This lusciously photographed treatise in four chapters explores the many culinary uses and old-timey homesteader appeal of plants found almost everywhere an eagle-eyed forager turns: dandelions from the backyard, roadside lilies, tree nuts growing in nearby forests. The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora: Recipes and Techniques for Edible Plants from Garden, Field, and Forest Baszile writes that her intention is to shine a light on systems that continue to oppress Black and brown people but also to reset the narrative around labor, “inspiring communities of color to reimagine what it means to be connected to the soil.” Whatley’s pioneering of community-supported agriculture as well as mini-profiles of today’s Black farmers who, against long odds, are doing everything from raising goats and cows in North Carolina to tending to vineyards in Northern California. The stories celebrate African American agricultural knowledge and innovation, from Booker T. Evocative poems like Tim Seibles’ “Fearless” weave in imagery-“the green fire bounding back”-that simultaneously taps into the practical challenges of farming and metaphors of resilience and rebirth. It includes important historical accounts of the factors that have driven land loss, including broken government promises during Reconstruction, heirs’ property laws, and discrimination at the U.S. The book is an anthology accompanied by essays, poems, and historical accounts from Black food and farming leaders such as Michael Twitty and Leah Penniman. Now, with We Are Each Other’s Harvest, Baszile shares the true stories of a number of Black farmers, scholars, and artists. Natalie Baszile’s 2014 novel Queen Sugar brought a story of African American land and agricultural legacy to readers (and viewers, when Ava DuVernay turned it into a television series for OWN) through a fictionalized account. We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy The book’s well-researched micro-histories coalesce to create a necessary rewriting of Californian history. Through spatial vignettes of tribal communities throughout the state, the authors decisively reject tired narratives of victimization and point out how Indigenous people have survived violent policies created to marginalize them. The harvest of acorns, for example, happens as part of controlled-burn land management practices, showcasing the holistic integration of ecological and cultural practices that is central to many tribal traditions. The effect is both whimsical and authoritative: creation stories open up new understandings of California’s geological formations and Indigenous ways of relating to nature. Their writing combines lyrical storytelling with academic narration to foreground Indigenous oral stories. By expanding a compressed history of the 170 years since California became a state, William Bauer, an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Northern California’s Mendocino County, and historian Damon Akins delineate the enduring and adaptive cultures of many Indigenous peoples, highlighting the mutual influences and trade that characterized inter-tribal relationships. Bauer Jr.Īn ambitious attempt to unpack the obvious and hidden meanings of California as a place and as an idea, We are the Land challenges the prevailing colonial history of the state. We Are the Land: A History of Native Californiaīy Damon B.
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