Keynote Speaker - Dr. Chérie N. Rivers (Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Chérie N. Rivers is a writer, teacher, and Black womanist farmer. She is founder and director of Uzuri Sanctuary, an educational biodynamic farm that integrates the legacy of freedom farming with Black and indigenous earth practices. The aim of the sanctuary is to cultivate a just relationship with the natural world by growing knowledge, health, community, and ritual, as well as food. To that end, it offers courses, internships, and other forms of guided land-based learning.
Principles and practices of Black and indigenous ecologies are also at the heart of Rivers’ scholarly work. As an associate professor of Geography and Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she teaches courses—including Freedom Farming, Beyond Sustainability, and Liberation Geographies—that integrate land-based service learning with conceptual studies of decolonial geography. She has published books and articles about how colonial legacies continue to normalize social, political, and ecological violence, including her recent book, To Be Nsala’s Daughter: Decomposing the Colonial Gaze and her award-winning monograph Necessary Noise: Music, Film, and Charitable Imperialism in the East of Congo.
Her current book, Sustenance, is a cross-pollination between her work as a writer, teacher, and farmer. In the context of escalating ecological challenges, it pursues two deceptively simple questions: what do we actually want to sustain? And what actually sustains us? By way of answer, Sustenance integrates historic and theoretical content from her land-based courses with practical strategies for cultivating more reciprocal relationships with the earth.
Welcome Address - Dr. Crystal A. Felima (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky) - Friday February 23rd at 1 PM at Worsham Cinema (University of Kentucky, Gatton Student Center)
Scholar Activist Panel - Friday February 23rd at 1:15 PM at Worsham Cinema (University of Kentucky, Gatton Student Center)
Moderator: Chris Keeve
Biography: Chris Keeve is a seedkeeper, chaotic gardener, and PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Kentucky. Their work is primarily about seed saving and agrobiodiversity conservation—the things that people do (or don't do) with seeds, and the things that seeds may or may not do on their own. They grow and work collaboratively with radical seed networks based in the U.S., organizing around visions of food and land justice.
Panelist: Jared Hamilton
Biography: Jared Hamilton is a documentary-style photographer and videographer from Pikeville, KY. Jared is a community organizer and activist. They are a founding member and the chairman of the board for M.A.R.S. Collective. The Collective hosts live local music and various workshops based on top of Pine Mountain at Wiley's Last Resort. Their personal artistic practice includes filmmaking as well as digital and analog photography. Jared's projects are commonly based in Appalachia such as the film Mighty Harlan County and their zine series Familiar Paths. In recent months Jared has been documenting their own health struggles with Multiple Sclerosis with their latest project LESIONS. Jared strives to create work that feels vulnerable and accessible. In most of their work there is a deep personal connection to the topic. Jared tries to simply and honestly share the stories they see in the world around them.
Panelist: Eboni Neal Cochran
Biography: Eboni Neal Cochran is a resident of the Chickasaw area, one of several neighborhoods adjacent to a cluster of chemical facilities commonly referred to as Rubbertown. She is a member of REACT (Rubbertown Emergency ACTion), an all-volunteer grassroots organization of residents living at or near the fence line of Rubbertown. REACT is fighting for: Strong laws to stop toxic air pollution from chemical plants; the protection of residents in the event of a leak, fire or explosion in a chemical plant or railcar; and full disclosure and easy access to information concerning the impact of Rubbertown on residents living nearby
Panelist: Emma Davis Anderson
Emma is a lifelong Kentuckian who has decided to stay and fight to make KY a place where her people can thrive. She is the Lexington organizer with KY Tenants and she believes tenant organizing is essential to build the future we want to see. She has been radicalized by tenant organizing: the dehumanization of being a tenant combined with the humanity of building trust with her neighbors, learning to be honest, and learning to hold people accountable with love. Being developed as a leader, through organizing, has changed the way she shows up in the world: she wants all of us struggling down here to have the chance to organize!