WHYY/NPR “In the Gap” Interview

In this interview Ms. English states that I “tend” gardens for social service agencies. In fact, I start victory gardens for social service agencies which are then tended by a team of folks, many of whom are volunteers. I think it’s interesting that what I do for a business was interpreted through the lens of African American history; I’m a woman who “tends gardens for” rather than an urban farmer whose business empowers social service agencies to feed their own clients. I think this is an insightful interview which has opened a possible door for greater discussion in our Philadelphia community of color where there are unlimited ways to eat yourself sick but very few options for easy access to organic or chemical free vegetables. My work is as much about this dimension of deeply rooted, successful negative cultural engineering as is about the beauty, wisdom and harmony to be found in having a respectful relationship to the earth.