Freedom: Land and Abolition
Save the date!
Sunday November 14, 10am-6pm
House of Manna Faith Community
7240 Frankstown Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Celebrating Black Urban Farmers, the Movement to End Mass Incarceration, and the 10th Anniversary of Ecosocialist Horizons!
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: On Sunday November 14, movement leaders from around the country and around the world will converge with the Black Urban Farmers and Gardeners Co-Op (BUGS) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ecosocialist Horizons. A program of food and music and fellowship will bring together the movement of community-gardens with the movement to abolish mass incarceration, to the rhythms and harmonies of musicians from Tanzania, Mexico, and the United States.
This convergence aspires to reunite two strong social movements – urban farming, and abolition.
Our struggles to abolish the police state and to reclaim urban land for organic agriculture converge on what we call the “ecosocialist horizon.” We understand Ecosocialism as a vision of revolutionary transformation which emerges from the unity of our struggles to free the land and our communities from racial, patriarchal, and economic oppression.
For the last 10 years, we have been organizing convergences to advance diverse struggles toward this ecosocialist horizon — from Glover, Vermont (2012) to Northampton, Massachusetts (2012) to Troy, New York (2013) to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2014) to Jackson, Mississippi (2018). Following the “Mosaic convergence” which was organized in Homewood in 2014, part of our day’s celebration will be harvesting this year’s remaining crops and planting garlic in these gardens.
How do we define freedom? For centuries people have asked and struggled for answers. There is ‘freedom from’ – from oppression, exploitation, abuse. And there is ‘freedom to’ – to love, to worship, to dress, to live and work and raise our children. Freedom has these two sides; to be free from what harms us and to be free to do what helps us – we need both to be free. And so we converge for Abolition – to abolish the oppressive institutions and systems which exploit us – and for Land – to build the beloved communities and honor the Earth which nurture us. Help us define freedom by connecting the dots between your blocks and the biosphere, between justice for your immediate family and the sacred hoop which all our relations once shared. We aspire to build on a legacy of struggle and celebration, stretching from the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island to the Underground Railroad; from the maroon communities throughout the Americas to the Black Panther Party and MOVE; and from generations of community gardeners fighting food apartheid today to the global ecosocialist movement.
We will also be celebrating the recent release of US-held political prisoner and ecosocialist Russell Maroon Shoatz!
The full day program on November 14 will include a tour and workday in the urban gardens in Homewood, Pittsburgh, and include as speakers and presenters Kempis “Ghani” Songster (Abolitionist and Program Manager of the Youth, Art and Self Empowerment Project), representatives of the North Philly Peace Park, Mama Uhuru Sasa, and many others.
Performers will include the legendary musician and educator, Charlotte Hill O’Neal, an alum of the Kansas City chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1969 and a longtime community organizer based in Tanzania. She will perform together with the ASCAP award-winning Afro Yaqui Music Collective.
The event is open to the public but RSVP’s and a proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-test in the prior week are required to attend.
If you would like to attend in person, please contact us at 10thAnniversary@afroyaquimusiccollective.com by Thursday, November 11th.
