 I'm gonna take a little bit of a walk, oops, that's my phone, yep, there it is, okay, okay, okay, oh stop, oh, alright. Simple translation from the main tip here, and now in 2024, I have all the white people in this audience, many of them have hundreds of acres of land, many of them share their land. I'm sure that I have a picture of them. Thank you for having me. This year, my mission has really been to give a lot of people a story about progress, but then how they're doing things they can't even write into the classroom. There's two types of art, of course there's the school of art, and there's the school of art. They're not educating you about the school of art. Well I know that, you told me that a while ago, there's a lot of art in which you're a majority teacher. I'm not sure. That's why I don't go to a lot of these meetings, because a lot of the students, they're like me, I don't go to a lot of these meetings because of the fact that a lot of these meetings have been the same back then. I know many of these people, from the beginning to the start of the year, they had to tell me. They did what they wanted to do. I don't debate anything. I'm just talking about black people. So that's what I know. But that's all I knew about. I wasn't going to use the mic. I was trying to take my mask down. I don't know. Yeah, that's fine. I think we're just... I don't know. Hello? This is... Hello? Hurry! Nice to see you. Let's kiss this up. All right, I think this is working. Can everybody hear me? Great, excellent. Well, thank you all so much for being here. Good afternoon. 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. It's going to come out in 30 minutes. I can introduce you. So... Come to X is a community organizer, transmission artist, and co-starrer of Ezele's Respet Farm and Sanctuary on 13.4 acres from Unstated at Mackinac Land in the Upper Valley. His activities include harm reduction care, care management program, continued foraging, cultivating perennial and medicinal food sources, and raising heritage-grade chickens, gays, and small brunettes. We're also joined by Kaisla Adams-Chongo, 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 worked in education in New York City. And she's also a founder and CEO of an independent parent advocacy business being special at NYC. We are also joined by... by Adel Zaka Sherry, who has a background in farming. Zaka is an Haitian poet and film director. Zaka and his wife, Jetta, started Calabash Gardens in Newbury, Vermont. Their farm is one of the largest salmon farms 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 Jinx Kee, who is the director-at-large of the Vermont Beekeepers Association. Jinx has a long history in farming and began beekeeping in 2017. He earned his certification in 2019 becoming the first black Vermont certified beekeeper in the organization's 150-year history. This time he currently works with more than 18 bee colonies as well as working with other beekeepers as well. Thank you all so much for joining us. I want to start off 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. Hazel, 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, I was like, hey, 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 stewards of the earth, as give us a 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. Hi, everyone. My name is Saka. But I think from this movie is how happy we are when we are in the land, even though we have a little 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 get there and we find a way to be living in synchronism with our environment. But I think we have to. Hey, folks. I'm James. I go by the name of 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 alone with black beekeeper. I echoed what she just said about addressing many of the things at Organic Farming. I've addressed those things about how George Washington Cobber 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 beekeeping methods that George Washington Cobber instilled at Tuskegee Institute and where at one point in time all students were mandated to take beekeeping along with Organic Farming. So I'm trying to re-institute that kind of tradition because without honey bees, you would not have that diversity. But I also again thank the people who put on this event and inviting me here. 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 and 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 hopefully for ourselves and for community and like you said, black liberation is liberation for all people. I would just add or step on what Kansu was talking about. What I really think that Leah and 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 my statements, 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. If there has 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 personal 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 are not, as the one woman addressed in the film, willing to share one or two. I find it 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, yes, I was one of the first black vice president at 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 brown roots activity and the reason I got into beekeeping is because I gave him the same message from the most high, our creator that 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 names should go to his bedroom that 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 were the tears of emotion. So the honey bee is emotional to me because if the honey bees are not here, those little cries that I hear in the back, that will make me very sad because I want those little cries, 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 am hoping is that whatever was on this screen, maybe we will see them to the hearts of people who do have the abundance of acreage and maybe they will share that one and I guess all I could hopefully will hope to see transpire. It is really important for me to actually see Blaine Sipsel on camera. I have done a lot of reading around his Afroecology and that has really informed my practice and how we farm at Izalee'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 Afroecology and hearing his ideas actually come out of his mouth and what Afroecology means it is sort of my necessary response to my 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 then that realization to reconnect with the roots and that's also part of my journey of being really separate from farming at all and then realizing that this is the path this is the path. And I would definitely agree with Kansu. I don't think you hear us. Can you hear? No. Oh, okay. So I definitely agree with Kansu. Just a lot of touch points for me in the film. I raised my children in the Bronx with 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 could I work on something with my children in adult life and at 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 the food apartheid of the Bronx and it really was sounding with me. There was a time in the early 2000s when we had to travel like 45 minutes by taxi just to acquire some organics and vegetables. There was no whole foods then 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 a hole on her shoulder that's when 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 remember seeing my grandmother with a hole. That's all I need to kind of get this party started and there's so much more in this soil health 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 250 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 link, if you have two acres, if 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 seeing her in the woods with the kids and finding the day-to-day living in the north and wild faring brings me home by doing it in the last seven years. But at the same time, I felt that the privilege that L could be running outside and knowing, and can put the dirt in the mouth because we don't do anything in the field. And I feel a little bit connected because they were singing in Libasong which is this spirit of crossing and 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 and the way we were following and the way that they portrayed that it's definitely when we came in, I feel that a PPP tribe of black girls would be running in the woods and skinny and eating dirt and getting, doing, really sometimes dangerous stuff about it. So one of the points that resonated with me that they have come and highlighted is the role of black and indigenous people of color in the development and spread over generations. And I'm just curious to be highlighting and understanding and uplifting this history and history. You know, from, 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 so, you know, what is this regenerative agriculture? Why is it that I'm using cover crop here? You know, she was talking about all the rain last year. Last year, buying the flood and everything. And you've got to leave a lot of grass there grown. You've got to cover a lot of that land or the nutrients will run off and if you're managing 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 be 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 breakdown at Tuskegee Institute presently from James that is working with the local community down there and is farming the output about their community. So, these things carry on whether we hear or see the noise or whether we hear the tree call 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. No. 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 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 these but I'm bartering. Going back to the days of our ancestors not just mine but also Vermonters when I first moved to Vermont 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 presently live in Stockwoods 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 into 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 a more equitable and safe place for black indigenous and people of color farmers? I don't want to forget to jump in. There's some sort of build those ruins densely populated areas of Vermont that is attempting to have people start to stop get rid of their livestock get rid of their cannabis grows that are all in line and registered but people don't like it and by doing that we're going to lose the ability for people to do what they can on 0.25 acres of land on not an acre and I really want to 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 vermonitors and anybody who's poor, anybody who's living in densely populated areas as well but don't have the same zoning as we do out in rural sometimes and it's not equitable so I just really want to stress that because the rural gardens are important city gardens are important we had to leave Pennsylvania because we were trying to grow on 0.25 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 so to add 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 not just that little micro entity but it's also going on with pesticides number one as we are all having noticed now that they stopped all the lawsuits against Monsanto 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 is that all the federal government are now doing are forcing people to work together in rural America because what they see going on in cities is that it's just going to be a wasteland 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 all the farmers, etc the biggest thing that will kill all the farms is taxation we all know taxation without representation so it's not a color issue it's all economic and that's what I mean by sharing we can have a lot of talks about how we individually are working and collected working and collected does not translate to those lobbyists they are already weighing the weight 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 and that's it everything else is euphoria everything else is fictional thank you so on that note what I'm 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 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 investment it distracts us it divides us from what we really need to focus on and that is again the skill set so if there's one farmer 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 to get started and raise vegetables but that practice is great but it's not self sustaining to the community because of the fact that they're forcing economic fees on the farmers thank you 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, read, read, 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 it to your turn okay, but so what I'm doing is basically the grassroots of farming is this 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 that I'm trying to plant here today is I'm not a fictional I'm not a fictional speaker I'm non-fiction so if we keep talking fiction they're already won they won, okay they're winning, okay why are they winning? because they want economic imbalance 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 went through the communities that would change America so that's what I would like to see is a vegetable truck go where four people cannot drive and feed those four 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 director, being a speaker it's not because I'm speaking about bees of Vermont I'm speaking about the seat of change in America okay, the seat 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 goddamn story for you to believe you will believe it, you will buy their bees because that pays for their boats their second homes they're meaning to have bees here and 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 hard truths 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 really like has attempt to enjoy is that's not really talking about making change alright reason is because those people who call themselves government officials they're such a great goddamn change it's gonna hurt us it's gonna hurt many of our people of color many of the people who are in a small community we're all colored white black doesn't matter but the fact is that they're winning I'm really I'm 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 hope that took up too much time I'm done things that I always, not always we have 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 you 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 everyone but once we have the conversations then it's our duty to go out and do the work each of 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 four or five years ago 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 know the sun he said no, climate change is a cold world for people of color and people of color will be 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 advisement is you know have conversations with people people like, not harmful to be mind if we talk and maybe that's something we'll do on the farm is we've been trying to figure out the 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 manner 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 the 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 how can we you know build things up and stay safe at the time that we have these 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 League for the farm project Vermont we collected a great chance to meet with all of the members so I will give you my email address before you leave and get it to the organizing squad thank you thank you sir thank you thank you