Our Collective

Earthseed Team Photo

Earthseed Land Collective Members (from left to right): Justin Robinson, Tahz Walker, Cristina Rivera Chapman, Zulayka Santiago, Courtney Woods, Santos Flores, Corre Robinson

MISSION: To remember and reimagine our relationship to ourselves, each other and the land in pursuit and practice of collective liberation.

WHAT WE BELIEVE: We believe that creating intergenerational relationships and skill sharing promotes and increases resourcefulness, community wellness, financial independence and self-determination for our current past and future generations. We believe that in cooperation and with analysis of systems of oppression we will create a center for economic liberation and environmental sustainability. 

We believe that lasting systems change and birthing just communities requires us as POC to trust and depend on each other in the face of oppression, fear and risk. We believe that trust is built when we are able to integrate the whole of who we are and to connect to others in their wholeness. Earthseed is a place and a practice to reclaim our cultural and community ways, further bolstering our movements and strategies for justice and equity. We do this by uplifting:

 

  • LIBERATED LAND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: Amplifying traditional agrarian foodways, and regenerative agriculture practices that are grounded in food sovereignty and agroecology as an accessible and essential alternative to the industrial food system.
  • CULTURE AND ART: Current anti-black anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence, compels us to elevate and center our ancestral wisdom, our cultures and our contributions to the world.  We are honored to host brilliant cultural workers and changemakers and provide a base for local and regional cultural organizing.
  • COOPERATION/CROSS-POLLINATION:  Creating spaces, strategies and structures for ourselves and broader communities that uphold collaborative culture, and practices rooted in: sharing power,  cooperation, and honoring interdependence. We continue our work to share key learning of struggle and success and as well as  provide space for the flourishing of other POC and women-led endeavors in our community to gather and share wisdom.
  • COMMUNITY SPACE: Increasing our support of and solidarity with aligned communities by strengthening our ability to grow, manage and share our beautiful, culturally-affirming, nature-centered indoor and outdoor structures. Offered at a sliding scale for convenings, events, organizers, retreats, and cultural & healing practice.
  • MUTUAL LEARNING: Sharing our model and expanding Earthseed’s capacity to practice and promote our strategies and structures for democratic control, cooperative ownership, and stewardship of land & conservation.

We are also deeply grateful to these four additional Founding Members who have moved on to pursue other dreams, and were instrumental in Earthseed’s flourishing:  Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Julia Sangodare Wallace, Kifu Faruq and Melanie Wilkerson.

Interdependent Projects connected to Earthseed Land Collective:

 

    • Tierra Negra Farm is a collective of farmers, educators and cultural workers, striving to model a community-controlled food system that is just and sustainable. We grow food and provide accessible classes and trainings for our communities in NC and beyond.
    • ETR Services, LLC is a small, HUB-certified business offering evaluation, technical assistance and research services to support programs that enhance educational outcomes, increase workforce participation, and improve social conditions, especially for those communities or populations in greatest need.
    • Libélula Consulting is focused on providing inspiration, instigation and support for projects focused on equity, social justice, and authentic community engagement.  We invest in the emergence of non-hierarchical, liberation-oriented organizational models within the nonprofit sector (and beyond)!
    • Durham Angoleirx is a capoeira angola cooperative committed to sharing in the practice of this afro-brazilian martial art. The group is comprised of multiple study groups that practice weekly, host workshops throughout the year and organize monthly rodas with the larger capoeira community.