MICHIGAN--Battle Creek is shedding some light on a fading resource in rural America -- African American farmers -- and hosting a national public figure, all during a conversation on food and culture.
The community is invited to the event "Rural Farming to Urban Gardening," an evening of conversation and images on food and farming. It begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday with 58 print photos from the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture. Then at 6 p.m., a discussion will be held on nutrition, food safety and childhood obesity.
The featured speaker is Shirley Sherrod, a former Kellogg National Leadership Program Fellow and former Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sherrod is expected to speak on her 40 years of experience working on farm bills to improve the lives of the rural poor.
Sherrod made the national news in July when she was forced to resign from her top job at the USDA after blogger Andrew Breitbart posted video excerpts of Sherrod's address at an event, prompting government officials to call for her resignation over speculation that she had made racist comments. After a complete review of the unedited video, which was recorded at an NAACP event, the same government officials found the statements were taken out of context. They later apologized and offered her a new high-level position, which she turned down.
Other speakers during the event include Michigan farmers Peggy Kohring and Barbara Norman.
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the National Resource Center for Racial Healing have teamed up to present this exhibit and presentation to the community.
"The opportunity to have this exhibit is rare, and for us to share it with the community is great," said Reggie LaGrand, director of Battle Creek programming for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "And this is showing that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is more than a resource beyond the funding, but we're showing that we're able to share a resource of some rare history that we're fortunate enough to be exposed to."
Its title, "Distant Echoes: Black Farmers in America," features work by famous photojournalist John Francis Ficara.
The exhibit depicts the lives and working conditions of black family farmers throughout the United States that are slowly disappearing from the American landscape.
According to a press release, the exhibit captures signs of adversity, endurance poverty and self-determination of the crop, cattle, chicken and sugarcane farmers, among others.
"It does a wonderful job of showing the challenges and struggles throughout history of the black farmer," LaGrand said. "The pictures are very moving, and they help you hear their stories."
Sharon Davis, director of the National Resource Center for Healing Racism, said the community's response about the exhibit and discussion has been a positive one.
"This is such a rare chance to get out good information and share with people more about our farming family," Davis said.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Sunday, November 28th 2010 at 5:04PM
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