconnection, and exile.

As hooks describes her years living and studying far from home, she reflects on the alienation she experienced in predominantly white institutions, especially at Stanford University, where her geographic and cultural background often marked her as an outsider. She suppressed her vernacular speech, her beliefs, and aspects of her identity to adapt. Still, her connection to Kentucky persisted as an internal anchor, strengthened by artifacts like her grandmother’s braided tobacco and a quilt, which served as reminders of her roots.

The chapter also explores the cultural erasure and marginalization of Appalachian and Black rural traditions. Hooks underscores the resilience of these subcultures, noting how Black and white mountain folk created oppositional values grounded in self-reliance, resistance to authority, and dignity. This “culture of belonging,” defined by Carol Lee Flinders as a set of values including “deliberateness, generosity, egalitarianism, and openness of spirit” (13), shaped hooks’s own ethic and fueled her later radicalism.

Hooks acknowledges the dysfunction she experienced growing up—both within her family and in the racist, patriarchal structures of the state—but emphasizes that those early values of integrity, self-respect, and resistance also sustained her. She concludes that the search for belonging she pursued across the country ultimately brought her back to the place it began.

Hooks argues that humans often crave homogeneity and resist diversity and change, and she states that peace is founded on embracing these changes. Turning to the environment, she declares that humans cannot live sustainably while also viewing the environment in terms of human use. To exemplify, she contrasts industrial coal mining, which uses practices such as mountaintop removal, with the smaller-scale coal mining practices she witnessed as a child. She shares an excerpt from Silas House’s Missing Mountains, which calls for sustainable coal mining practices, rather than the extremes of industrial mining and the banning of coal. Hooks also calls for those in more privileged positions to use their power to advocate for sustainability.

Hooks introduces Daymon Morgan, a conservationist and activist against mountaintop removal. She describes the emotional hardships Morgan has experienced in his advocacy work, noting that despite the difficulties, Morgan remains resilient in his fight to stop mountaintop removal. Hooks also writes that, when she went to see Morgan speak, she and others were heavily surveilled and blocked from touring a mountaintop removal area.

Criticizing what she terms “dominator culture”—synonymous with “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” (8)—hooks argues that instead of Nietzsche’s will to power, individuals and communities should embrace a “will to meaning” (29, emphasis added) as the foundation of soulful living. Corporations and media obscure the connection between capitalism and its consequences, often scapegoating poor communities in the process. To correct this issue, hooks calls for a widespread challenging of the dehumanization of those living in poverty and the recognition that poor individuals can live a rich life among nature. She also calls for a recognition of abundance opposed to the capitalistic scarcity mindset—“we must see a value in life that is above and beyond profit motives” (31)—referring to the concept as “deep ecology.”

Hooks explores the historical and spiritual connection between Black communities and the land, arguing that a return to nature is essential for both personal and collective healing. She reflects on the joy and reverence for the earth she learned in childhood, recalling how her grandparents cultivated gardens with pride and care. She asserts that, “when we love the earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully” (34), a belief she traces to the teachings of her ancestors.

She discusses the early relationships between African Americans and Indigenous Americans, highlighting their mutual respect for nature and exchange of agricultural knowledge. These shared traditions represent a legacy of harmony with the earth that contrasts with the values of white settler culture, which prioritized ownership and exploitation of land.

Hooks then turns to the psychological impact of the Great Migration, in which large numbers of Black Americans left the rural South for urban life in the North. Drawing on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, she describes how this migration led to a disconnection from nature and from the body. The inability to experience nature or care for the body left many Black people vulnerable to despair. Hooks quotes Waring Cuney’s poem to illustrate this alienation.

Despite these losses, hooks argues that connection to nature can be restored. She offers examples of Black urban dwellers cultivating gardens and creating peaceful spaces. Her own experiences growing collard greens in New York City reawakened her sense of ancestral connection and belonging. She emphasizes that healing the “black psyche” must include healing the relationship to the earth. Citing Wendell Berry, she concludes: “‘When the earth is sacred to us, our bodies can also be sacred’” (40).

Hooks started considering the history of Black farmers after leaving Kentucky and she noticed how the experiences of rural Black individuals were ignored in discussions of the Black experience. While she came from a farming family, hooks was not raised to be a farmer; however she did learn to “cherish” the land. She states that it is her “fate” to tell the stories of the forgotten Black farmers. Hooks explores other prominent figures who tell such stories, including Ernest Gaines, Elliot Jaspin, W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Carol Lee Flinders. 

After leaving Kentucky, hooks noticed how little society discussed agrarian Black lifestyles and how younger Black individuals were leaving rural communities. As a result, life-sustaining agrarian Black legacies, such as those hooks learned from her grandparents, began to fade. For Black communities to heal, hooks argues, they must remember their agrarian roots.

Hooks calls for modern Black farmers to share their stories, noting how agrarian lifestyles are inherently healthy compared to modern lifestyles. She turns to Alice Walker’s autobiography, We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For, which highlights the joy of “living in harmony with nature” (47). Hooks agrees with Walker, arguing that collective Black healing requires rebuilding a strong relationship with nature.

She criticizes dominator culture, which dehumanizes people, forcing Black individuals into a victim role. Hooks argues that a Black victimhood mindset can’t be “blamed on white folks” (49), and she calls for both individual and collective returns to nature. Doing so cannot reverse oppression but can help one move beyond oppression. However, hooks recognizes systemic barriers, such as the pervasive racism that makes it more difficult for Black individuals to purchase land. When hooks first purchased land, she did so as a silent partner with a white male friend, and she hopes for a future where land is sold without bias. She reflects on her homecoming process, acknowledging the trauma she experienced in her childhood as well as the love that brought her back to Kentucky.