Detroit: Urban Agriculture Tour

Finished up the Michigan Association of Planning's annual conference today with a great tour, and met some pretty fascinating Detroit people who are doing amazing things,.

Japanese journalists film us touring D-Town farm

In the morning we headed over to D-Town Farm, run by the Detroit Black Food Security Network on land in Detroit's Rouge Park.  The land is  leased from the City of Detroit for $1/year for 10 years.  Our host, Malik Yakini, chairman of the DBFSN as well as a Detroit Charter School principal, gave us a tour and an explanation of the DBFSN as well as the context in which it is doing its work.  The goal of D-Town farm is to create a model for urban agriculture and to achieve food security for Detroit's black population. D-Town sells produce at Eastern Market, other Farmer's markets in the City, and several restaurants.

Yakini says he is unapologetic about the intent of the DBFSN to advance black power and expressed the local grassroots movements' opposition to large-scale urban agriculture within City limits that does not have the interests of the community in mind.  We also discussed food policy issues; Yakini is on the Michigan Food Policy Council and is working to help develop policy within the city and at the state level that will help community-scale urban agriculture.

While we were there, Japanese journalists filmed our tour for a TV station, and a French radio reporter showed up, wanting to interview Yakini, who seemed used to the attention this project and others like it is garnering on the international stage.

Gwen, who came to Earthworks Urban Farm from Nebraska
 through Americorps

EarthWorks Urban Farm

Next we visited Earthworks Urban Farm, a project of the Capuchin monastery in partnership with Gleaners Food Bank, which has been in operation for ten years. Our tour host, Gwen, came to the Farm via an Americorps assignment and has stayed on through the end of this growing season.  She spoke of the need to engage the local African-American community in urban agriculture, noting that the movement is often led by young, white transplants. The Capuchin program trains local neighborhood residents in farming and gardening, and utilizes the produce in the soup kitchen, which serves neighborhood residents in need..

PlaceLit: Rhonda Welsh

My Only Home

By Rhonda Welsh

Detroit is my only home.
Child of the west side...
Majestic, Puritan, Elmhurst,
Linwood, Plymouth, Eight Mile

All the while
craved a
different existence
but finally realized
Detroit is who I am.

Good students teased for acting too white
while the suburbs scream too black.
Neighborhoods who know no lack
always labeled poor.

Detroit was once much more than…

Dirty streets. Corrupt politicians.
Perverted superstitions
make some people treat books
like bad ju ju.

But my Detroit is not that simple…

Kind-hearted hustlers work day and night.
Make a dollar out of fifteen cents.
The auto industry came and went
but true Detroiters always make it work.

Saturday greens from Eastern Market
and a new hat from Mr. Song.
You can't go wrong on Sunday mornings
shouting and rocking
until the blues melt away.

Detroiters always seek
a brand new day.

Even our skyline boasts a Renaissance.

And the summer…

Caribbean Picnic on Belle Isle,
Moonlit concerts at Campus Martius,
and greasy fish fingers
clap to the beat
with sandal clad feet
at the African World Festival.

Poetry is everywhere.
Music Hall, Scarab Club, 1515 Broadway,
even at the Y-M-C-A.

Detroit is no longer in its heyday,
but its days are not finished yet.

There is much more life.
More pride runs through the veins.
Soon the activists must rise and take the reins.

Restore what has been lost.
No longer give thought
to those who diss and dismiss.

It is not a wasteland.
There are families here.

Educators, doctors, lawyers,
butchers, bakers,
yes, even candlestick makers reside in Detroit.

Shake off depleted self-esteem
that hangs over the city like a cloud.
Shout the city's praises out loud
and recognize its worth.

Induce the new birth.
Invoke that migrant spirit
transplanted from red earth.

Don't let it die an unnatural death.
Purge the dross and rebuild the best.

Detroit is the only home I've ever known.

©Rhonda Welsh 2010
from the book Red Clay Legacy

Read more: http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2010/10/04/a-detroit-poet-and-her-city-as-muse/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogs%2Fthedetroitblog+%28TIME%3A+The+Detroit+Blog%29#ixzz11RTmgfLn

Let's Save Michigan | PARK(ing) Day Sign-up

This is neat: PARK (ing) day!!!

According to letssavemichigan.org:

"PARK(ing) Day is a quirky, annual, worldwide event where folks use their creativity to transform metered city parking spots into temporary parks for the public good for an hour or two."

Let's Save Michigan | PARK(ing) Day Sign-up

HAVEN Garden Project

Urban agriculture isn't just about Detroit and Flint.  I was excited to learn recently about the garden project at HAVEN, a domestic violence shelter located in the City of Pontiac.   The project, which seeks to produce food for consumption by HAVEN residents and the community, was launched this past April by a coalition of community members and urban agriculture activists.

The Michigan Young Farmers Coalition, founded by MSU senior horticulture student Benjamin Gluck, is taking a leadership role in the project, along with Alexis Bogdanova-Hanna of Abundant Succession, an urban agriculture consulting and education form, and women’s health website  AskInYourFace.com founder Allison Stuart Kaplan.  Community residents and schools provide additional support to the project. The harvest thus far has exceeded all expectations. Bogdanova-Hanna writes on AskInYourFace.com :

Since the initial planting in mid-April, the HAVEN Garden has been growing abundantly and beyond all expectations. Perhaps it’s the infusion of love and care from the HAVEN Community, the careful execution of an innovative crop plan, or the swell of support from generous donors that has brought us to the point of surplus and success. More likely, it is a combination of all of these – the perfect mix of the tangible (remay row covers) and the intangible (synergistic energy). Whatever it is, it’s working.

A notable success of the project has been the creation of a job for local Pontiac resident Aaron Kyle. Kyle, who has no prior horticultural experience, manages the daily operations of the garden, building technical and leadership skills in the process. 

Read more about the project here and here, and view pictures here.

Michigan Green Leaders

Just in time for Earth Day,  Detroit Free Press has a Sunday spread on Michigan Green Leaders, highlighting individuals who are leading the way to a brighter, greener future in the state. I am fortunate to know and work with several of these individuals.  They are all truly visionaries. View a slideshow here.


Image Credit: Detroit Free Press

Edible Wow Spring 2010

New issue out!  This edition contains an in inspiring piece about Peaches & Greens,  an effort to sell fresh produce in the style of an ice-cream truck to the poorest neighborhoods in Detroit's food desert.

If you don't subscribe, you will have to find your issue at one of the magazine's advertiser's locations. I found mine at Mind,  Body, Spirits in Rochester, an upscale sustainable, organic eatery with a LEED-certified building featuring, among many other features,  geothermal heating/cooling, an onsite greenhouse, and a food composter.

Detroit Declaration

"I so love your heart that burns
That in your people’s body yearns
To perpetuate,
and permeate,
the lonely dream that does encapsulate,
Your spirit, that God insulates,
With courageous dream’s concern"

-Jack White

Came across this recently....

We know you’re out there. We know you love Detroit and want to see it not just survive, but thrive. This is our rallying cry. Welcome to a political movement for a brighter Detroit future.

Visitors are encouraged to sign the Declaration for Detroit, join the Facebook page, and spread the word. More detailed policy recommendations calling for sustainable arts funding, a comprehensive land-use strategy, and transit system modernization are drafted for three of 12 principlesin the Declaration, .

A recent article in USA today elaborates on this as a new form of grassroots online activism.

As of this writing, the Facebook page has 9,499 fans, and the site launched just over a month ago.

The Declaration is a manifesto drafted by 20 Detroit residents that outlines 12 principles for the community to follow to revive Detroit:

• Be welcoming and embrace our diversity.
• Preserve our authenticity
• Cultivate creativity.
• Diversify our economy.
• Promote sustainability.
• Enhance quality of place.
• Demand transportation alternatives.
• Prioritize education, pre-K through 12 and beyond.
• Elevate our universities and research institutions.
• Enhance the value of city living.
• Demand government accountability.
• Think regionally and leverage our geography.

I am excited about the content of the manifesto. These are all things I support wholeheartedly. And I think the language used in the declaration is eloquent and concise. To whomever is responsible: Bravo!

It is heartening to see this type of grass-roots activism building. It's heartening to see any type of positive energy regarding Detroit, especially in light of all of the negative press. It's also very easy to become a fan of a Facebook page and sign an online petition, but difficult to do the real work to make a dent in the tidal wave of forces that have conspired to destroy Detroit.

I have chosen to remain in the metro Detroit area primarily so my children can know their grandparents. My great-grandparents came here early in the century from Sicily, and built their lives here. I have extended family and friends all over the region. I have happy memories of the Eastern Market Saturdays and visits to Belle Isle with my dad, fishing on the Detroit River at Angell Park, Greektown lambchop family gatherings (Opa!), dinner at Lelli's and Larco's with my grandparents, Tiger Stadium, old and new. I have a strong sense of connection to this place, and I wonder whether it will ever improve within my lifetime. And I wonder what, if anything, I can do about it.

Because, of course, I live in the suburbs.

Like most Detroiters.