Today we're going to be talking some more with Sonia about some of the advocacy efforts happening in Philadelphia right now. The history of the advocacy that's happening in response to threat and gardens, in response to gentrification and neighborhood displacement, and in response to land dispossession in the city. So Sonia, I would love it if you could talk a little bit about, what are some of the current advocacy efforts in response to what is happening in Philly around threatened gardens, gardens being sold, share sales and those kinds of things? It feels like a moving target because I think the city also has shifted in their policies around land. We did have a threat in gardens campaign in I believe 2017, 2018, where we were targeting councilmen at prerogative which we discussed and asking for that to be discontinued. We were asking for a moratorium on all share sales of existing gardens. Then we were also asking the land bank to improve their transparency and their accountability and the way that they are operating to not just give land to developers and affordable housing, but to also include urban agriculture in their efforts, and to also follow through on the things that they had already committed to doing. On one end, it's like trying to plug the leak of how these gardens are being sold up and disposed of and then the other is trying to hold accountable the infrastructure that's been put into place to help gardeners have a pathway towards land security and land ownership. I think that in spite of our efforts, all three of those issues are still existing problems and it has been challenging for the same reasons that we talked about a little bit earlier around like the hot potatoing of responsibility but also because recently the landholding agencies consolidated and so now there's even less transparency around how land decisions are being made. I think the ongoing work right now has been a little bit more on the reform side of the work, like a little less radical, a little bit more on the reform side where soil generation with you, Ash, we have been working on the urban agriculture strategic plan for the Department of Parks and Rec. It is an exciting opportunity because it's the first time a grassroots organization is being asked to participate in this process alongside an urban planning firm interface studios but to have a grassroots voice at the table as experts on the issue, as most impacted people is huge. We've diligently been working on that plan for the last two years and we're nearly finished. It's a very comprehensive plan that really addresses inequity throughout the food system because we can't silo urban agriculture when we see the ways that it's interconnected with all of these other facets of our society. But that doesn't really address the ongoing urgent land insecurity that people are experiencing. So on that side, I think we're still organizing to understand what's happening at the share of sales to communicate with the sheriff's office and trying to push for a moratorium on sales of active gardens. I think we're really trying to get people to understand that first of all, that gardens exist, second, that gardens are valuable spaces that deserve to be preserved, and to separate, the disposition of land that's vacant and unused from the disposition of land where there are existing gardens. Thank you. You talked a little bit about pushing for that moratorium on a share of sale and I remember back in, I think it was April or May of this year, the City Council in Philadelphia organized a hearing to specifically talk about share of sales because they were considering moving share of sale from in-person to virtual. With that came a lot of potential issues and challenges related to, if you move in all virtual than anybody world has the opportunity to bid on and purchases land in Philadelphia regardless of whether or not they, from here, they live here, or whatever. So with with soil generations specifically Katrina Baxter Ami testify at a hearing trying to help people see like the importance and the value of the gardens that we are a part of. The work that gardens helped to facilitate, that it is transformational for communities that is healing for communities, that is beyond physical healing, emotional, spiritual, all of it. My experience and my interpretation of how that went, there was a handful of people in city council who seemed to like not have fully understood or realized the impacts of gardens and actually what they mean to people. Although I'm sure there are so many who do and don't care. What came up for me is like, there's a tension between seeing this is impactful, beneficial to community members, but also wanting to hold onto your power, and I want to release some of that power. Through that story and all of the testimonies that were offered that day, we were able to get a temporary moratorium on all share sales, and that moratorium ended in September, I think it was September 10th of this year. So now we are somewhat back into the same situation where land, homes, gardens are being put up for share of sales. So there's a lot of work, but on the advocacy side to figure out how to get those gardens off. We'll first get gardens notice, but I think for me the more important thing is how do we make sure that gardens are not always shares at all, how do we, what mechanisms can we put in place to protect the growing space is that communities have cared for. It's baffling. I was just going to say there's a lot of "vacant land" in the city, and the percentage that that is Gardens is so small, it's so fractional. I think there's like over 40,000 vacant lots in the city and we're talking about less than 900 parcels. It's really mind-blowing to think about the scale of impact urban agriculture has, but also the scope of vacant land that weren't even asking for it to be protected. Even still there's this challenge, and I think you're right about the tension between understanding that this is valuable to community, but then also like not wanting to give up power. So I feel like there's definitely a willful ignorance that's happening. Again, we're back to the beginning of the conversation, which is that narrative is our biggest challenge. I hope that politically urban agriculture is growing as a constituency that's being taken seriously. We've quite literally been told by lawmakers, there is no urban arg, constituency, and leadership has been very dismissive and patronizing to our movement as if we are hobbyists that are crying about having our toys being taken away. It's utterly disrespectful at this point. Disrespectful. It is disrespectful and I think we don't have to be shy about naming that it is offensive. It is now an offensive attack because a part of what has been challenging with the advocacy work is feeling like our advocacy is informing our own oppression. We say, Hey, these are our pain points. This is what you can do to help us, and then feeling like those pain points are being taken and then exacerbated. That's what we are experiencing. So I'm so glad you brought that up because one thing I was going to say is that, there's some segment there's willful ignorance that exist, and there's also a very real segment where there's intentional harm being done at this point. So we're not trying to paint a picture that also the council just don't know or all people at the land bank just don't know or city agencies just don't understand. A lot of them understand and are intentionally using their platforms in their power to harmfully and negatively impact our movement and our garden spaces. It's heavy and it's challenging. I think it's challenging to not get demoralized by this work. I think something that we're trying to understand is how to sustain this work because it's a marathon. Once the right time to pass the baton, because no one person run all legs of this race and feeling like your work is literally informing your oppression is how do you move forward after that? I think being able to rest gives us a chance to also reflect on the way that we have been able to move the meter, because it's not as if it's all in vain. There is a lot of work that's being done and a progress that's being made. But I will say on the front of land security and access to land that has been a tick that has been so hard to push. Energetically, like spiritually, I have to tell myself equal and opposite reaction. It must be really hard and they must be holding on for dear life to this power because it's that real. Black people, having food sovereignty and land security is truly regenerative to the economy, to the wellness of the community, to culture, to identity, to collective political power, and therefore that land. So they'll plan it. That's why you all want us to have it. Exactly, I tried to let the push back that is so demoralizing, sometimes I like the word metabolize lately because there's always going to be like poison in the world. It's not about getting rid of the poison in the world, It's about transmuting it. How can I transmute this struggle into power? That's to recognize that like you all wouldn't react this way if it wasn't a real deal. The fight continues. Absolutely, everything that you've said, like it is hard and it is heavy and it is sometimes discouraging. But the pushback is also the hope for me. It's the fuel is like that means we making this up. We do on the word bit. They don't want us to do because like you said, it is regenerative and it'll quite literally heel people, heal our relationships with each other, with the land, our spiritual relationships with the Creator, it will heal so many things. [inaudible] may not be ready. Exactly, I was just going say, I think a part of this work is having to be really frank about the reality that there are classes of people who benefit from the status quo being the way that it is. It is not in their self-interest to radically change the status quo. The folks that suffer, the folks that, you know who's expensive, status quo stay as it is like, you don't want these people to be literate in their own struggle. You don't want that. Just naming that I think too, has been a part of our awareness in leveraging what we'd like to call the radical black voice. I think being able to tell our story and our perspective and our direct experience with how we interface with power structures is crucial. In these times of anti-racism being more and more centered. There's talks about redistribution of wealth, redistribution of power. I like to say, where's the redistribution of leisure? Where's the redistribution of comfort? Because I will not cold switch to make you comfortable. I'm not going to tell my story differently to make you feel better. I'm not going to protect your feelings when my feelings have never ever been centered or protected. It's been at the expense of my well-being and my feelings up until this point. I think too, power in numbers and how we show up and sharing the political knowledge and language. To then infiltrate these spaces and to reclaim comfort. Comfortability is huge, even in challenging things like professionalism, like how that concept in and of itself is oppressive. To say like actually no, like this North Philly Native does not need to speak academic English from a university for you to understand and for this narrative to be valid, for this experience to actually be centered as expertise in this issue. Yeah, radical black voice, redistribution of comfort, and validating direct experience as expertise is like real strategies that we take on in any kind of mostly white institutional power space that we enter. Absolutely. As a perfect segue to wrap us up because I wanted to talk about some calls to action or just ways that people who might be watching this who are unfamiliar with agriculture but interested in getting into a black folks, immigrant folks, or people who just want to support the movement. Are there things that come to mind for you as the top few items that people can do, read, or whatever, to really support the work that you and all of us are trying to do and are doing? Yeah, absolutely. Three organizations are coming to mind. I'm going to go from national to like Philly to like even more specific. I think nationally Climate Justice Alliance, CJA is an excellent organization to learn from to give to. CJA is constantly giving out micro and larger grants to local organizations that are doing grassroots work on the ground. They are also very much black and indigenous-led. They have a vision for what they call adjust transition model with our [inaudible] through the eyes and dreams of black and brown and indigenous people. I really love learning from CJA. I use CJA a lot for my own political education. Soil Generation benefits a lot from our affiliation with CJA. Then there's Soil Generation. You are more than welcome to donate to us. We also just published an agroecology manual that's available online. Hopefully, we'll have hard copies available soon too. It's a manual that we created. It's about 100 pages and it's got a bit about our history, farming techniques, and practices, and then also our community organizing strategies. Please check us out, follow us on Instagram it's just Soil Generation. Our website is www.soil generation.org. Then to get even more hyperlocal, I've heard about this great organization named Land Based Jawns, created by my lovely friend and colleague Ashley Gripper. That's really a wonderful program that is bringing femmes and black women, natives of Philly together to learn land-based skills. Not just limited to farming, but things like building a shelter and self-defense and foraging for food. Something I really appreciate Ash is your neglect of the word survival skills. I feel like that's a very frankly white language around what is just traditional land-based knowledge. Land Based Jawns, please donate, support the next cohort for the next season. I really admire the work that you do Ash. Any chance I get Land Based Jawns is on my list to promote. That gives you a funnel scale to give to. Absolutely, Thank you so much Sonia for again, for all of the wit, you are brilliant and I love learning from you. Since we embarked on this journey a few years ago to do this perform work that we thought was going to be radical that's actually reform, it has been such an honor and pleasure to learn from you. You taught us so much in just 15 minutes, 30 minutes today. I'm really grateful and I just want to express my gratitude to you for your generosity. Your generosity of spirit, of knowledge, of wisdom in our care. Hopefully, folks watching this will walk away with new knowledge, with new steps of ways to support this work, ways to get involved with this work if that's appropriate. Yeah, if ever anybody has questions, who's watching this, feel free to reach out. There'll be some contact information listed as well as some links and some readings and ways to continue to stay up to date on what's happening in Philadelphia and beyond. Thank you, Sonia, and thank you everyone for watching. I'm starting my day off very full. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. It's always a privilege to be in any space with you. I'm so grateful to have had a platform to share and I look forward to more. Yes, let's do it.
