To tend the Earth is always then to tend our destiny, our freedom and our hope.
bell hooks,
Belonging: A Culture of Place
Tender Greetings Beloved Community,
There’s a particular energy to this time of year — not the quiet threshold of early spring, but something more insistent. The land is speaking in fuller sentences now. Buds are opening faster than we can track, rain and sun trading places, roots stretching deeper with each passing day. What felt tentative a few weeks ago is finding its rhythm.
With that shift comes a question: what does it mean to be in relationship with a world that is actively becoming? Not just witnessing it, but participating in it. To tend the land right now is to be in conversation — responding to what is needed, adjusting, paying attention to timing and balance. It asks something of us. It asks us to show up.
bell hooks reminds us, “To tend the earth is always then to tend our destiny, our freedom and our hope.” There’s a clarity in that framing — that care is not separate from the futures we long for. The way we move with the land, the way we hold responsibility for one another, the choices we make day to day — all of it is shaping what becomes possible.
As the season gathers momentum, we invite you to practice tending alongside us. On May 29, we’ll come together for a Foraging Workshop to deepen our relationship with the land and its offerings. This invitation is to remember that tending is ongoing, relational work — something we return to again and again, in different forms, across seasons. May we trust that our efforts, however small they may feel, are part of something much larger unfolding.
May your breath be your anchor.
With love and solidarity,
Briana, Ceci, Cheryl, Christina, Clara, Crysta, Danielle, Hana’, Hillary, Jaz, Jonah, Leah, Maya, O’den, Ren, Ria, Shay, Susuyu, Taína, and Winter
 Community Work & LearnMay 5, 2026 10:00 am – 3:30 pm | May 19, 2026 10:00 am – 3:30 pm | Volunteer at Soul Fire Farm to learn about some of our farming practices while supporting our work and getting your hands on the land.Each One, Teach One. Many Hands Make Light Work. Register |
 Hands On Introduction to CarpentryMay 14, 2026 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | Hands on training for BIPOC and LQBTQIA community to level up our carpentry and building skills. Register |
 Community Care Wellness Workshop at Albany Social Justice Center with Jaz Bias and Ria Ibrahim of Soul Fire Farm May 28, 2026 5:30 pm – 7:30 pmThe Albany Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12210, USA | Monthly Free Workshop Series for Activists at Albany Social Justice Center |
 Foraging at Soul Fire FarmMay 29, 2026 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Join us at Soul Fire Farm with Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian and Jonah Vitale – Wolff for a Foraging Workshop! Register |
 Bilingual Community Work & LearnMay 30, 2026 10:00 am – 3:30 pm | Join us for a chill day mixing work, learning, and good vibes with a bilingual twist! En Español This Dynamic W+L will include the petition and planting of a traditional Milpa, along with other seasonal farm activities. Register |
 El Maíz y la Milpa: Día de Campo Comunitario | May 30, 2026 10:00 am – 3:30 pm | Cada persona enseña a otra. El trabajo compartido es más liviano.En este Día de Campo Comunitario dinámico, aprenderás a preparar y sembrar una milpa tradicional, así como otras actividades agrícolas de temporada. In English | Register |
 Sovereign: Reclaiming Black Land Podcast Join us May 5th at 1pm on IG Live @soulfirefarm.This episode will later be shared on all podcast platforms. Between Borders and Belonging: In this episode, we’re sitting with two visionary voices rooted in Nigeria, living across borders to explore immigration as both survival and rupture—and what it means to be in right relationship with the lands we now inhabit. No resolution. Just staying with the tension. Listen |
Manuscript complete!
Neshima and Leah just wrote the 101,730th word in Soul Fire Farm’s newest book project – Children of the Land: A Soul Fire Farm Parenting Guide. Grounded in Afro-Indigenous wisdom that emphasizes village child-rearing and intergenerational cooperation, this book is a loving dialogue between a mother, child, and the land that holds them. Children of the Land will be published by Seven Stories Press in 2027.
Before anything grows, it takes root.
At Soul Fire Farm, everything begins below the surface—in the living soil that holds memory, in the ancestral knowledge carried through generations, in the relationships that bind land, people, and purpose.
This visual storytelling of our 2025 year reminds us, again and again, that nothing exists in isolation.
Flip through the graphic storytelling of Soul Fire Farm’s year in our stunning 2025 Annual Report written by Leah Penniman, Hillary Gaeta, Crysta Bloom, Christina Mpilo, and Naima Penniman; designed by Cecily Anderson!
Flip through the graphic storytelling of Soul Fire Farm’s year in our stunning 2025 Annual Report on our website here.
Have you ever tasted a honey berry? How about a quince, saskatoon, pawpaw, hardy kiwi, nanking cherry, shipova, goji, or cornelian cherry?
These tasty, locally-adapted edible fruits are among the 100+ plant friends integrated into the campus landscaping plan. Now that most of the excavation and large infrastructure is complete, we can finally realize our dream of an educational, accessible, tactile, and delicious assemblage of perennials in center campus. We offer a shout out and deep bow to our tree mentors, the mango growers of Komye Haiti, and local experts Russ Cohen and Seth Jones. You can learn more about the Black cultural history of trees in our chapter in Living Roots as well as delight in our interactive SFF plant map!
Community Work & Learns
May 5, 2026 – Register here
May 19, 2026 – Register here
Thank you to our amazing volunteers who joined us on snowy days in April to kick off the farming season. The weather is warming up and we’d love to welcome you to the land!
El Día de Campo Comunitario el 30 de Mayo es parte de nuestra serie bilingüe (ESP/ENG) Maíz Mi Raíz, centrada en el maíz y la sabiduría afroindígena.
Haremos una petición de siembra y aprenderemos a preparar y sembrar una milpa tradicional, así como otras actividades agrícolas de temporada. Se proporcionará interpretación simultánea entre inglés y español.
The May 30th Work & Learn is part of our bilingual (ESP/ENG) series Maíz Mi Raíz centering corn and Afro-Indigenous wisdom. It will include the petition and planting of a traditional Milpa, along with other seasonal farm activities. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided between English and Spanish.
May 30 – Bilingual ESP/ENG | 30 de Mayo
Sovereign: Reclaiming Black Land
Welcome to Season TWO beloved community!
In this podcast, rich in storytelling, history, and ritual, we explore what it means to be sovereign. With Black land at the center, this series brings together prominent activists, artists, weavers and the rising generation of Black land stewards. Crafting inspiring conversations that honor the past and create blueprints for the future.
Between Borders and Belonging: In this episode, we’re sitting with two visionary voices rooted in Nigeria, living across borders to explore immigration as both survival and rupture—and what it means to be in right relationship with the lands we now inhabit. No resolution. Just staying with the tension.
Join us May 5th at 1pm on IG Live @soulfirefarm. This episode will later be shared on all podcast platforms.
Listen to all the episodes here or watch previous IG Live shows @soulfirefarm
Monthly IG Live series @soulfirefarm with audio later shared on all podcast streaming platforms. Hosted by Clara AgborTabi and Crysta Bloom
Foraging at Soul Fire Farm (In-Person)
Friday, May 29th, 2026 | 2PM – 5:00 PM EST | Learn more and Register here!
Join Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian and Jonah Vitale – Wolff at Soul Fire Farm to explore the abundant wild edible plants and mushrooms throughout many different ecosystems. If you are interested in learning about local plants and mushrooms of our springtime landscapes this is for you. We’ll walk thru forests, fields, edges, and disturbed areas with an eye for food and medicine. It’s growing everywhere!!!
Medicine Making and Mutual Aid (Virtual 3D)
July 7th, 2026 | 3:00PM – 5:00 PM EST | Register here
Interested in making and sharing herbal medicine? Join Jaz Bias and Ayo Ngozi as we root ourselves in community care and cultural connection in our Medicine Making and Mutual Aid 3D, a virtual offering hosted by Soul Fire Farm.
In this 2-hour workshop, you can expect to:
- explore practical and creative ways to show up for your community and comrades with herbal remedies and information*learn more about the embodiment of mutualism through an exploration of current and historical models of mutual aid
- collectively brainstorm ideas for herbal distribution and skill-sharing
- strategize around accessibility and sourcing herbal material in a sustainable way
- provide tools and recipes that can support you in practicing hands-on medicine-making skills
SAVE THE DATE! Cultivating Resistance | SEPT 4-6, 2026
Registration opens on May 1st @ 1pm! Get your tickets: here!
A weekend of capoeira, farming and music on the land.
Join us to co-create this land-rooted community of collective resistance – Quilombo – healing, celebration, and living into liberation. This farm-based collaboration between Quilombo do Acupe and Soul Fire Farm will be a weekend abundant with workshops in capoeira, farming, herbalism, wilderness play, foraging, swimming, music, and movement. In these times, our communities and movements need to fortify our bodies and imaginations in creative collaboration, joy and inquiry. Get your hands on the land with the Soul Fire farmers! Be in spiritual connection! Eat amazing food! Deepen and build community! Play on the beautiful and sacred Soul Fire land. No capoeira background necessary, just a love for land and community. Everyone is welcome!
The southern African philosophy of Ubuntu—”I am because We are”—is alive in our programming this spring!
Braiding Seeds Fellowship is excited about our four-part webinar series, Co-op Solutions, co-created with our founding partner organization, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC). Our organizations have been engaged in deep conversation around what cooperative action and structures can look like, both within and beyond formal business structures.
Free and open to the public, the series began in March with the intent to explore four themes: Cooperative Food Systems; Wellness & Care; Infrastructure, Trade & Mutual Support ; and Sustainability & Longevity. The Braiding Seeds community has been powerfully represented throughout the series so far by alumni D’nae Henderson, M. Dominique Villanueva, current fellow Sasha Hom, and Hector Lopez, a fellow of La Beca, our sibling organization. The final gathering of the series, on Sustainability and Longevity, will highlight BSF alum Noah White.
Along with representatives from FSC, these brilliant farmers and land stewards have been sharing their insights and experiences, offering practical lessons and strategies they’ve learned through their experiences that can support us all in building cooperation and stronger communities on the land.
The link to register for the remaining session is at https://www.federation.coop/post/new-webinar-series-co-op-solutions.
IN HONOR OF EARTH MONTH: ECOLOGICAL KINSHIP
While I was studying traditional farming and ecospirituality in Ghana with the Queen Mothers of Kroboland, they offered a teaching which has been seared into my soul ever since. Manye Nartike asked: “Is it true that in the United States, a farmer will put the seed into the ground and not pour any libations, offer any prayers, sing, or dance, and expect that seed to grow?” Met with my ashamed silence, she continued, “That is why you are all sick! Because you see the earth as a thing and not as KIN!”
Indeed, this uniquely Western (and white) non-kin thinking is what leads to both racialized oppression and earth ravaging. It is the severing of family and the relegating of others to “nonperson” status that make possible the enactment of violence and oppression on “the other.” Embedded in the theory of white supremacy is the theory of human supremacy over nature.
The dangerous philosophies and practices of colonial conquest, subjugation, extraction, and commodification mutually reinforce each other, and simultaneously exploit racialized people and the Earth. Any hope of solving the environmental crisis will require an examination and uprooting of the white supremacist ideologies that underpin the crisis. Read more here.
What are ways that you practice ecological humility in your work?
The Praxis series reflects on how our community can best put our values into action, sharing resources, ideas, and practice toward collective liberation. These will be shared each month in Love Notes and also on social media.
“The Stockbridge Munsee Mohican tribal flag, originally designed by tribal elder Blanche Jacobs (1903-1982), includes the four colors of each cardinal direction, which embodies core understandings of the Munsee and Mohican cosmologies of the creation of the universe and humankind.
Within the four cardinal directions are the four main clans, the wolf, the turkey, the turtle, and the bear. Centered in the middle is the Many Trails symbol, created by elder Edwin Martin (1909-1999.) The Many Trails represents the strength, endurance, and hope of the Mohican people. The top represents a person with arms raised up in prayer. The circles represent the council fires of the nation, and the lines represent the numerous times we were forced to remove from our homelands in the east, until refusing to move further west after our council fire was established in Wisconsin.” ~Stockbridge Munsee Cultural Affairs Department
Soul Fire Farm is located on unceded territory of the Mohican Nation. We remain committed to working in solidarity with the Mohican people and other Indigenous communities in our region.
Fighting for BIPOC 2Spirit, Trans, GNC, and Intersex (TGI) Food and Land Sovereignty in North East Los Angeles
After SOULFIRE 2025 Alumni, Ace Anaya, is using their learnings from the immersion as Campaign Coordinator at Gender Justice LA, to engage BIPOC 2S TGI Core Members in local food and land justice efforts.
For Trans Day of Visibility, our Core-Member Yuri led a TGI Nature Art Storm workshop where we discussed ideas to uplift native herbs and local food systems at our urban homebase in Lincoln Heights, and the broader North East LA Region.
Gender Justice LA is building relationships with local projects like El Sereno Community Land Trust to teach our members about working with and learning on the land.
At the TGI Planting Party, members received an intimate tour of the El Sereno Community Land Trust. Attendees learned about the makings of the ‘Ooxor ‘Aweeshko garden, planted white sage, dreamed up new wellness programs, and learned about native herbs from Core Member Naima.
We’re deeply grateful to Yuri and Chayo for welcoming us onto the land, and are excited to collaborate in the future.
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If you would like to support BIPOC 2 Spirit, Trans-led programs like this in Los Angeles, reach out to Ace at ace@gjla.org.
If you are interested in getting plugged in with Gender Justice LA, check out the links below!
Become a GJLA Member: Fill out our Membership Interest Form and join an MMM orientation
Volunteer with Us: Sign up to support GJLA’s work
Share our Resources Guide!
Submit a Partner Inquiry Form
A new performance is coming to this year’s SOULstice!
Chispa is a music project dreaming of composting systems of oppression, reconnecting with the land, and channeling the power of queer love. Led by vocalist and Soul Fire Alum, Julia Rocha-Nava, their music draws from music traditions such as Cumbia, Bolero, Son Jarocho and more. Their debut album, Somos Medicina, is a collection of queer love songs for the land. Known for live performances that are both energetic and tender—Chispa invites audiences to dance, sing, and heal together through songs that celebrate friendship, seed saving, and collective liberation.
Bottom—Leeann, Victoria, Keisha, Celina, Mama Konda, and Kenya
Joy in Alignment: 11th annual NBFJA gathering
There can be no true alignment within our movement without accountability—this was the prevailing theme of this year’s 11th annual National Black Food and Justice Alliance gathering. It was a space to reaffirm, strengthen, and really lean into a commitment to joyful alignment.
Best believe that a jubilant time was had!
New Orleans, recognized as the oldest Black city in the country, was established more than 300 years before the United States in 1776. For generations, Black communities there have cultivated powerful systems of mutual aid and reciprocity, often in the absence of substantial financial resources.
This is why it was so powerful to gather over the course of three days in NOLA, engaging in strategic planning and regional organizing to advance Black food pathways and continue to build Black self determination in our state and regional food systems. Together, we deepened relational connections, mobilized within our regions to sharpen actionable strategies for the 2026 season, and installed raised beds, irrigation, and a community mural at the 9th Ward Community Farm.
You can learn more about the work of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance and our strategies to create self-determining food economies by visiting blackfoodjustice.org .
Inaugural BLACC 2026 (Bridging Land, Agriculture, and Communities) Conference
Soul Fire Farm was deeply heartened to gather with fellow New York State based food system stakeholders for the inaugural BLACC conference, hosted in Ithaca, NY by our partners and collaborators in the movement, the illustrious Black Farmers United -NYS.
The one-of-a-kind regional gathering connected small and mid-sized farmers, community leaders, youth advocates, policymakers, and mission-driven brands working at the intersection of agriculture, sustainability, and racial justice. Inspired by the incredible work of the national Black Farmers and Urban Growers (BUGS) conference, BLACC provided reflective, informative gathering spaces for agriculturalists and uplifted the ongoing contributions of Black folks to New York State’s agricultural and food systems.
Together, we visited NYS-based projects including Jane Minor BIPOC Community Medicine Garden, Fort Baptist Farm, Van Noble Farm, and NuLegacy’s People’s Land. It was an inspiring time, deeply nourishing in layered ways. SFF looks forward to attending and contributing to many more BLACC conferences to come! You can learn more about BFU-NYS and plug into the work by visiting https://www.blackfarmersunited.org/.
 BlackRoots Collective wants to hear from YOU! BlackRoots Collective is a new producer cooperative rooted in Black agricultural leadership and strengthened through collaboration with farmers of color, allied growers, and community partnerships. As we dive into the planning process, we want farmer input so we can build this co-op to meet our needs. Take this 20-minute survey to share what you grow, what challenges you face, and what cooperative services would help you most. This is the first step to joining the co-op, but not a commitment– think of it as a wishlist and capacity check. Take the survey here: tinyurl.com/blackrootssurvey |
Fun fact: Did you know that NY state is one of only 5 states that allow farmworkers to legally unionize? This is courtesy of the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, an NYS law passed in 2019. You can learn more about NY Farmworker Unionization rights by reviewing this resource from NOFA-NY.
- Fresh Food for Everyone Sierra Club