DeepSummary
The episode features an interview with Dr. Shakara Tyler, a farmer, educator, and organizer who engages in Black agrarianism, agroecology, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. She discusses the historical context of Black farmers' involvement in the civil rights movement and their struggles with land ownership and dispossession.
Dr. Tyler highlights the importance of land ownership for Black communities as a means of reclaiming power and ensuring survival, while also emphasizing the need for collective healing and a spiritual reconnection with the land. She talks about the work of organizations like the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund in supporting Black farmers and promoting urban agriculture.
The conversation also explores the concept of 'rematriation,' which refashions the conditions and standards that have constructed relationships produced for us within the violent expansions of European colonialism. Dr. Tyler calls for a shift towards a more joyous, victorious, and glorious narrative of Black farming, grounded in collectivity, solidarity, and a veneration of sacred food ways.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Black farmers played a crucial role in supporting the civil rights movement, which is often overlooked.
- Land ownership is an essential strategy for Black communities to reclaim power and ensure survival.
- Collective healing and a spiritual reconnection with the land are necessary for true liberation and decolonization.
- The concept of 'rematriation' offers a feminist perspective on the relationship between land ownership and decolonization.
- Organizations like the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund are working to promote urban agriculture and food sovereignty for Black communities.
- A shift towards a more joyous, victorious, and glorious narrative of Black farming, grounded in collectivity and a veneration of sacred food ways, is needed.
- Drawing from ancestral memory and connections to the land is an indispensable part of the work of Black agrarianism and food sovereignty.
- The quest for freedom and liberation is interconnected and must be grounded in the quest for someone else's freedom.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We often forget that black farmers were the foundation of the civil rights movement. Actually, a lot of black agrarian scholars and organizers and even some policy advocates that have been doing this work for a long time would say that there will be no civil rights movement if it wasn't for black farmers.“ by Speaker C
- “To rematriate, to me means to seek out and honor the motherlode in a stellar colonial state that exploited black and indigenous laborers on indigenously stolen land to build the us empire before us and rematriation inevitably, I think, is a. Is a feminist orientation that illuminates the mutual accountability, the relationality, the kinship that's involved in actively working to restore responsibilities to the land and building toward abolitionists in the colonial futures.“ by Speaker C
- “Toni Morrison says that the function of freedom is to free someone else so that to that note, I'll say ground your quest of freedom in the quest of someone else's freedom.“ by Speaker C
- “A motto that helps me stay grounded is a saying that I heard from Adair, agrarian sister of mine, Aaliyah Fraser, who now resides in Trinidad and leads really beautiful black agrarian co op work there. She says that our hands have been here before, and she has a whole story based on her grandmother that lives in Trinidad and the ancestral memory of the work for her based on her grandmother's stories and so on.“ by Speaker C
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Episode Information
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Kamea Chayne
2/8/23
“We often forget that Black farmers were the foundation of the civil rights movement. Actually, a lot of Black agrarian scholars and organizers, and even some policy advocates that have been doing this work for a long time, would say that there’d be no civil rights movement if it wasn’t for Black farmers.”
In this episode, we welcome dr. shakara tyler, a returning-generation farmer, educator and organizer who engages in Black agrarianism, agroecology, food sovereignty and environmental justice as commitments of abolition and decolonization. She serves as Board President at the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), board member of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op (DPFC) and co-founder of the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund (DBFLF) and a member of the Black Dirt Farm Collective (BDFC).
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// The musical offering featured in this episode Over It by RVBY MY DEAR. //