 Well, thank you all so much for being here today, and I'm really proud to welcome you here for this panel discussion of the documentary film Farming While Black. We have a wonderful group of folks up here to talk about this film today. I'm just going to come out and join me and I can introduce you. So, I'm next. So, I'm here with Councilor X, who is a community organizer, transmission artist, and co-steward of Ezeleus, respite, farm, and sanctuary on 13.4 acres of un-suited Apanaki land in the Upper Valley. His activities are in his harm reduction care mentorship program, continuing foraging, cultivating perennial and medicinal food sources, and raising heritage-free chickens, kidneys, and small remnants. We're also doing by Hazel Adams Chango, she's the co-founder and production manager of the Flying Buffalo. It's a market garden farm in Lowell County that she runs with her family. She has a background in public service. She's working in education in New York City, and she's also a founder and CEO of an independent parent advocacy business, named Special NYC. We are also joined by, by Colonel Zaka Sherry, who has a background in farming. Zaka is a Haitian poet and film director. Zaka and his wife, Jetta, started Calabash Gardens in Newbury, Vermont. Their farmers have the largest stack in farm in North America, and he's also raising his child as an 18-month-old on their farm. And then finally, we're joined by James Key, who is the director-at-large of the Vermont Beef Keepers Association. James has a long history in farming and began beef keeping in 2017. He earned his certification in 2019, becoming the first black Vermont certified beef keeper in the organization's 150-year history. He currently works with more than 18 beef colonies, as well as working with other families as well. Thank you all so much for joining us. So while the film is still fresh in our minds, I want to start out with, what do you think is the most important point that you hope that people would walk away from this film? I'll get started. Hi, everybody. Hey, y'all. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So many points there in the documentary. Even they showed a still photo of my great-grandfather, Judge Sidney O'Africanus Jones, with the farmers that he helped to liberate. They wanted to lynch them during the red summer of 1919 in the Lane, Arkansas. So that was just a brilliant surprise for me. And for two of my three children who were here with me, there he is. But he is a part of the farming legacy in America. And so that was just very pleasing. But for me, what I really felt or what really resonated with me is that it's our duty to win. And that's all of us. This is talking about farming while black, but as students of the Earth, as caregivers of care of the Earth and the land, it's our duty to win. And how we do that, well, we're going to be working on that as we go on. Yeah, hi, everyone. My name is Zaka. But I think from this movie is how happy we are when we are in the land, even though we have a lot of struggle to get there and then how caring we have been when we are there. So for me, it gives me hope that no matter what it is, we will get there and find a way to be living in synchronism with our environment. And that's what I think with that. Hi, hey, folks. I'm James. I'm a farmer, James. Apriculture is my apiary business. Many of the things that were said in the movie, I echoed many years ago. That's probably why I'm a lonely black beekeeper. I echoed what she just said about addressing many of the things that organic farming have addressed those things about how George Washington cover and many of our African ancestors were the first. I did that when the Northeast Organic Farming Association started back in the 80s. So that was my quest to learn and practice a lot of the things and the theories of my ancestors. I do practice a lot of the beekeeping methods that George Washington cover and steal at Tuskegee Institute and where at one point in time all students were mandated to take beekeeping along the organic farming. So I'm trying to re-institute that kind of tradition because without honeybees, you would not have that diversity. But I also again thank the people who put on this event and invited me here. No, it's fine. I was happy to hear everybody speak. Yeah, this film. For COVID considerations, I will not be sharing a mic, but please feel free to tell me to speak up. So yeah, I love this film. I love the book. It was really transformational for me. It taught me a lot. And I think the thing that I took away from this is to get back to the joy and that we have to do it ourselves. We see what government does. Hopefully there's mutual aid that can come from here in Vermont to be able to kind of bridge that equity gap that the rest of our system doesn't really want to touch or wants to keep in place. So it's exciting to be here with other people who are actually able to be on the land on their own farms and what we're doing for, hopefully for ourselves and for community. And like you said, lack liberation is liberation for all people. I would just add or you know, stat on what Kansu was talking about. What I really think that we are in all the other farmers that were featured in the film and the collective, they're doing something what we call in our community like they're keeping the fire burning. And you keep the fire burning, the ancestral fire burning so that the young people in the next generation can see where they need to go. You keep the fire burning to stave away all those little nasty things in the dark. You keep the fire burning so that we have a point of focus and energy that we can join one another around. And so basically, I know one thing, I'll use that statement, one thing I'm trying to do by working with my children and my grandson in farming and agriculture in Vermont is to keep the fire burning, the ancestral fire, all the strength, courage and wisdom that we build upon and we live on here. It has its challenges, very much so. But we can do it. We can do it. Thank you. So were there any parts of this film that particularly resonated with your experiences in agriculture and farming? Well, I sound pretty loud on my own. No need for a microphone. One thing that really resonated with me is that even though this movie brought a lot of attention and awareness about what's going on in farming, primarily with black people of color with farming, things really haven't changed. They haven't transpired from the screen to reality. So yes, it was a great, great, great film, great, great meaning, great, great attention to what has been a problem, but really what is a problem now from what I see that hasn't happened here in a state is that people are not sharing their abundance of property. I know a lot of people who have 60, 50, 100 acres and yes, they're not, as the one woman addressed in the film, willing to share one or two. I find that very odd. I find it very challenging for me. I find myself very alone in farming in this state, a state that is very homogenous. Yes, I'm one and only. I was just, I was one of the first vice president of the Burlington Farmers Market back in the 90s. But from there to here, what has happened, a lot of book writing, a lot of poetry reading, a lot of music, but not ground roots activity. And the reason I got into beekeeping is because I did hear the same message from the most high. Our creator, it was given to George Washington Carver, a man who did not care about wealth, a man who stayed in the classroom, stayed in his laboratory. Even Ford, who created the cars, gave him an elevator so he could take the elevator and his old name to go to his bedroom. But he refused to because his passion was making a change on planet Earth for everyone. That is the same passion that is inside me that has caused me to lose everything monetarily that I have. I will be selling everything that I own because the passion inside of me is to save the only creature on planet Earth that is passive. The only creature that came from the great gods through the tears of emotion. So the honey bee is emotional to me because if the honey bees are not here, those little prize that I hear in the back, that will make me very sad because I want those little prize, those little children to grow up to hear and see what I see. So the great whoever it was told me that is my mission. Whether or not I get that acre, whether or not I get any, the mission is to do what I can with very little to make a lot. So what I'm hoping is that whatever was on this screen maybe we'll see them to the hearts of people who do have an abundance of acreage and maybe they will share that one. And I guess all I could hopefully will hope to see transpire. You want to follow and speak a little bit about what resonates with you from this film? It was really important for me to actually see Blaine Sipsel on camera. I've done a lot of reading around his Afro-ecology and that's really informed my practice and how we farm at Izili's respite. And to that point kind of what Farmer James was saying that nothing changed or trying to see that change get here. I become very pessimistic to that but I think that Afro-ecology and hearing his ideas actually come out of his mouth and what Afro-ecology means. It is sort of my necessary response to my own pessimism in the world. It is a black-centered understanding of the government in which we live, the system in which we live and then the food that we grow. The spirituality that keeps us connected that keeps me connected. I'll speak for myself that keeps me connected to the earth. And also it was really important to actually hear both the Tenement Sisters' words and how they came to farming and feeling very separated from it or that it wasn't something that might have been theirs and that realization to reconnect with roots. And that's also part of my journey of being really separate from farming at all and then realizing that like, this is the path. And I would definitely agree with Kansu. I think they can hear us. Can you hear? So I definitely agree with Kansu. Just a lot of touch points for me in the film. I raised my children in the Bronx. It was my daughter that first came home and started talking about vertical agriculture when she was in middle school. My other two children are deeply, heavily into technology. And we were trying to figure out and I, the momager, I was trying to figure out how can I work on something with my children in adult life. This stage of my life. I'm a city girl born and bred. Born and raised in Chicago. I raised the children in Washington, D.C. New York City, Bronx. And then we're here. What I'm thinking is that I'm not really waiting because I was the single mom with two children, three children at a particular time and just living in a food apartheid of the Bronx. And it really resounded with me. There was a time in the early 2000s where we had to travel like 45 minutes by taxi just to acquire some organic fruits and vegetables. There was no whole foods in the late 90s and all that. There was no central place if you wanted to eat healthy. If you wanted to be healthy. And I just feel so blessed and honored that it's at this stage of my life. I'm 61 years old. That I am able to make this which might be a final offering to my children and to my grandson. This is an alternative way of living. And you don't even, even though it would be very nice for people to donate and share their land or the land that they currently under their auspices, but you can create your opportunity as well. When I saw her with the hole on her shoulder, when Hazel and I first went out to our space out in Memorial County, we had some seeds. We knew how to get the water from the river and I could never see my grandmother with a hole. That was all I needed to kind of get this party started and there's so much more and there's soil held and we're looking at climate adaptation and so many other things, but I just want to raise up. No, maybe things haven't changed in years. Maybe they just actually haven't, but today is today and we have an opportunity to define our future, our present and we can make that change. Maybe that change wasn't made in the 1980s, maybe it wasn't made in the 90s, even the 2000s, but now where we are in 2024, tomorrow, today, just speaking with someone else, finding out, you know, Vermont Land League, if you have two acres that you like someone to, you know, work, not work for you, work with you, you know, build with you, that kind of thing, it would be awfully nice. What I think from that is that it's seeing her in the woods with the kids and trying to a day-to-day living in the north and wild farming brings me home by doing it in the last seven years. It's, but at the same time I felt that it's a privilege that L could be running outside and knowing and can put the dirt in the mouth because we don't bring anything in the field. And I feel we'll be connected because they were singing in League Basong, which is this period of crossing. And then I feel in the way they make their beds, that's the way I came from my entire generation in Haiti, I'm the first generation that's moved here 13 years ago in the way we were farming and in the way that they portrayed that it's definitely moving and I feel that a privileged, rather black girl would be running in the woods eating dirt getting really sometimes dangerous stuff I guess. Thank you. So one of the points that resonated with me that Lea Plainman highlights is the role of black and indigenous people of color in the development and spread of regenerative agricultural practices. And I just wonder if any of you might be willing to answer why do you think it's important to be highlighting and understanding about lifting this history and this race? She talked a lot about the sacredness of ancestors of our ancestral roles and things of that nature and I don't think that you can really bond with the earth or strengthen your bond with the earth without feeling the earth without touching all of our senses without listening without smelling all of those smells and things of that nature you would have to know the history of agriculture in America to even figure out what is this regenerative agriculture why is it that I'm using cover crop here talking about all the rain last year last July and the flood and everything and you gotta leave a lot of grass there growing you gotta cover a lot of that land or the nutrients will run off all of those things we have been talking about using no-till practices we are moving over to raised beds this season just as an experiment and as a project how can we do those givers of care and help the earth heal while healing ourselves at the same time and keeping each other healthy one another healthy and whole and I just think and final point there's a group down at Tuskegee Institute presently Farmer James that is working with the local community down there and it's farmed, yeah I blew Bob our Korean even these things carry on when we hear or see the noise or when we hear the tree fall in the forest we have to be there but these things carry on and move forward I know that here in Vermont we've got some work to do all of us whether you live in the city or you're living out we've got to find a way to help restore the earth to its glory oh can everyone hear me alright awesome I guess everything I really wanted I'm not picking on anyone I'm not biased to anything all I'm trying to do is say hey let's start sharing our skill sets we all have skill sets whether we're managing our property whether we're managing our lives we all have them so that's all I'm echoing we could talk about all of what we have individually but you know what I did not see echo in the voices of a lot what was going on in the movie was the sharing of skill sets so that's what I hope to do more this year where I'm not charging people to learn about bees but I'm bartering bees of our ancestors not just mine but also Vermonters when I first moved to Vermont in the 80s I came up here from Washington D.C. I moved up here bringing all of what I learned in Washington D.C. but what I learned from many old timers because I've been up through the northeast kingdom and I've presently lived in Stockbroods is that there are that few people who will share so I didn't want anyone to think that there aren't people sharing parcels of their land or anything like that I just want to echo it louder so we can have more and more people share and that's about it, thank you well I think that leads well and it's another question I want to ask you've already spoken a bit about some of the takeaways for Vermont but what other points do you think that we in Vermont can be learning from that can be making this more equitable and safe place for black and indigenous and people of color farmers I don't want to forget this so I'm going to jump in there's a some sort of there's some sort of bill going through in some of the more denser densely populated areas of Vermont that is attempting to have people start soft farming get rid of their livestock this grows that are all in line and registered but people don't like it and by doing that we lose, we go back to Giuliani we're going to lose the ability for people to do what they can on .25 acres of land on not even an acre and I really want to kind of stress that I really hope that Vermont doesn't go in that direction and that if there's legislators listening or hearing that that's a bad idea and we'll increase inequity here especially for black and brown Vermonters and anybody who's poor, anybody who's living in densely populated areas as well that don't have the same zoning as we do out in rural sometimes and it's not equitable so I just really want to emphasize that because the rural gardens are important city gardens are important we had to leave Pennsylvania as we were trying to grow on .25 acres with a trash of we collect what we can we salvage what we can and we couldn't stay there so I don't want Vermont to turn into that for anybody else either so to that what he was saying it's what I've addressed with many other farmers and that's the business side of what he's addressing and that's what's going on with that little micro entity but it's also going on with pesticides, number one as we all have noticed now that they stopped all the lawsuits against Montsanto that we all have micro particles in our body and we're all urinating toxins so what that translate is is that there is no organic farms in America period the hua and the re-rock and whatever what he's talking about is addressing is that all these organizations cost money so what the state has done and the federal government are now doing are forcing people to work together okay and rural America because what they see going on in cities is that it's just going to be a waste land alright so what's happening here economically is not just happening with just one person of color it's happening throughout all the state with all farmers all colors all levels bee farmers dairy farmers vegetable farmers etc the biggest thing that will kill all the farms is taxation we all know taxation without representation alright so it's not a color issue it's all economic and that's what I mean by sharing okay we can have a lot of talks about how we individually are working in collective working in collective does not translate to those lobbyists who are already winning in our great state of Vermont and where many people in the Department of Agriculture will not listen to basic farming practices they listen to the delegated farming practices of America so what they're focusing on is what is profiting and what is profitable in America okay and that's it everything else is euphoria everything else is fictional thank you so on that note what I am running into and what I keep hearing is that yes they keep wanting us to talk about the color the color but everything really is the color is green alright the color is green they put us in the challenge of getting along okay so because the color is green then they put the color green equals to brown, black, white whatever but it does it it distracts us it divides us from what we really need to focus on alright and that is again the skill set so if there's one farmer okay what is that one farmer doing let's not duplicate it let's add to that substance I'm a beekeeper I need more people of color in beekeeping but the challenge is many people of color want to garden and raise vegetables but that practice is great but it's not sustaining to the community because of the fact that they're forcing economic fees on the farmers so the economic fees on the farmers aren't going to allow many people who are equitable or have no money alright we have no money people of color doesn't matter people who are white have no money to get into farming so how does that happen how did that happen to me I'm not sure I had to read to find the business way to do farming not the historical scripted way to do farming and I'm not hopefully you'll take up too much of your time okay so what I'm doing is basically the grassroots of farming is this right we all start from one seed one seed then grows vegetables but also the seed is really a mental seed alright so the mental seed I'm trying to plant here today I'm not a fictional speaker I'm non-fiction so if we keep talking fiction they won okay they're winning okay why are they winning because they want economic imbalance they want economic depravity how will they do it they won't do it through scripture they'll do it forcibly because they're already doing it where you go through the half of the southern part of the country they've taken away jobs for many people because of everyone sitting around talking about conversation instead of taking action we all took action many of the vegetable farmers instead of starting a CSA had a vegetable truck and wanted through the communities that would change America so that's what I would like to see is a vegetable truck go where poor people cannot drive and feed those poor people because that to me is real change this BS about CSA or any of that that's not change that's a diagram even with me being a Vermont beekeeper being a board of director being a speaker it's not because I'm speaking about bees of Vermont I'm speaking about the seed of change in America okay the seed of change in America is this I'm one black guy surrounded by a sea of white beekeepers they don't give a shit about your color what they care about is the money coming in so that means if they'll tell you a god damn story for you to believe you will believe it you will buy their bees because that case where boats their second homes they're meaning they have bees here they also have bees from other states okay and they pick you back and they bring back and forth and use our state as what a fictional tool because Vermont is what God's country Vermont is very green but if you really did your homework you will see the amount of pesticides the amount of toxins the amount of pollinators and other creatures that are disappearing they're gone they're gone so this joy that we're having right now I love it because we're all gathered together it's a great pleasant thing but what I'm really like and what I tend to enjoy is us not really talking about making change alright reason is because those people who call themselves government officials they've made such a great god damn change it's gonna hurt us it's gonna hurt many of our people of color many of the people who are in our small community we're all colored white black does not matter but the fact is that they're winning I'm really to the point where I can't sleep because I'm so damn worried about next month because next month means that 10 bills will pass 10 bills that will pass will defeat our purpose okay so I apologize it took up too much time I'm done things that I not always we've had somewhat frequent discussions another position that I take another position that I take is that irrespective of what's going on around us you have responsibility if you want to have the right you have the responsibility to take action we need the conversation and the action because we need to come together communally to be able to have open and safe conversations bipod non bipod all everyone but once we have the conversations then it's our duty to go out and do the work we're not going to change this whole system but each one of us can impact 10 others by being the change we want to see right here we can't control all of that it's very important to know what you can control and what you cannot and what we can control is here in Vermont it's coming people are coming long ago I used to work down on Wall Street meaning 4 or 5 years ago and someone that I would see frequently on my ride said hey Hazel do you know what climate change really means and I was like oh no tell me dude I mean I know the sun he said no climate change is a cold word for people of color on the move if the climate changes because everywhere in the coastal cities in coastal countries there are people of color and if their sea level rises and they're pushed off their islands or they're pushed to another part of the country they're coming so I would say my advice is you know have conversations with people not harmful do you mind if we talk and maybe that's something we'll do on the farm okay we've been trying to figure out an annual event because the communal farming works for many I'm trying to work with my priority community which is my family I'm trying to make sure that we're treating one another with respect and with honesty and with truth and we're dealing with the land in that matter then I can branch out and invite all the rest of you to the annual event but you know you have to I think it's something I learned in Vermont really collected we have to work at the speed of trust with one another and that's what I'm suggesting when we leave here today that we do here in Montpelier, here in the state of Vermont here in the world is that we try to work with one another really genuinely try at the speed of trust and build things up those conversations today but I want to thank you all so much for being here to talk about this and share your experiences and I have what I think is an important question suppose I had some acreage that I would like to share whom do I get in touch with oh I would definitely get in touch with the Vermont leaf farm collective we elected a great technical leader we're all members so I will give you my email address before you leave and I'll get it to the organizing squad thank you thank you sir