Rooted tells stories of land maintenance, community healing and regeneration happening right here on the indigenous Anishinaabe ancestral land, the area commonly known as Detroit.
In the latest edition of Rooted, Annamarie Sysling travels to the Detroit community Islandview and Jefferson Chalmers to speak with two gardeners about land maintenance as a form of activism, cross-cultural solidarity and the role of climate change, and how we all connect with the earth and they protect land we call home.
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en Säger Lee and Myrtle Thompson Curtis
Nestled in the lush backyard garden of Taproot Sanctuary in Detroit’s Islandview neighborhood, artist, grower, and practical philosopher en Säger Lee talks about the winding life journey that took him to this place and community on Field Street. Lee is also the co-founder of Taproot Sanctuary, a space that, since its inception in 2016, has defined itself as “both a place where we practice a right relationship with ourselves, the earth, and our neighbors, and an invitation to relate to maintain”. Sitting next to Lee is Myrtle Thompson Curtis, founder of Feedom Freedom Growers, “a community group and resource dedicated to building community relationships through growing food, hearts and minds.” Thompson Curtis is a mother, grandmother, visionary, organizer, and thinker in Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers Congregation.
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Taproot Sanctuary in full bloom in Detroit’s Islandview
Eastside neighbors
“I would describe my community in Jefferson Chalmers as a mile from the Detroit River, surrounded by beautiful parks and canals and beautiful people, ”says Thompson Curtis, who explains that the neighborhood is a mix of high and low income households, tenants and homeowners and a developing business corridor. Regarding the impact of the recent extreme flood event on the community, Thompson Curtis explains that not only did the flood wipe out large appliances, memorabilia, cars, and some of the food that grew in the Feedom Freedom Garden, but it was also devastating to the morale of the community . “People are thinking about how we can deal with future floods,” she says. In addition to accepting help from volunteers who can come and help with cleanup and other chores, Thompson Curtis has started a crowdfunding campaign to get the neighborhood back on its feet.
Thompson Curtis Says Feedom Freedom Growers (FFG) began in 2009 as a grassroots organization originally known as Manistique Street Community Garden. “The people who became part of this garden, we needed a name when we went out and did more of this work,” she explains, adding that “it’s an organization that was created to promote the principles of food sovereignty and to create a new center ”. of work, collaboration and interdependence, through growing food, fostering creativity through art and education. ”Thompson says that those who take care of the garden, in addition to growing relationships, also have blackberries, blueberries, cherries, apples, strawberries , Grow watermelons, herbs, lettuce, peas, okra, tomatoes, kale, cabbage and flowers. They also do beekeeping.
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Feedom Freedom growers in Jefferson Chalmers
Meanwhile, Lee, who was born in Japan and grew up between there and California, describes Islandview as “about a mile from Belle Isle … right next to Indian Village and then West Village,” noting that both of the above neighborhoods are usually of a higher economic status, while Islandview residents are a mix of racial and socio-economic backgrounds. This diversity is part of what makes it a unique community and also what makes solidarity so important. Lee is part of the Field Street Block Club in this neighborhood, which is crowdfunding to offset heating and important house repairs for some residents who cannot afford the expenses out of pocket.
A mutual respect for the late Detroit social justice icon Grace Lee Boggs
Not far from Jefferson Chalmers, Lee’s Islandview neighborhood has its own special history, energy, and struggles. The Taproot Garden is in the back yard of Lee’s house and one block from the house that was formerly occupied by the legendary Detroit activist duo Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs. Although Lee never met Jimmy or Grace Lee Boggs, he says that his partner Marcia Sawyer Lee was very closely connected to Grace Lee Boggs at the end of her life and learned a lot about caring in the community by witnessing Boggs the ethos of their teaching on visionaries embodied activism, social justice and justice, and community responsibility and organizing.
Thompson Curtis, on the other hand, met and worked with Grace Lee Boggs. “When I met her, she inspired me because of the work I and my partner Wayne Curtis did in urban ag. And so she inspired me, showed a strong interest. I had the opportunity to travel with her, “says Thompson Curtis, recalling a saying she heard from Boggs on a regular basis:” Live just so others can just live, and I think Gandhi might have it that way. ” But that’s one of those little things that stick in my mind when I think about my daily work. ”
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Proactive community care is more important now than ever
When it comes to the connection between community gardening and activism, both Lee and Thompson Curtis blend seamlessly into their work. “Some people might think of activism as working in politics or working on protests or the like, but what do you do to create resources? How do you produce in your area, it’s this new job, ”notes Thompson Curtis. In her work at Jefferson Chalmers, she does so much more than just grow food. She also uses social media channels to involve and inform community members. “We’ve teamed up with artists to make signs, we’ve teamed up with other organizations to create beautiful pavilions and farmers’ stalls, and we go to a farmers market and are part of the Eastside Solutionaries Collective.” who has learned over a decade in which she has been doing this work that the more inclusive something can be, the better. “When you open up the space to allow others to participate, it becomes this bigger, beautiful thing.”
One of Jefferson Chalmers’ other programs is the Green Chairs Not Green Lights program, which describes itself as a “counter-campaign to the Green Light project”. It prompts [residents] to go back to the porches and see each other. ”Thompson Curtis and Lee worked together in building the community safety initiative in their two neighborhoods to build solidarity, accountability and care. The program was originally launched in 2019, with a variety of community organizations coming together to get it off the ground.
Looking back on the last year the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic say Lee and Thompson Curtis that they cemented their belief in the work they have been doing for years. “I don’t know if the last year and a half has changed my view of the world, but in many ways it just confirms the urgency and crisis we are going through. And you know, there is no return to normal. As before, it wasn’t normal … certain people had access to stability, but instability is reaching more dangerous levels, ”says Lee.
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What we can learn together from the endless life cycles of a garden, Lee draws the lessons of the mushroom as a master of decomposition and transformation. “I’ve just read a lot from writer and speaker Bayo Akomolafe, who is a truly inspirational thinker and talks about the meaning of the ‘composting man’ that humans are separate from the earth and separate from… others, as if we were isolated beings . And I think mushrooms … show how closely everything is connected, ”says Lee. He also points out the need for decomposition in life as an issue that some people struggle with. He suspects that this is a symptom of our “death phobic culture … there is no life.”
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Island view
Jefferson Chalmers
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