Black Earth Wisdom – January ’23 Love Notes

Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.

Yoko Ono

Beloved Community,

This month we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to find slowness and intention to dream into the coming year and all of the changes a new year inevitably brings.

Today, we’d like to share a few exciting invitations and updates we’ve been working toward for 2023. We will resume our more lengthy, in-depth newsletter in February.

Thank you for all the ways you continue to support Soul Fire Farm.

May these cold winter days inspire a slowing and centering of your heart’s desires.

Briana, Brooke, Cheryl, Clara, Danielle, Hillary, Ife, Jonah, Kai, Leah, Naima, Ria, Shay, and Susuyu

Join us on Saturday March 4, 2023 at the Hudson Area Library from 1-4 PM for a celebration of the release of Black Earth Wisdom. This joyful gathering will include earth ritual, poetry, music, panel discussion, drumming, dancing, giveaways, and refreshments. Reserve your spot here. 

Also, LAST CALL to request a spot on the Black Earth Black Earth Wisdom book tour. Request us for your podcast, show, conference, or other virtual event. Final submission deadline is February 10. For ecological reasons, virtual and northeast regional in-person events in March-April 2023 are preferred.

Media Request Form 
Public Speaking Request Form 

Black Earth Wisdom is a soulful collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore Black people’s spiritual and scientific connection to the land, waters, and climate. Learn more at blackearthwisdom.org and @black.earth.wisdom

Pre-order Black Earth Wisdom HERE.

behind you stands a tree. it’s brown like you. and maybe here your spine is not yet crooked, not yet weighed down by backpacks full of printed afterlives. so stand here in the dignity of tall, in the sureness of brown, the shade. trust me there will be years enough to twist and curve, stand here where you already know your roots, stand here where you already feel your reach, stand here and just remember who you are, i’m right behind you.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Join Erin Sharkey, Naima Penniman, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs on February 16th, at 6 PM CST in celebration of the newly released anthology “A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars.” They will share excerpts from their work and discuss their relationships to ancestry, collective memory and to healing through their relationships to land and the natural world.

The anthology where their work appears, A Darker Wilderness, is a constellation of luminary writers reflecting on the significance of nature in their lived experiences and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks. The stories span hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.

This interactive event is hosted by Soul Fire Farm in partnership with Milkweed Editions. We look forward to welcoming you into an evening of conversation and community.

Click Here to RSVP

This summer, for the 9th year, a team of passionate and committed farmers will come together with participants from all over the region and country who are seeking to amplify the land-based skills needed to reclaim leadership as growers and food justice organizers in their communities. Soul Fire Farm is accepting applications for guest facilitators for the 2023 FIRE Season. Immersion 1 runs August 6 – 11, and Immersion 2 runs August 20 – 25.

FIRE (Farming In Relationship to Earth) is designed for aspiring, beginning, and intermediate growers of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx heritage to gain basic skills in regenerative farming in a culturally relevant, supportive, and joyful environment.

The position involves co-leading a team for each “hands on the land block,” leading or co-leading 3-4 workshops or classes, in addition to set up, clean up, and maintenance of the space and tools. A complete list of the responsibilities and commitments are linked here. The compensation is $2,000 plus 3 meals a day and tent accommodations.

FIRE Alumni are welcome and encouraged to apply!

If you are interested please send your resume and a one paragraph letter of interest to programs@soulfirefarm.org with the subject line “2023 FIRE Facilitator Application” by February 12. Thank you!

New Frameworks is part of the movement to take the conversation a step further by using materials that in and of themselves act as a carbon sink, thus radically expanding the capacity of construction to help address climate change.

These straw bale panels that you see here will not only help the Program Center perform as an energy efficient building, but unlike most building materials, they have extracted carbon from the atmosphere, and will sequester it for the very long life of the building. This is what many climate concerned builders are now referring to as a “drawdown building.”

Straw bale buildings are not a new invention, but the innovation that New Frameworks is undertaking with their panelized walls represents an exciting way to make these types of structures at a heightened scale and efficiency of production, thus expanding the possibility of using such building materials more commonly and widely.

Big up New Frameworks!

In the midst of deep welcome.  
In the midst of dreams and truths, lessons and lovings, and hope….   
Hope after centuries of loss and centuries of creative resilience.
Hope after decades on death row.
Hope in the midst of climate ravages which scorch our dark children’s lungs and bodies first.
Hope for repair and reparation.
Sometimes I laid resting on the earth absorbing wisdom, stories, restorative practices.
Sometimes I laughed-sung-chanted with my riotous loving team on kitchen duty.
Sometimes I marveled at the palpable sense of connective support.
Sometimes I blazed with possibility as those present cheered and committed to my timid next step.
Sometimes I just stood as the air and soil crackled with the invisible flames of vision and history melding into something new and alive that de-contaminates and builds our communal soul
…breaking open seeds that old systems of dominance believed they had killed or tamed.
Soul-Fired seeds that might heal the heart of planet and humanity.

~ rmlaroche © 2022, www.DiasporaOnMadeline.com

regina’s farm/arts/spirit life is dedicated to nourishment and healing through Diaspora Gardens; Planting Connections, Planting Hope; SEEDS of REPAIR.

Soul Fire Farm had the privilege of moving resources, in the form of a pass through grant, to Les Jardins Chez Marlène, an agroecology farm located in the Abomey-Calavi region of Benin.  Les Jardins focuses on reclaiming indigenous fauna and practices that have been threatened by colonization and creating access to food that has been grown, with ecologically sound techniques for community members.  Click here to donate.  In-kind offerings such as supplies or labor can be directed to lesjardinschezmarlene@gmail.com

The Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Even small plots of land – whether rural or urban – growing fruit, vegetables or some food animals count if $1,000 or more of such products were raised and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year. The Census of Agriculture, taken only once every five years, looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures. For America’s farmers and ranchers, the Census of Agriculture is their voice, their future, and their opportunity.

For help filling out your online or paper form, visit FAQs for Completing the Census of Agriculture.

• Sandy Nurse: Hiring Community Organizer Position: City Council Member Sandy Nurse is seeking a Community Organizer to join our team of passionate, smart, visionary change makers who are dedicated to providing timely services and support for the communities of City Council District 37.
• Rock Steady Farm: Hiring Farm Education Manager Position: The Farm Education Manager is responsible for supervising, facilitating and carrying-out on-farm immersions, workshops, volunteer days, tours and virtual events.
• NY Seed Grant :  awards $5k+ (dependent on your gross receipts) to small businesses (not just farms!) that were formed after September 2018. Take a look at the application guide for tips on applying and for a preview of the application (near the bottom). They do expect a high volume of applications so it is recommended to apply soon! 

• FoodPrint Podcast – What You’re Eating episode 14: Keeping it Local with Brooke Bridges

Oppression underwrites our food system, and a tangible action to address food sovereignty in our communities is taking reparations into our own hands through the creation of the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers. We recognize that the food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color. We also know that we cannot wait for the government to acknowledge that stolen wealth and land must be returned. Some farmers have already received funding through this project, and we want to provide that opportunity to other Black and Brown farmers. If you have resources you want to share contact a farmer directly to share them, or if you have a project you want to include on the map contact Northeast Farmers of Color!