We Are Each Other's Harvest

January 11, 2021
Novelist Baszile (Queen Sugar) explores the legacy of “Black and brown farmers” in this winning anthology of essays, poems, photographs, and interviews. Analena Hope Hassberg, a professor of ethnic studies at Cal Poly Pomona, examines farming as a “revolutionary act,” noting that enslaved Africans kept small garden plots on U.S. plantations and “often had higher vitamin, mineral, and protein levels than poor whites who also struggled to survive in the face of starvation.” Clif Sutton and his father, Dexter Faison, owners of Straw Hat Farms in Turkey, N.C., discuss their family’s farming legacy and the advantages of passing land from one generation to the next, as opposed to starting from scratch. Novelist and memoirist Clyde Ford details how discrimination against Black landowners by elected farm service committees in the South helped to fuel the civil rights movement, while Jim Embry, founder of Sustainable Communities Network, looks at how Indigenous agricultural traditions and communal structures can help fight climate change and racial inequality. Throughout, poems by Kevin Young, Joy Harjo, and others resonant with the themes discussed. With its attractive presentation and incisive blend of academic, creative, and real-world perspectives, this inspirational survey is a fitting tribute to Black farmers throughout history. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management.

Starred review from March 1, 2021

Proving that Black people have always had a deep connection to the land, writer Baszile (Queen Sugar) elevates the voices of Black farmers and ongoing conversations surrounding food justice, land stewardship, and intergenerational wealth. Through powerful firsthand interviews with Black and Mexican farmers in the Carolinas, Virginia, Louisiana, California, and more, Baszile shows how, for many, farming means freedom. Baszile's compelling narrative excels in telling how growing one's own food has long been critical to Black people's survival, from slavery to the present day. The author also details the increasing number of women farmers, and how Black women are navigating both racism and sexism. Interwoven are contributions from historian Michael W. Twitty and poet Kevin Young, among others. Perhaps the strongest parts of the book are contributions from historian Pete Daniel, on the difficulty of Black farmers to receive assistance from the USDA and the FSA, and author Clyde Ford, on the connection between land and wealth. As Ford writes, "Black landownership has always been an act of defiance and an affirmation of humanity." Vivid photographs by Baszile are a highlight throughout. VERDICT This noteworthy book, the first of its kind, brings an untold history to the forefront and succeeds in showing how land and legacy are interconnected.--Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2021
Connection to the land has been and is a foundational way that we humans relate to the world around us. In the U.S., this relationship, like all American history, is fraught and complicated, mostly due to colonization, enslavement, and a multitude of other injustices perpetrated by white settlers. Baszile (Queen Sugar, 2014) has curated this anthology of essays, photographs, conversations, poetry, and more to explore Black farmers' connections to the land in the U.S., from Emancipation to the present day. Contributors include farmers, historians, writers, and photographers, who bring a variety of perspectives on identity and the way it is interconnected with the land and history. With stunning color portraits and quotes from iconic writers, leaders, and others interspersed throughout, this well-researched collection is readable (while it requires sitting with some hard truths), informative, and inspiring. Black farming and farmers play a much more significant role in American culture than is typically represented, and this collection brings that information beautifully to the fore, as well as inviting readers to interrogate their own connections to the land and this history.

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