My name is Manòn Voice and I am an artist, educator, community builder, and aspiring farmer. I am the great-granddaughter of Estella, who, during the great migration period of the 1940s, moved from rural Mississippi to Indianapolis with 13 children to escape the cruel life of sharecropping. The plantation owner would ration out groceries for them monthly; mostly consisting of molasses, salmon, rice, flour, and peanut butter meaning their food supply was in the hands of someone else. Although sharecropping was a brutal system that exploited their labor and agricultural wisdom, leaving them in poverty, they still managed to grow some of their own food. Learning these stories led me to become interested in the life of my ancestors and the agricultural heritage and wisdom we brought with us to America.
Three years ago, before the pandemic, I was sitting at the desk of the job I held at the time. I was living a few minutes away in a bustling downtown historic neighborhood that, a few years prior, was a dream situation. I couldn’t understand my wanting to return to the land, but during the pandemic, I moved out to a more rural area of Indiana. Around this same time, I taught at a youth summer camp which happened to be at the farm, Lawrence Gardens. I was teaching Hip-Hop through a lens of empowerment for Black and Brown youth, and as a part of the entrepreneurship unit, the students learned how to grow their own food and manage a farm stand. My intersection with this experience made the idea of food justice and food sovereignty very real to me.
The fellowship at Growing Places Indy has been the manifestation of many dreams coming together. My desire to return to the land as a source of healing and nourishment to both the spiritual and natural body. I am so grateful to be learning about farming while also thinking about how working with the land encourages a holistic practice of care for ourselves and the community. The mind and body practices that are integrated into this farming experience with my amazing cohort has brought so much joy, healing and expansiveness into my life.
Myself and my farm sister Shamira Wilson, who is also a a farming fellow in the program, have plans to work with the new Eskenazi Health Center on 38th and Arlington in supporting their garden as apart of our project with Growing Places Indy. As a continuation of our learning this year we have also been accepted into a week-long immersive program in Cuba, centering Afro-Caribbean agriculture and urban farming methods.
We are both passionate about not only practicing sustainable agricultural techniques —but also reclaiming and revitalizing a heritage deeply rooted in the land, while also addressing pressing local challenges around food apartheid and food access in marginalized communities.
This wonderful opportunity to participate in this Cuban Farming + Sustainability Program – will be a unique, immersive learning experience that provides hands-on opportunities to engage with community, culture, land stewardship, and ecology from an Afro-Caribbean-centered perspective with experienced program guides who live in Havana. This five-day immersive experience will explore topics such as urban farming, regenerative agriculture, issues of food apartheid, environmental racism, climate crisis, solutions to current food shortages, and more.
To learn more about how you can support please visit us at this link. Thank you!
