I Found God in Myself and I Loved Her Fiercely

This chapter explores the role that religion and spirituality have played in the lives of Black, queer, Southern women. Here, Johnson interrogates how these women developed an alternative consciousness of spirituality, particularly when institutionalized religious spaces failed to interpret texts in progressive ways. Some leave these spaces entirely and delve into spiritual practices like Yoruba, others find subversive ways to transgress the mores and conventions of these rigid spaces, and still others find creative and dynamic ways to employ a blend of these strategies.