Now is the season to know that everything you do is sacred.”
Hafez
Beloved Community,
We hope you are feeling alive in your purpose and wholeness, with all that needs our presence and care at this time.
May has been budding, bustling and blooming on the farm! We’ve been sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings, rewilding with native plants, designing the evolution of our campus, building 13 gardens in the city, welcoming beautiful people to the land for community work and learn days and more. Read on for highlights and upcoming opportunities to learn and grow with us.
We are excited to announce a NEW BOOK (!!!) and our new Praxis series that reflects on how our community can best put our values into action, sharing resources, ideas, and practice toward collective liberation.
We encourage folks to stand with us in radical solidarity for Palestinians who are fighting for their lives and lands. Check out Justice for All’s take action page and Samidoun’s Calendar of Resistancefor ways to show up for Palestine in a time of extreme violence and ongoing oppression that demands global response.
It is an honor to walk with you!
In Love & Solidarity,
Cheryl, Kiani, Azure’, Brooke, Dayo, Leah, Naima, Ife, and Jonah
Praxis
This society is obsessed with the “hero narrative,” imagining falsely that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was solely responsible for the Civil Rights Movement or that Vandana Shiva is the whole of eco-feminism. While these leaders are beloved and irreplaceable, the truth is that movements are comprised of many organizations and individuals taking risks, demonstrating leadership, and contributing ideas and work.
The media has a role in telling this truth. Acknowledging that Soul Fire Farm can be pedestalized in ways that are unhelpful to our movement ecosystem, we created the “Beyond Heroes” media guide to push for change. So far, we have been able to redirect around 75% of media and speaking requests to our comrades. We welcome your ideas to improve the guide, and encourage you to share and adapt it.
BEYOND HEROES GUIDE
Soul Fire Farm’s new Praxis series reflects on how our community can best put our values into action, sharing resources, ideas, and practice toward collective liberation. These will be shared each month in Love Notes and also on social media.
We are excited to announce Black Earth Wisdom, a new book project that “weaves together the voices of today’s most respected Black environmentalists, those who have cultivated the skill of listening to the lessons that Earth has whispered to them.” Leah’s research and writing process is underway and the book will be published by HarperCollins in December 2022.
Follow the book on Instagram and learn more at Black Earth Wisdom. A big thank you to B. Anderson, the originator of the @blackearthwisdom project who was generous enough to welcome the book to share the same name. B and Leah will be hosting an Instagram Live Thursday, May 20, 6 PM Eastern @soulfirefarm to discuss the origin and significance of Black Earth Wisdom.
Please support B’s fundraiser as you are able.
Staff Highlights
Leah Penniman – Co-Founder + Farm Manager
“I am thrilled that we were able to support Klo Rural Partners, a women’s farming cooperative in Odumase-Krobo, Ghana to launch their microloan program. We have worked with our comrades in Ghana since 2002, and have learned so much from them. Thanks to everyone who contributed – $2,000 provided funds for over 10 women-led farms to acquire seeds, tools, and amendments.”
Naima Penniman – Program Director
“This month I got to collab with 2 young queer filmmakers of color from Youth FX, to transform a poem I wrote into cinematic art! “These Gardens Are Blueprints” I am celebrating the completion of our 10th Uprooting Racism in the Food System for 2021, reaching over 1,500 participants this year alone! And I’m elated to be teaching a virtual Mushroom Cultivation workshop on 5/25 alongside one of my incredible teachers, Jie Jen.”