Earth-Listening
with Leah Penniman
“We are all mutually bound up with one another and our beyond human kin. We have an obligation of care that goes beyond just the material need to conserve resources, and is really about something much more deep and profound. ”
In this conversation between Taya Mâ & Leah Penniman, Leah invites us to bring attention to our connection with the natural world as a sacred practice. Leah speaks of what it means to be kincentric and to farm with all life in mind, and to their experiences of attuning to their ancestral ways and Black Earth Wisdom.
How do you earth-listen?
What supports you attuning to earth wisdom?
Leah Penniman
Leah Penniman (all pronouns) is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY, which she co-founded in 2010 with the mission to end racism in the food system and to reclaim ancestral connection to land. As Co-ED and Farm Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs - including farmer training for Black & Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. The work of Leah and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright, Heinz Prize, Pritzker Environmental Genius Award, Grist 50, and James Beard Leadership Award, among others. Leah is an African Traditional Priest (Awo/Olorisa/Manye) and has been a lay leader and Torah reader at Berith Sholom Congregation, Troy NY since 2005. Leah’s books, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023) are love songs for the land and her people.