Media personality Wendy Williams describes a “fr

Media personality Wendy Williams describes a “friend in my head” as a celebrity that you’ve never met before but *if* you knew them they would be your friend. Well that is how I feel about Juliet Sargeant who made history in 2016 when she became the first Black woman to exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show where her Modern Slavery Garden was awarded a Gold Medal...
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Guess what y’all? On Thursday August 6th this designer, history maker, BOSS, actual factual Garden Royalty, and “friend in my head” will be presenting at Bare Lit, an annual London-based literature festival celebrating the work of writers of color. Juliet will be sharing a video on gardening and well being including plant care tips and it won’t even cost you!
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This year Bare Lit is blessing us with a free virtual event and we are all invited—well almost everyone—racists and haters y’all ain’t never invited (my words not their’s but someone’s gotta say it 🤷🏾‍♀️) Follow @bare.lit on Instagram or Facebook and subscribe to their YouTube channel so you don’t miss @julietsargeant or any of the action! http://barelitfestival.com

Atlanta is a place where I grew up taking Black le

Atlanta is a place where I grew up taking Black leadership and civil rights heroes for granted. To this day I ride by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s house, church, and tomb so much, I often pass-by without thinking about it. This sounds unbelievable but it was also very common to casually see John Lewis, CT Vivian, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Maynard Jackson, Julian Bond, and Andrew Young at the grocery store, airport, or around town in Southwest Atlanta.
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The loss of two civil rights legends in the same day—Dr. C.T. Vivian (left) and my Congressman John Lewis (right) deeply hurts. My parents knew both men and I have fond memories of watching these icons stop for a few minutes to chat with my Mama and Daddy in the street. They never rushed and were always generous with their time. If you are unfamiliar with these names do yourself the privilege of researching their contributions to the world.
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We love you both and you will be missed. They certainly don’t make them like y’all anymore ❤️

As I take a break from posting on social media for

As I take a break from posting on social media for awhile to focus, research, and write; I leave you with this gift. A true visual of what it looks to be a white, or non black person of color, ally or accomplice in the World of Plants. This is the face of Joel Elias Spingarn. He was a Columbia University professor, soldier, civil rights leader, horticulturist, clematis enthusiast, board member at New York Botanical Garden @NYBG, and a Jewish man that really was about that life ✊🏻✊🏾
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A man of action, Spingarn is most remembered for his role in the civil rights movement and active involvement with the @naacp. Here he worked to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
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He was one of the first leaders of the organization, served as Chairman of the Board, and actively involved in the NAACP until his death. Read the last part of that sentence again--UNTIL HIS DEATH. The work doesn't stop tomorrow y'all or even when 2020 (~finally~) ends. If you are with us then--be with us for life! So don't be scurred, be like Joel Elias Spingarn.
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This movement isn’t Black vs White. It is EVERYBODY vs RACISM. Let’s go!
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#ConquerTheSoil #IWillBeBack

I feel deep guilt that I can come up with thoughtf

I feel deep guilt that I can come up with thoughtful words when it comes to horticulture but my words aren't as succinct when it comes to social justice. This is one of the things I am working on in my life right now. Anyhoo, one of the influential black women I follow to learn from @luvvie says if you can't sing--then pass the mic!
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To celebrate what would have been Breonna Taylor's 27th birthday I am passing the mic and using the words written by my friend, attorney, entrepreneur, wife, and mother of a black son @candicesc1of1. The Conquer the Soil community will join voices across the world and #SAYHERNAME.
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We do this as part of the movement that calls attention to police violence against Black women, girls, and femmes, and demands that their stories be integrated into calls for justice, policy responses to police violence, and media representations of police brutality.
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Swipe 👉🏾 to read Candice's words and make time to research the names of women like: Pamela Turner, Sandra Bland, Korryn Gaines, Atatiana Jefferson and Shantel Davis; whose lives will not be forgotten. Oh and the video at the end shows how simple it is to write an email to help. I did it and so can you 💪🏾
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(images by @theblackgirltribe and @seethrunikki)

Hey y'all! I have been sent a lot of messages of s

Many white people have asked ways to support blac

Many white people have asked ways to support black voices in horticulture. Below is what happens when businesses start to put their money where their mouth is.
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Examples of white businesses with money, reach, and resources that have hired and/or contracted with me in this past year include @ndal_org @timberpress and my employer @longwoodgardens. This is how the money trickles down in real life:
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I am able to pay rent to my black landlord. I am able to cover travel costs for young entrepreneurs like Lelo of @outdoorfreshfarm and Chris of @gratitudebotanicalfarm. They got to visit me at Longwood and get inspiration and access to the global horticulture network I am supported by. I am able to support black horticulturists that have supported me like @soulspiritfarmers by purchasing tickets to their online event.
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It has allowed me in the past to spend money with black businesses and creatives like @creativegeniuslaw and @moni_artist and @execonthego. I have been able to pay for consultation services to women of color in business like @ruchi.a.arora and @justshopboutique for assistance on creating garden apparel.
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It allows me to reach black women in horticulture like Teri @cottageincourt and Perla of @agrochic an Afro-Latina who I partnered with to speak in Salt Lake City. I used dollars to travel to New York and support @wambuilovesplants. The horticulture workshop Wambui put together included black academics like Kobinah Abdul-Salim, black women business owner @malaikaadero and garden royalty @shaun.hester. I was able to use Longwood's dollars to travel and work in France and consult with Dedie of @blackparistours. I established a relationship with, Henri Carvallo, owner of @chateauvillandry about working with Shaun on an exhibiton (still gonna make it happen Shaun--COVID wouldn't let us be great this year 😩) And I invested in better understanding my “why” with black academics like @marctothec.
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These are people you too can follow. Invest money and resources in them. If you don't have the money please offer the eyes and ears. Lead people to our pages to expand our platform. When you invest in us--we invest in us!
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#conquerthesoil #invest

I had a great conversation last week with my colle

I had a great conversation last week with my colleague Jen @jenny_faz and we discussed using words, and not just words of black trauma, to have uncomfortable conversations to dismantle racism in the public garden industry. Jen was looking for words beyond our pain--because she correctly recognized the black experience is a very rich one and so much more than just pain.
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Children's writer and Harlem Renaissance icon Effie Lee Newsome did just this. She consistently used nature as the backdrop to show racial solidarity and help black and brown children build self pride to manage the inevitable systemic prejudice that came their way. I am not naive. I know a poem does not dismantle racism, but words and actions are a start.
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To my white colleagues, friends, and community that ask "why should I use my platform, or my voice, or my time, or money to fight for black and brown and people of color?" May Newsome's words, written for children almost 100 years ago to counter racism, inspire you to see our value and find a way to act. If for no other reason reflect on the first and last lines of her poem. Think of the infinite gifts black culture has given to the world and all the mighty things we have left to do!
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The Bronze Legacy
(To a Brown Boy)
By: Effie Lee Newsome
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’Tis a noble gift to be brown, all brown,
Like the strongest things that make up this earth,
Like the mountains grave and grand,
Even like the very land,
Even like the trunks of trees—
Even oaks, to be like these!
God builds His strength in bronze.
To be brown like thrush and lark!
Like the subtle wren so dark!
Nay, the king of beasts wears brown;
Eagles are of this same hue.
I thank God, then, I am brown.
Brown has mighty things to do.
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Art by the incomparable Loïs Mailou Jones #conquerthesoil #EffieLeeNewsome #LoïsMailouJones #BlackLivesMatter

Out of words. Out of patience. There really is no

Out of words. Out of patience. There really is no end to this violence is there?...
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My sweet “adopted” family in Villandry, France calls to check on me nearly every week. Between guns, racism, police brutality, coronavirus, and that monster Trump they worry about my safety in the United States. I do too.
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🌹Breonna Taylor. 🌹 George Floyd. Say their name.

Today is the start of National Public Gardens week

Today is the start of National Public Gardens week which runs from May 8th - 17th. I especially care because I work for one; Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, PA (and I’ll share those adventures later.) However, please allow me to bless your timeline with the story of someone who deserves to be celebrated all week long—Mr. Malcolm J. Stubblefield...
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He attended Iowa State College which we know today as Iowa State University. Here, Stubblefield was a graduate of the College of Agriculture and studied landscape gardening. Shout out to all you Cyclones 🌪
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Stubblefield later took his plant skills and headed east, to the Boogie Down Bronx. During the mid to late 1930s, he was a gardener and horticulturist who was largely responsible for the beautiful appearance of a place that needs no introduction...none other than thee New York Botanical Garden (NYBG.)
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Iowan, Plant Hero, one of NYBG’s finest, and uncontested OG in the world of public gardens—give it up one time—issa long overdue toast y’all 🥂to Malcolm Jerome Stubblefield! Let’s re-write public garden history today and give this man his flowers.
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@isu_hort @iowastateu @NYBG @AmericanPublicGardens #NationalPublicGardensWeek #PublicGardens #ConquerTheSoil #GardenHistory #BlackHistory #Horticulturist #Gardener #NPGW2020 #OurGardensYourHome

I hate having to post this. It is infuriating and

I hate having to post this. It is infuriating and exhausting. All I want to do is write and share cool stories about horticulture. However, I am black and black skin is weaponized the world over. I don’t have the luxury of not speaking up.
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This flag once hung outside the headquarters of the NAACP in New York City when a lynching took place. The flag demanded that people bear some form of witness to the racist murders taking place in this country. I post it today as a reminder ALL OF US bear witness to the systemic an incessant racism in the U.S.A.
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In late February, Ahmad Aubrey, a 25 year old unarmed black man who was out jogging and minding his own business, was falsely assumed to be a criminal. He was hunted down like an animal in a pickup truck by two white men with a shotgun, 34-year-old Travis McMichael, and his father, 64-year-old Gregory McMichael. It was a modern day lynching.
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This happened in my home state of Georgia. The murderers sit at their house to this day, unbothered, as they have not been arrested. The “President” of the United States, Donald Trump and the “Governor” of Georgia, Brian Kemp are racists monsters. I have zero faith the American legal justice system will prosecute and convict the two monsters that murdered Aubrey. I hurt for his family as this could have been my own brother Christopher. He is a black man that likes to go for a jog on a nice day too. I pray to God he is not next—but he very well could be. And this breaks my heart.

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Abra Lee

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