Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim a connection to land. As co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm, Penniman is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs  —  including farmer trainings for Black and Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for people living under food apartheid, and regional organizing toward equity in the food system.

Some highlights from Andrew Baskin’s conversation with Penniman include:

  • Stories from valuable moments of healing of intergenerational trauma through relationship with land for people of color.
  • How her new book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, overcomes cultural erasure by providing a rare resource for Black/POC food and farming practitioners who are to learn about, celebrate and reclaim their ancestral legacy of being in deep relationship with land.
  • Details on the chapter in the book, “White People Uprooting Racism,” for whose interest in antiracist work as white allies.
  • Soul Fire Farm’s relationship with intentional community Wildseed and a POC/Indigenous-led land trust reclaiming spaces in alignment with shared values.

Listen to the full podcast about growing a more equitable food system by Andrew Baskin at B the Change.