Earthseed
Earthseed, the Ecollective journal
The Ecollective journal
Vol. 1, 2023
The Earthseed journal is named for the collection of writings by Lauren Oya Olamina, the protagonist of Octavia Butler’s novel, The Parable of the Sower.
Lauren keeps a journal that includes reflections about her spiritual philosophy called, “Earthseed.” The basic principle of the philosophy is cooperation. Read more about this philosophy and its relation to current crises in the Earthseed “The summer of our discontent” editorial. The Earthseed journal, volume 1, 2023
The summer of our discontent
Earthseed: Books of the Living ... or the Dying?
Parable of the Sower theme: an earth deteriorating from multiple crises.
Mighty Thunder Cloud Edible Forest is as enchanting as it sounds
On Mighty Thunder Cloud Edible Forest farm, kale grows the best way: among weeds!
Second Summer
A Gullah gardener grapples with global warming, the history of race relations on southern land, a rapacious timber industry, and more.
Hurricane Isabel 2003: a true story
Rain followed in the wake of Isabel making calls in North Carolina and blowing 165 mph kisses across Virigina.
The Perpetual Gardeners of Penllyn
For Walter Moore, “the fountain of youth” is not a body of water but the ground beneath his feet.
Living off the fat of the land with a new twist
Willie Stephenson and Sherri Knight Stephenson both have family histories deeply rooted in the land. Now they are carrying those traditions forward .
The fabric of our lives is the stuff of his dreams
Photo above was taken before Sean Combs' legal problems.
I was tired and found myself here
I’ve lived in New York City all my life but for the month of September I’m staying at Shannon Farm in Afton, Virginia through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), a global work exchange program where people can gain agroecology experience for free housing.
Black gardeners in the history of Norfolk Botanical Garden
Black people (mostly women) cleared 25 acres of swamp land and transformed the area into the Norfolk Botanical Garden during a 1930s WPA project.
Deeply Rooted
Ebony Patterson explores the cycle of shedding, molting and revitalization at NY Botanical Garden
Difficult conversations about land and cultures
Deconstructing the Boundaries: A Future of Land and Food Resilience
Autumn: season of drying, cooling and moving inward
Season of Drying, Cooling and Moving Inward
King cotton, great American icon
Ever wonder why so much nostalgia is imbued in a crop that’s associated with intense heat; brutally exploitative labor and devastating insect infestation?
Books and other publications, 2021-2022
They include We Are Each Other's Harvest by Natalie Bazile. This eclectic collection of essays, articles, interviews, memoir excerpts, poems, quotes, photographs of black farmers includes Baszile’s own essay about her ten-year struggle to write her novel, Queen Sugar. Together these pieces reveal the mostly hidden world of black Americans in agriculture.