Wednesday August 28, 2019
2:00 – 5:00pm
Hattie Carthan Community Garden
654A Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn
Register Here by 8/23 (*required)
Space is limited to 8 people
Hattie Carthan Community Food Project is a grassroots, people of color-led agricultural revitalization project in Central Brooklyn whose vision is to cultivate a healthy, holistic, and self-sufficient community grounded in the systems and cycles of the earth. Hattie Carthan, and its director, Yonnette Fleming, grow food and community leadership as a bulwark against racism, the alienating effects of gentrification, and prevalence of diet-related disease while establishing a vibrant base for collective action and healing. They support a Farmer’s Market, historic Community Garden, and an Herban Farm and Healing Center.
Join us for an afternoon site visit that will engage your brain, body, and spirit. Designed to provide an experiential “dip” (as opposed to “deep dive”) into the transformative work that takes place at Hattie to promote growth at the individual, community, and ecological systems levels, the three hour visit will include: grounding in basic principles of food justice and equity; a guided tour of the sites; an opportunity to engage in dialogue about the process of systems change; experience of some of the healing modalities employed in collaboration with Mother Nature; and shared labor to benefit the farm, garden, or market.
Wear comfortable clothing and closed toe shoes that you won’t mind getting soiled. This visit will occur rain or shine, so please dress and equip yourself appropriately.
More about the organization
The Hattie Carthan Community Farmer’s Market opened in July 2009 after Yonnette Fleming, President of the Hattie Carthan Community Garden, and 13 Hattie Carthan gardeners reclaimed and transformed a garbage filled lot. They have distributed over 20 tons of fresh food and processed 30 tons of waste through a community compost system.
In 2011, Yonnette initiated an Urban Agriculture Youth Corps, an 8-month youth leadership program program for local teens who learn about food justice, herbal methods, and support all activities of the organization.
The Herban Farm and Healing Center sits on a reclaimed abandoned lot, on which Yonnette and volunteers have built a vibrant farm, greenhouse, apothecary, and healing spaces where community celebrations take place and people reclaim their wholeness through powerful workshops. The work involved hauling truckloads of toxic asphalt out of the lot and removing six feet worth of tainted soil and then replenishing it with fresh soil, sand, leaf litter and compost. This work was done with all volunteer labor.
To date, Yonnette and community volunteers have contributed over 70,000 documentable volunteer hours. Hattie Carthan is a space for growth, love, creativity, beauty, and collective action. It is a labor of love led by Black women.