Join us for a passionate and reflective conversation with co-founder of Soul Fire Farm Leah Penniman, who will talk about the work of Soul Fire Farm and the Black farming community to advance food sovereignty.
Some of our country’s most cherished sustainable farming practices – from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative and the CSA – have roots in African wisdom. Yet, African-American farmland ownership has declined to less than 1% and Black communities suffer disproportionately from illnesses related to lack of access to fresh food.
What is the story of land loss and food injustice? What work is being done to reclaim ancestral rights to belong to the land and have agency in the food system? How are we using food and land as tools to end mass incarceration and institutional racism?
Find out why the Soul Fire community proclaims, “this is what it would feel like if we were free.”
This event is free and open to the public. Presented by Goddard College’s Undergraduate Studies Program.
Leah Penniman is an educator, farmer, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. She is committed to dismantling the oppressive structures that misguide our food system, reconnecting marginalized communities to land, and upholding our responsibility to steward the land the nourishes us. As a core member of the Freedom Food Alliance, Leah cultivates life-giving food for incarcerated people and their loved ones.
She also runs an on-farm restorative justice program that is an alternative-to-incarceration for area teens. In these spaces, Leah joyfully and reverently connects learners to the intricate miracle that is this living planet and to their own power as agents of positive change in the community. Her work as a farmer and educator has been recognized nationally by the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, Presidential Award for Science Teaching, YES! Magazine, the Teaching Channel, New Technology Network, College Board, National Science Teachers Association, Edutopia, Center for Whole Communities, and Rethinking Schools.
Leah holds an MA in Science Education and BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University.