Malik Black led us through a workshop to build raised garden beds as we prepare for our second season of growing food at the Good Soil Garden in Durham.
Photos above by Sofia Aldinio; photos below by Malik Black
We partnered with Nibezun, a cultural, healing, & sustainability organization based on ancestral Wabanaki lands along the Penobscot River. “Nibezun” means medicine in the Penobscot language. The root word “nibi” – or water – is our first medicine.
Food sovereignty advocate Jazz Thompson-Tintor led us on a walk through the woods where we foraged for nettles, trout lily, fiddleheads, and dandelion, then prepared a meal together of moose meatballs, cream of fiddlehead, a salad with wild edibles, and acorn flour cookies (acorn flour connecting us back to Parable of the Sower).
It felt grounding, connecting, & safe to be in community with fellow Black & Brown people coming together across different geographical roots & lineages, and it was an honor to be welcomed as guests on Penobscot territory, building relationships with one another, learning from the land’s wisdom, remembering how to be in right relationship with nature. Despite colonization's best efforts to disconnect us from our ancestral lineages and from each other, on a day like this, we’re so grateful, reinvigorated, reconnected through this experience, and we’re reminded that we have each other as we move toward ensuring justice and sovereignty for all people everywhere.
Photos by Nolan Altvater
Under the guidance of Kiran Chapman of Soma Metalwork, we immersed ourselves in the art of blacksmithing as part of our Radical Nourishment series.
Learning skills like blacksmithing is not just about survival. It's about reclaiming our independence from a capitalist system. Crafting bespoke tools tailored to individual needs is both empowering and essential.
Through craftsmanship, we tapped into our resilience and reminded ourselves that we have the power to shape our communities.
Photos by Sofia Aldinio
It is a really difficult, grief- and anger-filled time for communities of color in Maine and around the world as we witness and are affected by mass-violence on multiple scales. Given all that, it was an immense gift to spend this weekend fishing, sharing, and dreaming in our Radical Nourishment space.
In the Parable of the Sower, Lauren Olamina learns that to survive, we need land, water, and each other. We had all three this weekend, and a whole lot of love for it all. As someone said in our discussion, white supremacy tricks us into thinking we are separate from the land and water around us, or that it’s better off untouched by humans – but we can and must find our right relationship with nature to sustain health ecosystems. For some of us, this is knowledge that’s been carried through generations of survivors; for others, it’s skills that our parents fought so we wouldn’t have to learn, but can learn by choice; and for others, it’s something we’ve deeply craved but been severed from for most of our lives. When we gather like this, we can learn from one another and support each other’s healing, reclaim these traditions together.
Thank you so much Tony for sharing your encyclopedic knowledge of fishing with us, you were an incredible teacher and this wouldn’t have happened without you!
This space felt like a utopia, but should just be what life is like. We can’t wait until the next time we come together. Look out for future workshops on fire-building, foraging, and maybe even metal working!
Photos by Stacey Tran
Congress Square Park, Portland, ME
Photos by Savanna Pettengill
Good Soil was the first event in Radical Nourishment: Food, Soul & Community for the Future, a series of gatherings designed by and for BIPOC organizers to deepen our connections with each other, our relationship with the land around us, and the power we need to survive and transform the conditions we are rooted in.
We transformed a pile of fresh dirt into a magnificent, bewitching, and chaotic garden. We planted tomatoes, marigolds, cherries, kale, potatoes, broccoli, amaranth, chamomile, thistle, thyme, and more types of basil than we knew existed. We learned how to build trellises out of sticks and twine. Some of us shared knowledge we'd been building for decades, and some of us stuck our toes into the dirt for the very first time. We did it all while trusting each other and the process, letting change and adaptation light the way.
We talked about what it means to be Black & Brown on Wabanaki land, looking for relationships with each other and the land built on mutuality and truth, interdependence and community. This garden is ours to continue tending and growing.
Photos by Krystle Maestas
Tender Table was featured in Maine Mag. Text and photos by Coco McCracken.
Congress Square Park, Portland, ME
This was a celebration of Black and Brown joy and community featuring local food and drinks by Công Tử Bột, Yardie Ting, MARI: A Mini Bakery, Moonday Coffee, Little Easy Snoballs; art for sale by Jenny Ibsen, Future Juju, A Clearing, Loquat, Fireball Bookbindery; music performance by Kafari; tarot readings by LaLa Drew; a braiding circle facilitated by Veronica A. Perez; and a family-friendly art corner hosted by Love Lab Studio.
We’re so grateful for the support from our generous sponsors: Friends of Congress Square Park, the Portland Food Co-Op, Maine Initiatives, Maine Writers and Publishers, Portland Museum of Art, Maine College of Art and Design, FUBU Fund, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and SPACE.
Photos by Christian Kayiteshonga
Photo Credit: Julien Coyne
Tender Table was interviewed by SPACE intern Kilston-T’Naya Lee.
Photo Credit: Brianna Soukup
Tender Table was featured in the Portland Press Herald. Written by Tim Cebula.
Photo Credit: Julien Coyne
Tender Table is mentioned in this personal essay by Coco McCracken in Moonglade, Amjambo's monthly feature from the Asian Diaspora community.
Fort Sumner Park, Portland, ME
“Swish in the mush and gush of the journey to your destination!” This and other blossoming wisdom planted by Maya Williams carried us through a breezy afternoon of poetry and conversation about what we stay alive for.
Thanks to Maya for their words, Jenny Ibsen for these postcards, and everyone who came and held the space for each other to sit in 🌹
Thank you to our friends in the community who helped make this event possible! Flowers from Bumbleroot Organic Farm; vases from Plant/Office
Photos by Julien Coyne
Eastern Prom, Portland, ME
We are still so full of gratitude from our Strawberry Supermoon celebration last month! We slowed down to make new connections, witness the sunset, and contemplate our gratitude for the places where we feel full, guided by delightful prompts from our friend Samaa Abdurraqib.
What does it mean to feel full like the moon? Even parts of ourselves — just a hand, a belly, a mind, a mouth — can know this feeling, can lead us closer to the soft chaos amplifying the sky. We described it as bellies full of strawberries meeting minds full of questions; hearts full of love meeting mouths full of wisdom; images of fullness filling up our consciousness so we all became full with each other, full of each other's questions and wisdom.
We left wanting to return, to keep getting to know the full moon and each other... look out for future full moon picnics with Tender Table!
Thank you to our friends in the community who helped make this event possible! Flowers from Bumbleroot Organic Farm; vases from Plant/Office
Photos by Julien Coyne
Congress Square Park, Portland, ME
Photo Credit: Coco McCracken
This was a celebration of Black and Brown joy, featuring food and drinks by Dream Sweets, Onggi, Penny’s BBQ Chicken, Siblings; poetry by Samaa Abdurraqib, Sarah Williams, Signature MiMi, Black Trans Girl in Maine; music by Kafari; Beautiful Blackbird, a reading corner by Indigo Arts Alliance; an arts corner by Love Lab Studio.
This event was sponsored by Friends of Congress Square Park, the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Portland Food Co-Op, and SPACE Gallery, in partnership with the Lunder Institute for American Art.
McCormack Theater, Providence, RI
Sara Elise is an entrepreneur and wellness advocate residing in Brooklyn, NY. As a transplant to one of New York City’s major food deserts, Sara was inspired to help transform her community’s relationship to affordable, locally sourced foods.
While working in Private Wealth Management after business school, Sara started to explore food as a tool for self-care and healing. Through this exploration, Sara began hosting “Seasonal Tasting Events,” an invitation for community members to experience an authentically rustic, slow, and organic relationship to the crops harvested for the empowerment and reclamation of self, and community. Continuing with the mission of using all natural, organic, locally sourced, and seasonal ingredients- Sara would grow to found Bed Stuy Kitchen in 2012- reborn as Harvest & Revel in 2016.
With her background in both financial services and personal nutrition & wellness, Sara and her team at Harvest & Revel are helping their clients, and community, elevate to their fullest selves- one nutritious meal, and conversation, at a time.
McCormack Theater, Providence, RI
Sussy Santana is a poet, performer, and cultural organizer born in the Dominican Republic. Her work explores the bi-cultural and bilingual experience through text and performance. Santana is the author of several poetry collections, and her poems have been featured in various anthologies and magazines. Santana is a 2015 MacColl Johnson Fellowship recipient, the first Latina writer to win the distinction. In February, 2020 she was selected by The City of Providence and the Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism as one of five artists to participate in the Creative Community Health Worker Fellowship, a new pilot training in Artist Facilitation and Community Health Work. www.sussysantana.com
McCormack Theater, Providence, RI
Valerie Tutson is a multiple award-winning storyteller who has been performing in schools, churches, libraries, festivals and conferences since 1991. She draws her stories from around the world with an emphasis on African traditions. Her repertoire includes stories and songs she learned in her travels to South Africa, her experiences in West Africa and stories from African American history. She is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a Masters degree in theater arts and a BA in her self-designed major of Storytelling as a Communications Art.