Seeding the Blues

What happens to the foods that we don’t eat? Composting is a vital part of our food cycles, but it's so much more than recycling our food scraps. This episode takes us on a journey through New York City to explore how this age-old practice is thriving in even the densest of urban spaces, while uncovering how composting can hold the key to food sovereignty for so many. More about Earth Matter @ https://earthmatter.org/ --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/

In the imaginations of some folks, movements towards food sovereignty live primarily in idyllic community gardens, small-scale organic farms, local farmers’ markets, and farm-to-table restaurants. But the work of sovereignty lives within spaces of deeper complexity – spaces woven together by the seeds of joys, suffering, commitments, creativity, and resilience. Derrick McDonald and Shephali Patel call in the stories and voices that remind us that sovereignty lives in our past, present, and futures.  --- Learn more and support Black Star Farmers @ blackstarfarmers.org --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/ --- Derrick McDonald:  https://www.hackerarchitects.com/derrick-mcdonald StoryMap of the initial seeding of Black Lives Memorial Garden in Cal Anderson  Coverage on 2021 Black Lives Matter protests and CHOP/CHAZ:  https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/11/seattle_activists_create_autonomous_zone_near https://crosscut.com/focus/2020/11/seattles-cal-anderson-park-microcosm-national-upheaval Watch the documentary “As Long as the Rivers Run” to learn about Bernie Whitebear and a legacy of indigenous land and food sovereignty movements in the Pacific Northwest Overview of Daybreak Star and the Fort Lawton occupation:  https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/online-exhibits/daybreak-star-indian-cultural-center Omari Garrett and the occupation of the Colman School Overview:  https://www.historylink.org/File/8602 A complex history:   https://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-culture/2008/12/1008-feat-divided https://africanamericanheritagemuseumandculturalcenter.org/synopsis/ Stay connected with Shephali at shephali.earth Recommended Reading List inspired by Derrick Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity by Alexis Pauline Gumbs Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Kindred by Octavia Butler The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna J. Haraway

For the folks behind BK Rot, showing love to their community looks a lot like piles of old orange peels, used coffee grounds, and last week's leftovers — in other words, it looks like compost. BK Rot is New York City's first bike-powered composting and hauling service, run almost entirely by youth of color. It was created in response to the city's failure to bring curbside composting services to their neighborhoods — and to this day, the group plays a key part in their local food cycles. --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/ ---

The air has grown cooler, and the leaves are falling from the trees. We are in the thick of fall, which also means the thick of transformation. I’ve always heard that grief is something you grow through, so I sat with the soil and mirrored the earth's cycles. I sat with the trees, the falling leaves, and the wind to help me remember. That endings are endings, but they can also seed new beginnings. --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/

The artists, musicians, and water protectors of South Seattle challenge flawed concepts of environmentalism by showing us that water is not a resource; but a sacred force that is inseparable from what it means to be a human being. Protecting our rivers and upholding water sovereignty is always a cultural and relational act - one that is a co-creation between the humans and the waters themselves. The Duwamish River invites us to take this journey back to ourselves. --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/ --- Simon Wolf, poet   Website:  https://www.simonwolf.xyz/ Music for Simon’s poetry by Sendai Mike Arturo Rodriguez, musician Website and Classes:  https://arturorodriguez.com/ Stay in touch:  https://www.facebook.com/RodriguezReneArturo Rainier Valley Water Resiliency Course:  https://blackstarfarmers.org/waterresiliency Dynamic Waters:  https://www.dynamicwaters.net/ Support the Duwamish River Community Coalition’s (DRCC) Environmental & Health Justice work: https://www.drcc.org/donate Stay connected with Shephali at shephali.earth   Story Elements The Duwamish and Coast Salish peoples https://www.duwamishtribe.org/history https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/culture/contemporary-culture/coast-salish-art/coast-salish-people The Waterlines Project identifies landscape and water entities in the Lushootseed language – and illustrates how Seattle is one of the most dramatically engineered cities in the U.S.   Waterlines Map:  https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/waterlines/project_map.html Cedar River Watershed Map:  https://your.kingcounty.gov/dnrp/library/water-and-land/watersheds/cedar-river-lake-wa/watershed-map.pdf Introduction to Watershed Terminology The Superfund Status of the Duwamish River:  https://www.drcc.org/what-is-superfund Duwamish River History & Photographs:  https://www.drcc.org/river-history-and-photographs Recommended Reading and Listening List inspired by Simon, Arturo, Allie, and Orian: Listen to James Rasmussen, Duwamish Tribe and Founder of the DRCC The River that Made Seattle by BJ Cummings Haboo:  Native American Stories from Puget Sound by Vi Hilbert One River, a Thousand Voices by Claudia Castro Luna When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through by Joy Harjo Occasional Objects by Simon Wolf and Cedar Sigo Learn Conga Drum technique from Arturo Rodriguez Watch Simon Wolf’s Place Based Poetics series Listen to drums played by rain at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center

Recovering from top surgery is a chance to heal more than just your body. In this episode, Nino McQuown and friends DREAM Emmanuel, Leah Drew, and Ty Wilkerson talk about how food fit into their processes of recovery, and how sometimes moments of self-sovereignty arrive through openness to receiving care. --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/ --- DREAM's Candle Company: We Live in Truth We L.I.T. @ https://www.weliveintruth.com/ Follow Ty's Standup @ https://www.instagram.com/who_theythemty/ Help fund surgery needs for Black trans folks @ https://www.forthegworls.party/homeGet in touch with Nino @ allsoils.net

In the Near East neighborhoods of Columbus, Ohio, generations of Black community leaders have worked together to nurture a center of Black life in Ohio. In this episode, we follow Julialynn Walker as she takes us through the Bronzeville Urban Growers community gardens, markets, and food programs and shares the history of the Near East, and the present and future of food sovereignty in Bronzeville. --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/ --- Bethany Bronzeville Church Donations Page @https://onrealm.org/BethanyPresbyte/-/form/give/now African-American Settlements and Communities in Columbus, OH @https://www.columbuslandmarks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/African-American-Comm.pdfGet in touch with Nino @ allsoils.net

Indigofera is at the root of a fruitful friendship between three land stewards and natural dyers in the DMV area. Sun English Jr., Kenya Miles, and Rosa Chang walk us through the spiritual, medicinal, and historical elements of indigo dyeing. In this episode, we discuss how caring for this plant helps us connect to our ancestors and the soil through craft and stewardship. --- Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/ --- Kenya’s Dye Studio @ https://www.bluelightjunction.com/ Sun’s Farm and Apothecary @ https://www.melanatedmedicinals.com/ Rosa’s website and Indigo Shade Map @ https://rosafulgarden.com/https://www.indigoshademap.org/

Radical Nourishment is a deep dive into the stories of foodshed communities around the U.S. growing in strength and power as they reclaim sovereignty and self-determination in ways big and small. Co-created by Food Culture Collective and HEAL Food Alliance, two organizations leading food sovereignty and land justice work in the U.S., the podcast activates liberatory narratives that ground us in an irresistible future. Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/