Black Farmers Are the Afrofuture

Black Farmers Are the Afrofuture Eco-Arts + Emergency Prep Workshop Returns to Black Urban Growers Conference in Atlanta

November 10-12, Li Sumpter (ACG '17, '16) presented the workshop "Black Farmers Are the Afrofuture Part 2: Eco-Design as Creative Resistance" at the annual Black Urban Growers Conference (BUGS) in Atlanta, GA. This year Li was a featured presenter supported by her ACG '17 change partner and co-presenter, Tommy Joshua of the North Philly Peace Park. The workshop explored new strategies and survival tools along with updates from the field on the Graffiti in the Grass and Pop Prophecy projects funded in part by the Leeway Foundation and the Urban Ecology Arts Exchange. Black Farmers Are the Afrofuture is an interactive, solution-based workshop that considers the role of black and brown farmers facing ecological and social crises that threaten food security, the survival of urban communities and ultimately, life on Planet Earth. At BUGS in Atlanta, participants examined potential threats to urban farmers and the communities they serve from natural disasters and public health pandemics to economic collapse and various forms of warfare. Basic tools, emergency protocol and DIY strategies were shared through the Pop Prophecy Survival Zine and drill scenario exercises based on current events and popular science fiction.

In the second half of the workshop, Li Sumpter presented first drafts of the Pop Prophecy Survival Map that engages the North Philly Peace Park and the surrounding Sharswood community in collective readiness and resource/skill-sharing. Tommy Joshua (Executive Director of the North Philly Peace Park) guided attendees through architectural plans for the Peace Park’s new state-of-the-art education hub, The Institute of Creative Labor. Both design projects are black-led, community-centered and eco-conscious based in theories of creative resistance, sustainability and the aesthetics of afrofuturism. Black Farmers Are the Afrofuture: Part 2 invites us all to imagine a world where urban growers are the natural survivors, creators, leaders, and liberators of the world of tomorrow.

Li and various collaborators will be facilitating Black Farmers Are the Afrofuture workshops to those interested local farms, green spaces and community organizations in Philadelphia this Winter/Spring 2018. For more information contact: mythmediastudios@gmail.com.