Conversation Guide

Distance may make the heart grow fonder, but it makes community engagement rather difficult. With us all in a world where being socially distanced is now the norm, how can we create the world that we wish to see and live in, while also acknowledging areas for growth and clarity? 

This session will explore different ways to be an engaged citizen in a rural community. Panelists will present and discuss their own methods for building community and addressing pressing local and national issues in order to produce positive social-environmental change while living in rural places. This is an exploration of ways to build the future you want to see from the place you choose to live and work.

BIPOC- Black, Indigenous, and People of Color

Decolonization- The undoing of colonialism by challenging how systems are, knowingly and/or unknowingly, complicit in the oppression of indigenous people.

Indigenization- The action of bringing something, in this case, agriculture, under the control, dominance, or influence of the people native to an area. 

Saviorism- the worldview in which a person, usually white, provides help to non-white people in a self-serving manner. (Also, defined as a perpetuated world view that non-white people need saving by “more civilized” white people.)

• How are we creating welcoming and inclusive spaces for marginalized communities? 
  • What are measures of success?
• Is my/our approach to community engagement complex or complicated?
  • What is the difference?
• In what ways are we honoring stewardship vs ownership of the land?
  • What does this mean for how we engage with others in our community?
• What supports are needed to grow current community engagement efforts?

• How does my work connect with this?
• How could my work connect more deeply into this space?
• Are there concepts/ideologies from this plenary that I should shape my work going forward?
• Conversely, are there concepts/ideologies in the way that I currently work that need to let go of?  What will it take to do so?

Organizations/Projects to Check Out:

Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA) from Earth Care, Santa Fe, NM

Showing Up for Racial Justice

Rocky Mountain Farmers’ Union

New Mexico Acequia Association

Tewa Women United

Find a Mutual Aid Network near you

Castanea Fellowship

Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition

Additional reading:

Books:

Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement – Monica M. White

The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action – Alison Hope Alkon & Julie Guthman: 

Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by  Jessica Gordon Nembhard

The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience, and Farming by Natasha Bowens

Farming While Black – Leah Penniman

Articles:

Want to be part of the next wave of activism? Move to rural America

George Floyd’s death awakens activism in rural, white America

“A pig and a garden”: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Freedom Farms Cooperative 

Womanism and Agroecology: An Intersectional Praxis Seed Keeping as Acts of Political Warfare 

What Does Activism Look Like in Rural America?

10 Native Activism Organizations to Show Your Support This Thanksgiving

Other Media:

To See Eachother – A People’s Action Podcast

Rural Roots Rising – Oregon based podcast

Activism Beyond the City: Women, Rural Communities, and the Struggle for Black Freedom – podcast episode with Katherine Mellen Charron on Discovery and Inspiration podcast

Land politics, agrarian movements and scholar-activism – Video

Training the Next Generation of New Agrarians – Regenerate 2018

Funding Sources:

USDA Rural Development Programs

Arch Community Fund

Rural Democracy Initiative Grants

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