“From Suriname to Cayenne and across the Amazon to the Brazilian states of Amapá, Pará and Maranhão, an oral tradition claims that an African woman introduced rice by hiding grains in her hair. The precious seeds escaped detection and this, they explain, is how rice came to be planted.”
Seeds are symbols of hope, carries of life and potential, and from enslavement to capitalism, Black folks use seed saving as method resistance. And each seed, like the grains of rice in a Black woman's hair, tells a story. The same way we save our seeds, saving our stories, our histories, is an act of hope, a passing on of life and potential. It is an act of resistance.
What stories do you carry with you, tucked into the coils of your heart or folded quietly against your heart?
The first Saving Seeds, Saving Stories event was held in collaboration with Greensgrow Farm, Truelove Seeds and Chronicling Resistance, an archival and exhibitions project and fellowship program of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL). Chronicling Resistance provides local activists and artists (like our own Director and Culinary Curator!) access to various archives to amplify stories of resistance in Philadelphia and preserve records of today’s acts of resistance.
OMK will continue to partner with POC-led, spiritually rooted farms and growers to host Saving Seeds, Saving Stories events throughout the 2022-2023 season. If you are interested in partnering, please reach out to us!