AYA announces its 2019 Black Building Love awardees: Whitney Jaye and Brandon Stephens. If you know AYA, you know that we see everything through the Warrior-Healer-Builder lens. Everyone, it seems, lifts our warrior or healer selves and efforts. The builder in us and in our community (including growers) often are an afterthought or are taken for granted. Let’s change that. Help us lift up this couple's efforts to build family, farm, and businesses that serve our people - first. Comment below, and come out on Saturday night to celebrate Black building love.
www.blacklovedinner.com
www.blacklovedinner.com
Building To Revere Our Ancestors
“I wanted to kick it with her,” said Brandon, so I had to get my process together. Less than a month before they had met at an OutdoorAfro Backcountry Camping event where Whitney had critiqued Brandon’s growing process. Brandon’s craft was hydroponics, Whitney had a more traditional approach to food - ‘good food grows in the soil.’ He was used to people being suspect of hydroponics, but he couldn’t shake one criticism. “Using that material, it’s just not sustainable,” she said.
That material was Rockwool which is not biodegradable. Brandon was a little messed up about it. It took him a month, but he conceded that she was right, and now was trying to revamp his process to reach a sustainability standard and maybe a little more.
Ready now, he arranged to meet Whitney at Mrs. D’s in the West End. Brandon said he wanted to talk farm stuff. Whitney thought he wanted to get plugged in with the Black farming community in Atlanta that she knew very well. Back and forth, their farming conversation became a marathon moving from Mrs. D’s to Healthful Essence; then to Tassili’s, 95th Street Tacos, Bakari’s Pizza, and Q-Time. For that evening, Black-owned food had become the plate upon which their burgeoning relationship was served. They suspected but didn’t know that Black-owned food - farming and service would be their plate for times to come.
Between sustainability and Black farming, Whitney had seen him. “He had a strong vision - and wanted to
If their aligned visions were their wings, their histories were their roots. Both of them hail from families with long, deep roots in the southern soil. Whitney is a proud Coastal Carolinian who can't imagine herself living a purposeful life that's not land-based. She says that nothing she can do is in alignment without land. For her, it's a form of ancestral reverence, it’s the deepest calling.
Brandon’s family hails from Greene and Warren Counties, east of Atlanta. Farming was always around him. His grandfather gardening meant extra hands were always needed. His grandparents, parents, and aunt pulled their resources to buy the 8 acres land that he and Whitney have now turned into Semente Farms.
Brandon and Whitney have decided to raise their dreams on these ancestral acres. Brandon admits, "It hasn’t always been rosy; the work of getting a farm into production and building a marriage to sustain it is challenging work.
Whitney says, “ We approach conflict head on - the only way to solve it is to face it. “Jumping in, saying here is exactly what I'm feeling, and being committed to listening is how we deal with conflict and still tend to each other's needs.” For Brandon, the ability to be self-sufficient makes it all worthwhile.
Healing and building on the land which our ancestors walked nurtures their love for each other. In turn, their love nourishes the community. Semente Farm is a place for us!
We are grateful for their work - the Building Love and invite you to join us in uplifting this power couple! Doing so uplifts the builders in us all.
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