Urban Planning Film Series: Farming While Black

Farming While Black (dir Mark Decena; 2023)
Thur Oct 23 @ 7pm
Room 3-133 

As the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, Leah Penniman finds strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism – agricultural practices that can heal people and the planet. Influenced and inspired by Karen Washington, a pioneer in urban community gardens in New York City, and fellow farmer and organizer Blain Snipstal, Leah galvanizes around farming as the basis of revolutionary justice.

In 1910, Black farmers owned 14 percent of all American farmland. Over the intervening decades, that number fell below two percent, the result of racism, discrimination, and dispossession. The film chronicles Penniman and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. Collectively, their work has a major impact as leaders in the sustainable agriculture and food justice movements.

**Special Bonus!**

We’ll also be screening the documentary short Soul City:

Soul City (dir. Monica Berra, SheRea DelSol, Gini Richards; 2016)

Soul City tells the story of a group of civil rights activists and city slickers who attempt to build a multiracial utopia in the heart of Klan Country, North Carolina in the 1970s. Their pioneering efforts to jumpstart this black-owned, black-built town run up against tenacious enemies that still face idealists and dreamers today–ingrained racism, public skepticism, and unwillingness on the part of the government to think outside the box to solve social problems. As this group of dreamers try to bring together unlikely allies to support black power and economic development, they are forced to balance their soaring idealism with the hostile reality of the times.

Popcorn and movie candy provided; after the screening, please join us for a discussion of the themes explored in the films. This special event is co-sponsored by SCC, DUSP Rural, the DUSP Civil Rights Immersion Trek, the OGE Grad Experience Grants, and the DUSP Film Series.