When seeking pitches for the inaugural Land, Food, and Freedom Journal, we settled on a theme of food as resistance. Practicing the literal meaning of liberation, we opted not to define this topic further. We wanted to see what could happen when we release control and allow space for contributors’ agency.
The land stewards, storytellers, artists, academics, freedom fighters, and earth lovers featured in this issue delivered time-bending works that encourage readers to disconnect from fast-paced approaches to Black sovereignty and engage with the time it takes to understand, practice, and implement freedom work. The payoff is more than an inspirational journal; this publication offers a space for contributors to foster leadership and organize Black communities to strive toward liberated systems.
The features in this publication go against the grain. Articles dive deep, rejecting the notion of urgency, and slowly dissect how historic and present-day leaders work toward Black food sovereignty. The stories in this journal command stillness to absorb how ancestors anchored their work in the needs of the community. One artist submitted paintings and sculptures that thematically use pineapples as a healing mechanism for trauma. The creators we present in these pages lean on layers of history, Afrofuturism, culinary justice, unearthed lineages, and learnings to rally and invigorate Black folks in this quest for liberation.
To design this journal, we worked with Àrokò, a cooperative that describes their mission as creating in service of freedom to promote communal prosperity. They carefully selected typefaces made by Black designers to showcase the written features in this publication. The Black Agrarian Bulletin in this journal features replica patterns inspired by the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, skillfully incorporated onto the pages by this team.
We aim for the messages in this journal to move beyond the page and guide us all toward Black food sovereignty and liberation. We are deeply grateful to you for joining us in this movement.
