Photo via Cherry Street Community Garden - Facebook
Cherry Street Garden sign
A “Gardeners’ Summit” will be held on Saturday, June 1 from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. at a community garden on Milwaukee’s West Side. The event at Antoine’s Garden, 2532 N. 39th Street, will be hosted by participants of several nearby urban gardens.
The program will feature gardeners telling stories about their gardens and histories. An announcement for the event invites participants to “connect with community gardeners who nurture, maintain, and care for our world. We will remember the past, mark the present, and dream of a just future together.”
The summit will focus on remembering ancestors who gardened, including the role of gardens and gardening in individuals’ family and cultural lives. Storytelling topics will include rewards of gardening, strategies for maintaining gardens, and how “joy and justice” are related to gardening.
Gardeners presenting stories will be from Cherry Street Community Garden, Unity Orchard, Walnut Hill Community Garden and Washington Park Art Garden.
Expressing Gratitude
Arijit Sen, one of the event’s organizers, said, “We are gathering to express our gratitude and acknowledge our ancestors and the shoulders we are standing on. Only by remembering our past can we dream of a better future.” Sen is an associate professor of history and urban studies at University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Other organizers include Cheri Fuqua, Camille Mays, Rosalind Cox, Angela Pruitt, and Lisa and Rick Roszkowski, who are hands-on gardeners.
The event, open to the public, is part of an ongoing project called “That Unfinished Work: Collecting Stories of Ordinary People” and the “Climates of Inequity” national traveling exhibition curated by the Humanities Action Lab. That exhibit is on display at the Milwaukee County Historical Society through Friday, May 31.
Climates of Inequality is a project of the Humanities Action Lab, a coalition of universities, issue-based organizations, and public spaces led by Rutgers University-Newark that collaborate to produce community-curated public humanities projects on urgent social issues. Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice was created by over 500 students, scholars, and advocates from 23 frontline communities around the world who have contributed the least to the climate crisis, yet bear its heaviest burdens. From Los Angeles to Puerto Rico to Milwaukee to Mexico City, these portraits expose the roots of current environmental injustice and address how past inequalities can inform future solutions in the fight for environmental justice.
Websites: mkeejlab.weebly.com
Climates of Inequality: climatesofinequality.org
