Jim Embry Year in Review March 2020- March 2021
To: Dear friends and family
RE: Remembering 2020 and Projections for 2021
March 8, 2021
As we end Black History Month and link with Women’s
History Month, I share my involvements during this past year, 2020-2021, to
contribute to our need to keep doing Good Trouble. I seek
every day “with goodness to all concerned” to fertilize networks, to serve as a
pollinator for justice and to blossom as a “imaginal cell” for species level
transformation. 2021 is well underway as we continue to heal and regenerate
from the various forms of pandemics: corona virus, systemic racism,
longstanding patriarchy, economic inequality, climate change, & loss of
biodiversity- experienced and acutely revealed in 2020. Each of us
represents a vortex of change in this Great Turning as well as an ember
in the cauldron of fire that propels the moral arc of the Universe to
bend towards Justice!
(Quick links with more details below)
Entering and Planting 2021
1) We Are Each Other’s Harvest by Natalie Baszile
We Are Each Other's Harvest conversation
w/ Natalie Baszile and Jim Embry/
2) Compass Conference:
RegenerativeAgriculture
3) Slow Seed Summit w/KarenWashington
4) WRFL Radio
Interview w/mickJeffries
5) Greene Scholars
6) Slow Food-Slow Fish & Equity
7) SoulFeast
Week
8) NABS Diving Summit St. Lucia
9) Food
Justice in Appalachia Exhibit WVU
Remembering and Composting 2020 …… Presentations:
1. Bethel Baptist Church King Day Unity Breakfast
2. Climate Underground: Putting Justice on the
Table with Al Gore
3. Young Farmers &Chefs:
Great Remembering w/LPenniman, KWashington, JSage
4. Slow Food Youth Network-EIJ Manifesto
5. SlowFood- after Covid -Equity-Inclusion-Justice
w/ChanowkYisrael/
6. We-Want-To-Breathe Black Lives
Matter w/Mercedes Smith
7.
BLM Group at African
Cemetery No.2 pt.1
8.
BLM Group at African
Cemetery No.2 pt.2
9.
NAAEE 2019 Opening
10.
UK Honors College:
Local Memory and Ongoing Work of Integration
11. Natural Start Alliance: George W.
Carver & Nature Study
12. Takoma Park Nursery School: George W. Carver
13. NAAEE Conference -Pollinator Project
14. TN Local Food Summit:
Conversation with Jeff Poppen
15. Painted in Stone documentary-UK
Mural panel
16. SlowFood Centering Equity & Justice
17.
Slow Food Leader Summit w/chef Phil
Jones
Writings
1)
"Martin Acres is
the Place to Be"—Middle Tennessee Local Table Magazine’s
2020 Annual Guide
2)
http://www.stellanatura.com/sample.html
Affiliations
1) https://i-was-here.org/, https://www.blacksoilky.com/, https://naaee.org/
2) https://slowfoodusa.org/about/, https://terramadresalonedelgusto.com/en/
3) https://www.blackurbangrowers.org/, http://saafon.org/, https://nabsdivers.org/
4) https://goodfoods.coop/, https://www.ballew-estates.org/, https://www.soulfeastweek.com/
Entering and Planting 2021 w/descriptions
1) We Are Each Other’s Harvest
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-293256-3
Novelist
Baszile (Queen Sugar) explores the legacy of “Black and brown farmers”
in this winning anthology of essays, poems, photographs, and interviews……” Jim
Embry, founder of Sustainable Communities Network, looks at how Indigenous
agricultural traditions and communal structures can help fight climate change
and racial inequality.
We Are Each Other's Harvest conversation
w/ Natalie Baszile and Jim Embry/
https://calypsofarm.org/calendar/conversations-series-2/
Conversations Series: We Are Each Other’s Harvest
Exploring food and
farming with Black and Indigenous Leaders in the Food System
Friday, March 26th via Zoom, 12pm Alaska Time / 1pm Pacific Time / 4pm Eastern Time
Join us for a conversation
with author and filmmaker Natalie Baszile about her upcoming book: We
Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and
Legacy, an anthology of essays, poems, photographs, quotes,
conversations, and first-person stories. We Are Each Other’s Harvest elevates
the voices and stories of Black farmers and people of color, celebrating their
perseverance and resilience, while spotlighting the challenges they continue to
face. Hosted by Melony Edwards, Natalie will be joined by Jim Embry, a lifelong
social, food justice and agrarian intellectual activist. Both Melony and Jim
are featured in Natalie’s new book.
2) CompassConference:New
Green Economy-RegenerativeAgriculture
(my responses at these time frames-Embry presents at 21:51-26:05;
26:50-29:49; 48:30-52:04)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Sdw-H_CBU&list=PL5Feonth8bP6lmI4zKX2PoBv6UiDIZk3_&index=6
The New Green Economy Compass Conference held a workshop on
Regenerative Agriculture on Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 at noon, featuring
Jim Embry of the Sustainable Communities Network, Qiana Mickie of QJM
Multiprise, Tim Van Meter of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and Zach
Wolf of Caney Fork Farms. This is just one of several workshops at the at the
New Green Economy Conference, a conference focused on enabling people from
organizations throughout the Tennessee Valley region to learn about and
strategize around approaches to economic development that foster both
sustainability and equitable employment.
Schedule: https://mcusercontent.com/e39c60c5ac34f4a79dbfbdcb4/files/90688c85-c532-451f-9284-26f479522258/Compass_Conference_Program_Q.pdf
https://www.tennipl.org/2021-new-green-economy-compass-conference/
3)
Slow Seed Summit/with Mama KarenWashington
https://slowfoodusa.org/gatherings/seed-summit-2021/
The Slow Seed Summit is a virtual gathering of growers, experts
and activists to discuss seed sovereignty, seed preservation and other central
topics in the world of seeds.
Feb 28: Seeds Tell the Untold Stories and Time Holds Them
to be Discovered, with Karen Washington moderated by Jim Embry. “Many people are now rediscovering their
history through seeds. In this discovery, we will follow the trail laid
down by our ancestors as sovereign keepers. It is time for us to come out
from the shadows and into the light to celebrate their value and true
meaning. Learn how seeds can unlock secrets of forgotten time and stories.”
4) WRFL Radio
Interview w/mickJeffries
https://www.facebook.com/mickjeffries/videos/10226562471707757/
My interview runs from about 58:00 to 1:36.
What a fun and free flowing time I had this morning hanging out
with
Mick Jeffries the WRFL team...a BIG shout out of Thanks for
inviting my presence and allowing me to freestyle and lift up ancestral spirits
that guide me as well as kindred spirits that I am blessed to work with on many
levels.
5) Greene Scholars
https://www.greenescholars.org/
The Dr. Frank S. Greene Scholars Program helps youth of African
ancestry in San Francisco Bay Area communities successfully complete higher
education in science, technology, engineering and/or math (STEM), and serve as
positive role models and contributors to their communities.
I will be presenting to parents on March 27
6) Slow Food-Slow-Fish EIJ
https://slowfoodusa.org/slow-fish/slow-fish-2021/
The Slow Fish 2021 Virtual Gathering is an online collective
of folks in and around the seafood supply chain—fish harvesters, experts,
and enthusiasts—from across North America and around the world working to
create more direct and equitable seafood systems. We are hosting seven days of
interactive programming including Deep Dive discussions on critical issues,
World Café roundtables, Marketplace of Ideas, music, poetry and more ways to
connect, collaborate, and celebrate Slow Fish!
7. SoulFeast Week
https://www.soulfeastweek.com/
Founded in 2020 by twin siblings, Martina and Marcellus Barksdale,
SoulFeast Week is a continuation of efforts to highlight and support black
culinary and agriculture in Central Kentucky. SoulFeast Week aims to
highlight the black contribution to the food and beverage industry in Central
Kentucky. Our partnership with Black Soil will feature twelve craft culinary
experiences during the week. Each experience will showcase produce cultivated
locally by black farmers to create dishes crafted by black chefs for our
communities to consume.
8. NABS Diving Summit St. Lucia
https://nabsdivers.org/nabs-summit/#:~:text=The%20NABS%2030th%20Annual%20Summit,US%20and%20around%20the%20World.
I became a member of NABS back in 1996 and have
been diving since then. Our last Summit was in Egypt in 2019 so we are ready
for some salt water! The NABS 30th Annual Summit, will be held on the island of
St. Lucia, from Saturday, November 6th to Saturday, November 13th, 2021.
For 30 years NABS has inspired divers of color particularly in the US and
around the World. What better way to celebrate then selecting a new
Summit destination that offers everyone “Limitless Inspiration!” We hope
you’ll “let St. Lucia Inspire you” and you’ll continue to inspire NABS.\
9. Food Justice in Appalachia Exhibit
WVU
https://exhibits.lib.wvu.edu/gallery_foodjustice
FOOD
JUSTICE IN APPALACHIA
My exhibit with archival photos and
narrative presentation will focus on George Washington Carver and his
contributions to the food justice work in West Virginia.
An exhibit by WVU
Libraries in partnership with the WVU Food Justice Lab and the WVU Center for
Resilient Communities.
Exhibition
Dates: Online
Launch: August 202; Print exhibition at WVU Downtown Campus Library: August
2021-June 2022
Remembering and Composting 2020 …… Presentations
w/descriptions:
1.
Bethel Baptist Church King Day Unity Breakfast
https://youtu.be/ONDYUpk6hIk
What
a blessing it was for me to speak at our son Siku's church, Bethel
Baptist Church in Kannapolis, NC back on Jan. 18 and be among other award
winners and those attending the service. So I extend a big THANKS to Edison
McCrea and Siku Embry for the invitation.
This
was my first time getting a lifetime achievement award, first time being
introduced at such an event by one of our children and granddaughter (now that
was a special treat), first time being given a book by someone who just knew I
was "going to give a great talk", first time having access to the
Green Room to prepare for my talk.
A
most wonderful experience that is still vibrating with all types of connections.
A
special shout-out to Edison McCrea who orchestrated this event in the most
beautiful way and for including so many young people throughout the event. A
young high school student named Ashanti was the MC and what a blessing it was
for me to sit next to her and remind her "girl you got this!"
The
Trailblazer Awards were given to two other young people River Lewis and Alexis
McCrea. What a beautiful way to give respect to Dr. King by lifting up young
people.
River
has since asked me to serve as a mentor for him and his non-profit, Operation
Exposure, that he created while a sophomore at Morehouse College. Operation
Exposure is meant to guide young men onto platforms of leadership with a
particular exposure to the natural environment. This young man wasn't named
"River" without a profound sense of life's mission by his parents.
I'm honored to be Baba Jim once again.
This
event has allowed me so many other wonderful conversations and points of
connection with the Bethel Baptist Church family community. I am eternally
grateful for this opportunity to be part of this community wide experience.
http://www.countynews4you.com/delivering-on-the-promises-of-the-dream.html
2. Climate Underground: Putting Justice on the Table w/Al
Gore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caUR-aKoB5Q
AGRICULTURE AS A LEVERAGE POINT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Welcome and Panel: Putting Justice on
the Table
From meatpacking plants to farm labor to food availability, people of color
suffer disproportionate risks and food injustices, all of which have been
exacerbated in the pandemic. Featuring former Vice president Al Gore, Reverend
Heber Brown, Greg Asbed, and Jim Embry
The conversation began with the
need to look at agriculture as the base for a structural change toward
justice. Jim Embry , Slow Food activist and founder of Sustainable
Communities Network, brought attention to the founding of the United States.
“We recognize that it was the pursuit of agriculture that led to the seizure of
land from indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans, a quest that
planted the seeds of injustice. Our failures to resolve these foundational
contradictions are the basis of injustices today. Resolving these long-standing
contradictions within agriculture can provide the fertile soil for seeds of
righteous justice in every institution.”
https://terramadresalonedelgusto.com/en/event/climate-underground-2020-putting-justice-on-the-table/
https://www.slowfood.com/climate-underground-2020-putting-justice-on-the-table/
“For too
long these justice issues have been all too invisible for too many people. Yet
when we look closely at them it’s easy to see that no discussion of food and
agriculture can be complete without prior consideration of these important
topics.” So said Al Gore during this panel discussion
on the systemic processes that have created and continue to promote food
injustice.
In the United States, issues of
food security and land sovereignty represent big challenges for Black and
Hispanic farmers facing economic and social barriers. This structural and
institutional racism is rooted in a system many are beginning to call food apartheid. This
is fueled by a food system based on extractivism of land and labor to deliver
cheap food.
Heber Brown
who formed the Black Church Food Security Network. https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net/poem-gods-black-breath/
Greg
Asbed, https://ciw-online.org/blog/2020/11/2020-climate-underground/
3. Young Farmers/Young Chefs: The
Great Remembering
https://www.stonebarnscenter.org/resource/the-great-remembering/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwL3OhVSgqE&feature=emb_imp_woyt
YFCC 2020.
The Great Remembering: Injustice to the soil is an injustice to the people;
injustice to the people is an injustice to the soil. We’ll be diving into the
connections between culture and agriculture; demystifying the role and work of
farmers and what it means to truly be regenerative. Jim Embry, Sustainable
Communities Network, Leah Penniman, Soul Fire Farm, Karen Washington, Rise and
Root Farm, Curator: Jovan Sage
4. Slow Food Youth Network-EIJ Manifesto
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4uuiPzuRhMc3EneXuSruTp
Slow Food Youth Network
wants to raise attention for the concept of social justice within our movement
and in the food system, because we believe that this particular historical
moment is pivotal for a shift in the definition of human rights and we as a
movement want to be part of this change towards a more just and fair food
system and world. Today we will have the pleasure of listening to Sara
Jean Whelan, from SFYN USA in Vermont and part of the SFYN Global steering
committee, who interviewed Jim Embry, one of the creators of the SF USA
manifesto for equity, inclusion and justice (the EIJ manifesto). Jim describes
the milestones in the history of human rights in the USA, his view on
developing a manifesto and how the latest events and the current social debate
created a momentum for the manifesto to get a stronger position within Slow
Food and beyond
https://www.slowfood.com/slow-food-nations-equity-inclusion-justice/
5. Slow Food: After Covid
19-Opportunities for Equity Inclusion and Justice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOo6wuHm-Vk&feature=youtu.be
On May 21, Chanowk
Yisrael and Jim Embry joined Charity Kenyon, co-chair of Slow Food’s Equity,
Inclusion and Justice Working Group, to discuss ways the COVID pandemic has
changed our food system and how we can move forward to create a more equitable,
inclusive, and just food system.
Yisrael and Embry both
have histories working with Slow Food and helping to improve the food
system. Embry has been involved with food justice since 1968 when he
attended the Poor People’s Campaign in D.C. and has been involved with social
justice, environmental justice and food justice movements and initiatives for
the past 60 years.
Though the COVID
pandemic has exposed a lot of problems in our food system, one of the ideas of
resilience in this situation is understanding that there will be more pandemics
and problems like this and knowing that we have to start building local
networks to respond.
Though resilience can
take shape in many ways in responding to the problems within our food system,
Embry and Yisreal believe there’s a
place for us all. Know your farmers. Know your restaurant owners. Save seeds to
stop the monopoly on seeds. Find ways to affect policies. Do rituals. Talk to
your elders. Learn about the history of how we’ve gotten to where we are now.
Respect traditional and indigenous wisdom. “We need a Great Remembering that
humans have been farming forever,” Embry says. “We’re all indigenous people. We
are all indigenous to this earth.” And resilience is key in our response
to changing and bettering the food system to reflect that.
Written by Vivian Whitney, Slow
Food USA Communications Intern
6.
We-Want-To-Breathe/
https://www.richmondregister.com/news/we-want-to-breathe/article_5766cc94-4bf3-5dc5-a7dd-eeb874a6aa80.html
Jim Embry is no stranger to
taking to the streets of Richmond to demand that racial injustices be
eradicated. That police brutality be eliminated. That there are truly equal
rights for all. The 71-year-old Embry has been involved in various Richmond
protests since 1955. And on Saturday afternoon, he, along with hundreds of
others, took to Main Street once more to take part in the Black Lives Matter
protest that remained peaceful with no incidents at the county courthouse. "I
have been out here on this street for about 65 years demonstrating," he
told The Register. "Since the Jim Crow era … so I have been out here since
I was a youngster protesting, demonstrating and so forth."
7. BLM Group at African Cemetery No.2 pt.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DT7_WaKvTE
Jim Embry speaks about African Cemetery No.2 to Lexington Black
Lives Matter group part #2
8. BLM Group at African Cemetery No.2..pt.2
https://youtu.be/Cs9HdIEC8g4 Jim Embry speaks about African Cemetery No.2 to Lexington
Black Lives Matter group part #2
9.
NAAEE 2019 Opening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg2UGq14JZ8
The North American
Association for Environmental Education
48 TH ANNUAL NAAEE CONFERENCE
LEXINGTON, KY ... Jim Embry Conference Co-Chair and director
of Sustainable Communities Network gives an opening to invoke past, present and
future.
2019
NAAEE Recap 2019 Conference Recap https://youtu.be/8Fwu3SAwXZA
10.
UK Honors College:
Local Memory and Ongoing Work of Integration
UK Panel Feb 5, 2020 7pm Kincaid Auditorium Gatton College
Lewis Honors College
https://www.uky.edu/honors/local-memory-and-ongoing-work-integration
On February 5 at 7
p.m. in the Kincaid Auditorium, the Lewis Honors College is hosting a
conversation with community leaders entitled “Local Memory and the Ongoing Work
of Integration” as part of the College's commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of integration at UK. Current HON
101 students will be in attendance, but this event is free and open to the public.
11. .
Natural
Start Alliance: George W. Carver & Nature Study
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqwRK1LvM6c
As
a result of my presentation on George Washington Carver at NAAEE 2019, I was
invited to present a workshop at the Natural Start Alliance conference. This is
a video of my presentation on George Washington Carver and the Nature Study
Movement.
12.
Takoma
Park School: George Washington Carver
https://youtu.be/5o61sWgsBSc
TAKOMA PARK COOPERATIVE NURSERY SCHOOL COMMUNITY EDUCATION: JIM EMBRY
OCTOBER 10 @ 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Jim Embry is the
founder of Sustainable Communities Network.
This
is an all-family virtual meeting! Children and adults of all ages should
attend! Jim Embry shares a deep, spiritual connection to the Earth and to the
work of George Washington Carver. The history he shares will fill children and
adults with joy and gratitude. We find the garden all around us and we can
learn to listen to it just as Carver did.
https://mainstreettakoma.org/event/takoma-park-cooperative-nursery-school-community-education-jim-embry/
13.
. NAAEE Conference -Pollinator Project
14.
The North American
Association for Environmental Education
NAAEE Conference: Pollinators for Schools, Local
Governments, and Universities
https://naee.org.uk/a-glimpse-of-the-naaee-virtual-conference-2020/
https://cdn.naaee.org/sites/default/files/conference/session/embry_pollinator_project_naaee_october_2019-short_version.pdf
Embry_pollinator_project
This session showcases
the county-wide project to establish pollinator gardens in twenty K-12 schools
and Bee City/Bee Campus designations for the two city governments and two universities
in Madison County, Kentucky. We will illustrate the importance of community
partnerships to achieve community wide support for the Kentucky Pollinator
Protection Plan
15.
Painted in Stone documentary-UK
Mural panel
http://www.kykernel.com/lifestyle/documentary-on-controversial-mural-shown-in-memorial-hall/article_f9137be2-4e19-11ea-a312-bb4ca40982b2.html
The documentary traces the history of race relations at UK and,
specifically, the fresco in Memorial Hall. John Fitch III, a professor of
broadcasting and electronic media at EKU, made the documentary over the summer
of 2019. Jim Embry was a commentator in the film. The film debuted in September
on EKU’s campus. It was brought to UK as part of the Year of Equity. Created in 1934 as part of the Works Progress
Administration, the mural was intended to show a history of central Kentucky –
now, it is a lightning rod for racial tensions at UK. Its depiction of black
Americans has led some students to call it "the slave mural."
16. Slow Food Centering Equity & Justice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL88FudBaoM&list=PLLlA-_nePfnZ00w4NUo7OKxf-lrSw60RF&index=3&t=2s
Join three of the key authors of the Slow Food Equity,
Inclusion and Justice Manifesto to understand the history of how and why the
manifesto was created, deepen your understanding of its meaning, and to connect
in breakout groups to workshop your own chapter’s action steps. With Jovan Sage, Jim Embry and Denisa
Livingston
17.
Slow Food Leader Summit w/chef Phil
Jones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlrUNV05eD0
“You Say” Dinners are an exercise in diversity. Many chapters
are faced with a membership that lacks diversity where diversity should not be
an issue, so this is a tool that intentionally seeks to engage BIPOC, LGBTQ and
other generally underrepresented members of our communities, allowing them to
share their food stories. These dinners can also be unique fundraisers with
food justice and cultural awareness at their core.
With Phil Jones, Slow Food Detroit
Writings
1. Beautiful
article about our sons Obiora and Ajani Embry
"Martin Acres is the Place to
Be"—Middle Tennessee Local Table Magazine’s 2020 Annual
Guide
https://digital.localtable.net/index-2020annual.html#page=20
https://www.gettingback2nature.farm/events/2/
· Getting Back to Nature™ farm–based products. Getting Back to
Nature™ is a collaboration between twin brothers — Obiora Embry's EConsulting™ and Irucka's EcoC²S. The Brothers are featured in an
article entitled: “Martin
Acres is the Place to Be” by
Lee Morgan in the Middle Tennessee Local Table Magazine's
2020 Annual Guide. The article discusses the history of their maternal family
farm called Martin Acres and the regenerative agriculture that they are doing
on 2 acres of land.
Come to see the two acres
that inspired the article, "Martin Acres is the Place to Be" in the
Middle Tennessee Local Table Magazine’s Annual Guide [https://zine.localtable.net/index-2020annual.html#page=20]. On this walking tour we will talk about the history of
our beloved Martin Acres, how our paths led us to where we are today, and the
dynamic transformation of our two acres from 2013 until now.
It’s the Fall and past
time for us, individually and collectively, to reconnect with Nature, to
restore our health and vitality, and to have peace and serenity. Nature is one
of the best healers and it can help restore our bodies innate ability to heal
itself. We all come from Nature and sometimes just being out in it can help to
trigger healing within us.
2. http://www.stellanatura.com/sample.html
Wrote articles for 2021 & 2020 calendar
3. The Martin
Family
The Martin Family
Legacy book
“Lourenza Dow Martin was born
into slavery in 1833 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. The Descendants of
Lourenza reunite each year on the vast and beautiful land known as Martin Acres
located on modern day Highway 1473, Cave Springs Road, about three miles south
of Greenville, Kentucky. This is the Story of the descendants of Lourenza
including their successes and how they still gather with numbers in the
hundreds each year on their family farm. This is the…. Martin Family Legacy”
“When it comes to issues of
race and color of one’s skin, ignorance and racism persist to this day. It’s
necessary to make connections from the past to erase the veil of ignorance. In Chance
or Circumstance?, author James R. Mapp offers an account of the history of
race relations and the road to desegregation and open accommodations in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, from the 1960s to the present.
Affiliations
1) https://i-was-here.org/
i was here synthesizes a wealth of
humanities and historical scholarship into a set of iconic Ancestor
Spirit Portraits that create a comprehensive visual history bringing
the past into view.
2) https://www.blacksoilky.com/
The mission of Black
Soil: Our Better Nature is to reconnect black Kentuckians to
their legacy and heritage in agriculture.
3) https://i-was-here.org/, https://www.blacksoilky.com/, https://naaee.org/
4) https://slowfoodusa.org/about/,
5) https://terramadresalonedelgusto.com/en/
6) https://www.blackurbangrowers.org/,
7) http://saafon.org/,
8) https://nabsdivers.org/
9) https://goodfoods.coop/,
10) https://www.ballew-estates.org/
Inspirations
1) THE
GREAT TURNING
http://www.joannamacyfilm.org/
https://davidkorten.org/great-turning/origin-of-the-term/
https://www.ecoliteracy.org/article/great-turning
Joanna Macy: The Great
Turning is a shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining
civilization.
The term The Great Turning has come into
widespread use to describe the awakening of a higher level of human
consciousness and a human turn from an era of violence against people and
nature to a new era of peace, justice and environmental restoration. The ecological and social crises we face are caused by an
economic system dependent on accelerating growth. This self-destructing
political economy sets its goals and measures its performance in terms of
ever-increasing corporate profits—in other words by how fast materials can be
extracted from Earth and turned into consumer products, weapons, and waste.
A revolution is under way because people are realizing that our
needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge,
the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure
clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if
there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we
are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time
of the Great Turning. It is happening now.
Whether or not it is recognized by corporate-controlled media,
the Great Turning is a reality. Although we cannot know yet if it will take
hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know
that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of
countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger
context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage.
2) The Butterfly Story - A Metaphor for
Humanity in Crisis, as told by Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2g6Szzyo08
caterpillar can eat up to three
hundred times its own weight in a day, devastating many plants in the process,
continuing to eat until it’s so bloated that it hangs itself up and goes to
sleep, its skin hardening into a chrysalis. Then, within the chrysalis, within
the body of the dormant caterpillar, a new and very different kind of creature,
the butterfly, starts to form. This confused biologists for a long time. How
could a different genome plan exist within the caterpillar to form a different
creature? They knew that metamorphosis occurs in a number of insect species,
but it was not known until quite recently that nature did a lot of mixing and
matching of very different genome/protein configurations in early evolutionary
times. Cells with the butterfly genome were held as disclike aggregates of stem
cells that biologists call 'imaginal cells', hidden away inside the
caterpillar’ all its life, remaining undeveloped until the crisis of
overeating, fatigue and breakdown allows them to develop, gradually replacing
the caterpillar with a butterfly! Such metamorphosis makes a good
metaphor for the great changes globalisation, in the sense of world
transformation, is bringing about., as Norie Huddle first used it in her
beautiful book Butterfly. Our bloated old system is rapidly becoming defunct
while the vision of a new and very different society, long held by many
'imaginal cell' humans who dreamt of a better world, is now emerging like a
butterfly, representing our solutions to the crises of predation,
overconsumption and breakdown in a new way of living lightly on Earth, and of
seeing our human society not in the metaphors and models of mechanism as
well-oiled social machinery, but in those of evolving, self-organizing and
intelligent living organism. If you want a butterfly world, don't step on the
caterpillar, but join forces with other imaginal cells to build a better future
for all!
News Media Coverage of Jim Embry
Stella Natura-Great Work of Transforming
Stella Natura-Cup of Carver
Slow Food Equity, Inclusion and Justice Panel
Embry Pres entation on Food Sovereignty at the Parliament of Worlld Religions
Embry Biodynamics Journal Article November 2018
Berea College Presentation
https://www.kentucky.com/living/home-garden/article44613195.html
Celebrating Isaac Burns Murphy
October 19-24, 2015
A FULL WEEK OF CELEBRATION AND RECOGNITION!!! ·
Tuesday, October 20th, 6:30-7:30 pm
Public Talk at the
Lyric Theatre by Pellom McDaniels author of Prince of Jockeys: The Life of
Isaac Burns Murphy. A reception will follow the presentation. Exhibit will be
open in the Gallery. ·
Thursday, October 22nd, 2:00 pm
The KY Horse Park will unveil the newly engraved headstone
of Isaac Murphy with tributes to Murphy and Kentucky 's African American
horsemen. The ceremony will take place in the renamed Man O' War Isaac Burns
Murphy Memorial ·
Thursday, October 22nd 3:30p - 4:45p Interpretive Panel
Unveiling The Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden Board of Advisors will host the
unveiling of the interpretive signage installation at the site of the Isaac
Murphy Memorial Art Garden located at the intersections of Third and Midland.
The permanent panels describe the life of Isaac Burns Murphy, describe his home
site, recognize the contributions of other Black Jockeys and pays tribute to
those who have contributed to the racing industry. ·
IMMAG Concept Paper
Friday, October 23rd, 5:30-7:00 pm remarks by Frank Walker
with an opening reception for 'I Dedicate this Ride' will be held in the honor
of African Americans and their contributions to the equine industry. The
reception will take place at the Lyric Theatre from 5:30p-7p. 7pm Opening night
of 'I Dedicate this Ride' will take place following the reception and is
Pay-What-You-Can admission. Exhibit will be open in the Gallery. The University
of Kentucky Community Engagement Office is the presenting sponsor of the
evening. This FREE and open to the public event will highlight the
accomplishments of Frank X Walker, Dr. Pellom McDaniels, the Black Turf Project
crew, and the Mustang Troops. The evening is designed to stop and account for
the past, present, and future cultural and economic contributions these
individuals and groups have made to the local equine industry.
Saturday, October 24th, 10 am:
Murphy Family Memorial Dedication at African Cemetery No. 2
located at 7th and Chestnut Streets
Saturday, October 24th,7:00 pm 2nd performance of Frank
Walker's play 'I Dedicate this Ride' with Pay-What-You-Can admission price.
Exhibit will be open in the Gallery.
EXHIBITION in the Lyric Theatre Gallery by Pellom McDaniels
August 31, 2015 - December 11, 2015
Jim Embry speaks at
Somerset Community College
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/31/3968877/greenhouse-17-combines-gardening.html
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/07/3978382/from-familys-farm-land-jim-embry.html
You Are
Invited To Hear:
event Media Release
Event flyer
Jim Embry
Kentucky-based Environmental and Slow Food
Activist
Speak in Nashville
Terra Madre:
the global movement for food that is good, clean and
fair!!
Wednesday June 17, 6-8pm
West
End United Methodist Church at 2200 West End Avenue, Nashville
The Mapp/Embry Family of Kentucky and Tennessee in
Conjunction with Chef Martha Stamps (A Place at the Table)
Present
A Multi-generational Family Book Signing, Photo exhibit with
Presentations
With a Delicious Dinner
Wednesday 17 June 2015 6 PM – 8 PM
Dinner begins at 6 PM ($12 for adults, $6 for children under
10)
RSVP for dinner reservations: (615) 713-7094 and/or info@questionuniverse.com
The free presentations begin around 6:45 PM
West End United Methodist Church
2200 West End Avenue (across from Vanderbilt University)
Nashville, TN 37203
For
more information contact:
Irucka Embry, (615) 713-7094 and/or info@questionuniverse.com
Martha Stamps, 615-983-8850, info@marthastampscatering.com,
marthastampscatering.com
The evening program includes:
Twin brothers Irucka (Nashville) and Obiora Embry
(Lexington, KY); their mother, Dr. Deborah Mapp–Embry (Louisville, KY); their
aunt, Ivy Barksdale (Lexington, KY); their father, Jim Embry (Richmond, KY) and
their grandfather, James Mapp (Chattanooga) will read from and sign their
books. Jim Embry will also exhibit photographs from his travels to Terra Madre
and around Italy.
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Jim Embry USA Delegate to Terra Madre
On October 15th, Jim Embry presented "Terra Madre: A Blue Print for a Sustainable Future" to students, community members, ...
Watch this video: 2014 Salone del Gusto/Terra Madre Pre-view
This short video describes my local work:
KET Kentucky Life feature
Terra Madre Delegate: I have
been selected to represent the USA and KY as a delegate to Slo
w Food’s Terra Madre/Salone del Gusto held in Torino,
Italy, Oct. 23-27. In total, more than 500 people applied to be part of the US delegation,
but only 240 were chosen nationwide and five persons from Kentucky. So I am
absolutely thrilled and honored to be part of this delegation. Slow Food is an international movement that
involves
millions of people dedicated to and passionate about good, clean and fair food that includes chefs, youth, activists,
farmers, fishers, educators, musicians and business people in over 150
countries; a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members linked to 1,500 local
chapters worldwide, and 2,000 Terra Madre food communities who practice
small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.
Part of my role as a delegate from Kentucky is to
reach out around the state and share my experience with other. This is my way
of “taking my community with me”. These are my speaking engagements and outreach efforts:
Terra
Madre: A Blueprint for a Sustainable Future
speaking engagements by Jim Embry:
1) 10/1 UK Gaines Center Lafayette Seminars panel on local food. evening program and bios; Media coverage:
Series-to-teach-power-of-food, program-will-focus-on-food-justice
2) 10/ 14 Owensboro Unitarian Universalist Congregation
3) 10/15 Owensboro
Community and Technical College ( The students are all reading Joel Salatin's book, Folks, This Ain't Normal, and I have been invited to speak as a followup to the campus-wide reading and Joel's talk;
4) 10/16 Somerset Community and Technical College
1 November TBD-Berea
College; UK Design School; Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council; Growing
Power Small & Urban Farm Conference in Milwaukee. Invite me to speak to at schools, faith congregations,
community groups, civic clubs, or conferences.
Embry Terra Madre Promo Letter
Donate today
Help Send Jim Embry to Terra Madre
My Previous Efforts to Bring Terra Madre Home
Here are some examples of creative
support I have received from friends regarding my previous trip to Terra Madre:
In addition to Terra Madre/Salone
del Gusto check out the other grand projects of Slow Food such as:
For more information about Terra
Madre and Slow Food look at these books:
Slow
Food Companion Guide;
Slow
Food Almanac 2013;
The-Slow-Food-Story by Goeff Andrews; Terra Madre by Carlo
Petrini & Alice Waters.
**************
sustainlex.org Director Jim Embry featured on KET Kentucky Life show:
KET’s-Kentucky Life with Jim Embry.
Jim Embry BIO KET gardens show
Community Gardens with Jim Embry
For Jim Embry, a community garden is more than just a source of food
and beauty. He believes that gardening has the power to change the
world.
A social activist since his youth in the 1960s, Embry believes that
community gardening is the most important social movement in the
country. Through workshops, tours, presentations, and service projects,
Embry connects community gardeners—from the private and public sector—to
the earth and each other. Dave Shuffett visits with Embry in Lexington
and looks at several community gardens.
Community gardens are located in city parks as well as on school
grounds and even in road medians. Local governments promote community
gardens as a way to provide fresh food for low-income residents and to
beautify the area. Gardens also improve the environment: In Lexington, a
rain garden of trees and perennial flowers at Limestone, Vine and Main
streets catches rainwater.
Embry, who holds a degree in biology, served as executive director of
the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership in Detroit for four
years before returning to Kentucky in 2005. He has been a three-time
U.S. delegate to Terra Madre, a biannual gathering in Italy for members
of Slow Food International.
**************** *****
Embry Family Book Signiing and Art Exhibit
February 21 and 22, 2014 Lyric Theatre
On the third Friday and Saturday
of February, the Embry families of Central Kentucky and Tennessee are
hosting an event to remember! You (and your family) are invited
to attend the Embry Family Book Signing & Art Exhibit: 21st Century Thinking & Reimagining at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, KY.
On Friday, you can view photographs taken by father Jim and son Obiora Embry, and paintings by Bessie Johnson. Come back Saturday
to purchase books signed by authors Dr. Deborah Mapp-Embry and her two
sons Irucka Ajani and Obiora Embry. Along with their books,
a family cookbook will be sold, there will be performances by spoken
word artists Tiffany Bellfield and Vibration
Kunvorted and a musical performance by Vaughn Gillispie.
And you can continue to view the photographs and paintings.
When: Friday, 21 February 5-8 PM
(in conjunction with February Gallery Hop)
and
Saturday, 22 February 11:30 AM-3:00 PM
Where: Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center Multi Purpose Room
300 E. Third Street; Lexington, KY 40508
Slow Food Southern Region Meeting
www.facebook.com/SlowFoodSouthern
Slow Food Southeastern Region Leadership Conference Charlotte, NC January
24-26.
Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group
www.ssawg.org/2014-conference-program/
Our conference program is, as always,
loaded with practical information
Mar 12, 2012 ... Lexington Public Library presents an original documentary production on a historic African-American cemetery and the small band of ...
.
***************************************
Jim Embry award winner at Yale University
Unity-Award-Winner-at
Yale University
Key News Journal Embry on Local
Food Summit
Urban Farming Techniques Will Be Taught at Local Food
Summit
By Patrice K. Muhammad
Jim Enbry, Convener of The Bluegrass
Local Food Summit
Across
the United States, in urban cities in every state, people have returned to
growing and raising food for themselves as a means of employment and or
survival. All over the nation, Blacks have been at the forefront of the urban
farming movement and Lexington is no exception.
Jim
Embry has been educating people world wide and working to build gardens across
the Bluegrass since 1968.
“My
involvement with issues concerning food justice, healthy eating, and community
gardening goes back a least to 1968 when after attending Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.’s funeral and meeting Ernie Green of the Little Rock School
Integration movement, I was offered a summer job to work in New York City,”
Embry said. “It was there in Brooklyn that I was exposed to concepts that we
now call food deserts and food justice.”
Embry
will lead the 5th Annual Bluegrass Local Food Summit March
22-24 at Crestwood Christian Church 1882 Bellefonte Dr.
The Summit will attract local food growers,
elected and government officials, educators, institutions and other community
members to discuss the food system.
Local Blacks must attend this summit. Even if you
do not consider yourself a gardener, farmer or food activist, there is much to
learn and use during this event.
In 2008 Embry said in The Key Newsjournal that
though Blacks have historically been victims of discrimination and physical
abuse as a result of slavery one of the most damaging effects has been our
disconnection from Mother Earth. “Africans have a strong earth connection and
we must reconnect with that.”
Embry submitted the following when asked his most
inspirational stories of Blacks involved in the new food movement:
“Well the life and legacy of our
esteemed brother and most humble American scientist, Dr George W.
Carver, is my most inspirational story about participation in urban or
rural agriculture. All of the efforts that we see now for local food, organic food,
biodiversity, biodiesel for automobiles, sacredness of nature, eating healthy,
ALL of these directions of action and thinking is what Carver encouraged us to
do. If only we had listened! Now even though he pointed the way for what we are
doing now, he gets little if any credit for this good food movement.
“Now my other inspirational story is that of my
friend, Will Allen who founded Growing Power in Milwaukee [more than] 20 years
ago and regards himself as the George W. Carver of this century. I love this
brother because he is so humble, not afraid to get his hands in worms and
compost and yet can mix it up with the likes of President Obama and First
Lady Michelle.”
However, not all Blacks are on board with urban farming or even concerned about
their food. Embry said, “I feel that the major civil rights or human rights
issue of our time revolves around the food system. This globalized, unhealthy
and commodity-food based food system is what is killing us today. 80% of all
human diseases is food related and African American are negatively impacted the
most. So this should be an issue that is foremost in our minds but is is not.
We should be in the leadership of what Will Allen calls the Good Food
Revolution, but we are not! It is troublesome that we seem to have little
concern for something that is so devastating to us a people.”
Embry is looking forward to welcoming more Blacks
from Central Kentucky to the event this year. “Caring about food has spiritual,
economic, cultural incentives,” explains Embry. “On a spiritual, Christian,
Islamic and Jewish faiths have within the sacred texts passages about
humans being made from clay or dirt or what we call compost. Working to plant,
grow, harvest, eat and compost is all spiritual work. Economically we can save
money on food expenses by planting some of our own food. Culturally, we should
regard our bodies as temples and should then consume the kinds of foods
that are deserving of being in a temple. Eating is an agricultural act.
So since everyone eats then we should be concerned about our relationship with
food. I encouraged our [community] in Central KY to get involved in the good
food revolution, grow a garden and attend the Bluegrass Local Food Summit. This
Summit will provide inspirational speakers, workshops on gardening, composting,
films and much more.
Key Conversations Radio has partnered with Pepsi to sponsor a Rain
Barrel Workshop during the Summit on Saturday, March 24. Participants will
build a rain barrel and leave with it, ready to catch fresh water for
gardening. The $20 workshop cost will be a contribution to SustainLex.
For more information contact Jim Embry at
embryjim@gmail.com or see this workshop ad on page 12 of the march 1st issue of
the Key Newsjournal.
Short URL: http://keyconversationsradio.com/?p=3905
Jim Embry Black History Month Photo Exhibit
Ky. Voices: Ways to encourage sustainability,
creativity
Jim-Embry-2010-Garden-Crusader
Jim Embry,
Director of Sustainable Communities Network named
finalist in Education
believes that community
gardening is the most important social movement in the country. "The
climate is changing and that is because we are disconnected from the
Earth,"
he says. With a lifetime of experience as a social activist, Jim is now
working
to connect community gardeners to the earth — and to each
other.
"In the garden, adults and even very young children,
learn about patience
and discovery and not to be afraid. Gardens teach citizenship and
stewardship," he said. "For the last generation, the focus has been
on computer literacy; now it's time for the focus to be on
eco-literacy."
Read the full story: 1st Place: Jim
Embry, Lexington, KY
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