Farming While Black: Uprooting Racism, Seeding Sovereignty

Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices - from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative and the CSA - have roots in African wisdom. Yet, discrimination and violence against African-American farmers has led to our decline from 14 percent of all growers in 1920 to less than 2 percent today, with a corresponding loss of over 14 million acres of land. Further, Black communities suffer disproportionately from illnesses related to lack of access to fresh food and healthy natural ecosystems. Soul Fire Farm is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system. Through programs such as the Black-Latinx Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farmshare CSA, and Youth Food Justice leadership training, Soul Fire Farm is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of color, restore Afro-indigenous farming practices, and end food apartheid. And now, with the new book Farming While Black, Soul Fire Farm extends that work by offering the first comprehensive manual for African-heritage people ready to reclaim our rightful place of dignified agency in the food system. Join us to learn how you too can be part of the movement for food sovereignty and help build a food system based on justice, dignity, and abundance for all members of our community.

SPEAKER BIO: Amani Olugbala, Professional Speaker & Facilitator at Soul Fire Farm, is a storyteller and food justice advocate with over 15 years of experience in youth education and community outreach. Amani combines artistic expression, project-based learning and outdoor education tools to facilitate social justice based workshops and discussions with individuals, groups and organizations. Amani seeks to push communities to challenge presumed differences and work together in uncovering interlocked paths towards self determination and community liberation. Amani’s early work with the Natural Leaders, Brother Yusuf and the Youth Ed Venture Network, underscored the necessity of reintroduction to land as a source of healing and power for those of us who have been historically and systematically disconnected. Amani awoke a personal connection to seed while directing YO!, a youth-centered urban garden program in Albany, NY. At Soul Fire Farm’s Black and Latinx Farmer Immersion, Amani further cultivated the tools to sustain this connection and share it with others. Soul Fire Farm raises life-giving food to folks surviving food apartheid, trains farmer activists, advocates for systemic change and offers models for revolutionary thrival through love, ancestral wisdom and Earth reverence. Raptivist, spoken word artist, and abolitionist, Amani O+ is driven to uplift love, art & service as necessary expressions of rebellion against a sense of disconnection and hopelessness that threatens our collective peace and wellness.

WEBSITE FOR BOOK: www.farmingwhileblack.org

WEBSITE FOR FARM: www.soulfirefarm.org

SOCIAL MEDIA: @soulfirefarm @farmingwhileblack

Sponsored by Cooperative Development Institute, For Us, By Us Fund, Food Studies Program and Gloria S. Duclos Convocation at University of Southern Maine, Maine Initiatives, John Merck Fund and Cultivating Community