Seeds of Courage, Roots of Change
Courage is a force that shapes worlds. It is the steady drumbeat beneath every movement for justice, the spark that turns possibility into practice, the power that pushes roots through stone. At Soul Fire Farm, courage is not the absence of fear—it is our collective commitment to act with purpose, clarity, and love, even when the stakes are high and the work is immense.
This year, courage looked like reclamation, expansion, and deepened responsibility to our people and to the land.
We witnessed courage in its most profound form when the Mohican Nation reclaimed 250 acres of their ancestral homeland just down the road from Soul Fire—a homecoming generations in the making. It was an honor to stand beside the Mohican Nation in solidarity doing the quiet logistical and relational work asked of us to help clear the path for their return. Standing on that land, we felt what true land rematriation makes possible: repair, continuity, and the reaffirmation of Indigenous sovereignty.
Courage also pulsed through our community during the manufactured SNAP crisis. Rage-tears fell in our fields as we watched millions lose vital food assistance overnight, a moment that made painfully clear that weaponized hunger is an assault on human dignity. Even as farmers were exhausted, weather-worn, and preparing for long-overdue rest, we refused to look away. We moved as a collective—activating our networks, our bodies, our creativity. Together, we co-organized a protest and emergency food drive, standing in Townsend Park shoulder to shoulder with our comrades to demand the full reinstatement of SNAP and the rightful return of tax dollars to the people and the land.
We established a $25,000+ emergency Food for the People fund for our Solidarity Share families, FIRE (Farming In Relationship to Earth) Immersion alums, and Soul Fire in the City members, guided by the truth that our survival is interwoven and inseparable. As winter approached, we committed to redistributing 200 boxes of food aid, each enough to support a family of four for a month. This was in addition to the 14,000+ lbs of our own produce that we distributed weekly to 700 individuals throughout the season. Our team showed up tired and muddy—yet unwavering. This is what courage looks like in practice: a love so deep it refuses to leave anyone behind.
Our dedication to food justice expanded across the region through our partnership with Schenectady Greenmarket—an embodiment of courageous collaboration. Together we advanced a regional Solidarity Share model, rooted in the belief that food access is not a privilege but a right. Through a $100,000 sponsorship of the market’s Food Box Program, 1,400+ low-cost CSA shares reached families in Schenectady County. Each share was more than vegetables; it was a message: you are indispensable.
Our alumni community continued weaving courage across the map, with the Speaker’s Collective amplifying the voices of eight alumni on the first season of Soul Fire Farm’s podcast, Sovereign, reaching over 70,000 listeners. Eighty-six alumni deepened their capacity through Technical Exchange Trainings on land trusts, soil remediation, grant writing, urban farming technologies, and income-generating strategies. Through our Spread the Wealth fund, we re-granted $30,000 to 28 alumni, catalyzing projects that are already impacting dozens across their communities. Across the year, we also shared more than 600 job, grant, and workshop opportunities—because resourcing our people is part of our liberation strategy.
Courage was also alive throughout our FIRE Immersions. In 2025, 81 participants joined us—now new alumni—each one stepping into a lineage of Black and Brown agrarian wisdom. We provided $14,727 in program fee scholarships and travel stipends to ensure that cost was never a barrier to participation. This year also marked the launch of our first-ever Herbalism-focused FIRE Immersion, honoring ancestral plant medicine traditions and the role of healing work in liberation. And in a powerful step toward gender justice, we facilitated our first Soul Fire Circle for Cisgender Men—an intentional space to explore gender roles, undo patriarchy, and cultivate belonging.
We also strengthened our COVID protocols, completing the entire immersion season COVID‑free as an expression of collective care.
Courage showed itself again in the South through an AL farm apprenticeship pilot coordinated by three Braiding Seeds alumni/fellow farms: Fountain Heights Farm, Hvrvnrvcukwv Ueki-honecv/Hummingbird Springs Farm, and Haven Community Nursery, with support from the fellowship. The pilot is aimed at building the skills, infrastructure, and power needed for long-term land stewardship. This pilot was supported by Soul Fire Farm and NBFJA and it marked a new chapter for Black and Indigenous leadership in the region.
The Braiding Seeds Fellowship also grew in strength and vision. We welcomed two new Co-Directors—Ayo Ngozi and Angie Comeaux—alumni whose brilliance and leadership deepen the Fellowship’s roots across the Southeast. Together with the AAMC Center for Health and Justice, we began creating a storymap that amplifies land stewards whose work ties together food sovereignty, community resilience, and health justice.
We engaged in federal advocacy, welcoming Representative Josh Riley’s office to the farm during the 2025 congressional recess to advance the Farmer to Farmer Education Act. And on the global stage, we joined the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum, contributing to the North American Political Agenda and the global declaration for system-wide transformation.
Courage also flourished through our Soul Fire in the City program. In partnership with Media Sanctuary, Collard City Growers, and Youth FX, we hosted 28 Capital Region community members at our Spring and Fall gatherings—spaces for connection, joy, and hands-on learning. And 36 gardeners grew their own vegetables this year through Soul Fire in the City, furthering food sovereignty one raised bed at a time.
This year, we opened our campus to mission-aligned organizations, hosting gatherings for more than 120 community members and offering space for rest, strategy, and renewal for those advancing justice across the nation.
Throughout each of these moments—large and small, regional and global—one truth held steady: our power is collective, and our courage is interdependent. It grows through remembering who we are and what we are capable of when we choose one another.
Through every moment of courage this year—through land reclamation, food justice, alumni leadership, and shared space for movements—we have been sustained by the vision, generosity, and belief of our supporters. You make this work possible, not as passive observers, but as active participants in a movement for liberation, dignity, and collective power. Your commitment nourishes our land, our people, and our shared future, and for that we are profoundly grateful. With your support, we step into the year ahead with courage rooted, expansive, and unstoppable.
Briana, Cheryl, Christina, Clara, Crysta, Danielle, Hana’, Hillary, Jaz, Jonah, Leah, Maya, Naima, Neshima, O’den, Ria, Shay, Susuyu, and Winter (Soul Fire Farm); Lulu, Ayo, Angie, and Sarah (Braiding Seeds)