We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy

by Natalie Baszile

Overview

A WALL STREET JOURNAL FAVORITE FOOD BOOK OF THE EAR

From the author of Queen Sugar—now a critically acclaimed series on OWN directed by Ava Duvernay—comes a beautiful exploration and celebration of black farming in America. 

In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers’ personal experiences. In their own words, middle aged and elderly black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The "Returning Generation"—young farmers, who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations. 

These farmers are joined by other influential voices, including noted historians Analena Hope Hassberg and Pete Daniel, and award-winning author Clyde W. Ford, who considers the arrival of Africans to American shores; and James Beard Award-winning writers and Michael Twitty, reflects on black culinary tradition and its African roots. Poetry and inspirational quotes are woven into these diverse narratives, adding richness and texture, as well as stunning four-color photographs from photographers Alison Gootee and Malcom Williams, and Baszile’s personal collection. 

As Baszile reveals, black farming informs crucial aspects of American culture—the family, the way our national identity is bound up with the land, the pull of memory, the healing power of food, and race relations. She reminds us that the land, well-earned and fiercely protected, transcends history and signifies a home that can be tended, tilled, and passed to succeeding generations with pride. We Are Each Other’s Harvest elevates the voices and stories of black farmers and people of color, celebrating their perseverance and resilience, while spotlighting the challenges they continue to face. Luminous and eye-opening, this eclectic collection helps people and communities of color today reimagine what it means to be dedicated to the soil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063139893
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	366
File size:	121 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Natalie Baszile is the author of the novel Queen Sugar, which was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2014, longlisted for the Crooks Corner Southern Book Prize, nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and adapted for television by writer/director Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN. Baszile holds a M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. She lives in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Foreword Natalie Baszile 1

Introduction Dr. Analena Hope Hassberg 7

1 Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden 13

2 Everyone Beneath Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: A Remembering in Seven Parts by Michael Twitty 15

3 Handed the Rain by Ed Roberson 21

4 Writing Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile 25

5 Excerpt from Black and White: The Way I See It by Richard Williams 37

6 Resilience and Reinvention with Stanley Hughes and Linda Leach 43

7 Little Farm, Big Dreams with Kamal Bell 55

8 Black to the Land by Leah Penniman 61

9 Cutting greens by Lucille Clifton 67

10 The Last Plantation: The USDA's Racist Operating System by Pete Daniel 69

11 Father and Daughter with Harper and Ashley Armstrong 91

12 To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian by Ross Gay 99

13 On Top of Moon Mountain with Brenae Royal 105

14 Money Talk with Clif Sutton and Dexter Faison 115

15 Barking by Lenard D. Moore 123

16 Dispossessed: Their Family Bought Land One Generation After Slavery. The Reels Brothers Spent Eight Years in Jail for Refusing to Leave It by Lizzie Presser 125

17 Louisiana Daughters: A Conversation with Lalita Tademy and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton 147

18 Queen Sugar, Chapter 10 by Natalie Baszile 161

19 Frame by Robin Coste Lewis 167

20 America at the Crossroads: A History of Enslavement and Land by Clyde Ford 171

21 Field Day at the Hill Place with Odis Hill 185

22 Equal Ground with Willie Earl Nelson Sr. and Sons 193

23 Fearless by Tim Seibles 205

24 Four Days in Alaskan Farm School with Melony Edwards 209

25 No Better Life with the Blueforts 217

26 Ancestral Vibrations Guide Our Connection to the Land by Jim Embry 227

27 Remember by Joy Harjo 239

28 Family Ties with Esmeralda and Antonio Sandoval 243

29 How to Make Rain by Kevin Young 251

30 Miss Rose's Dirty Rice by Natalie Baszile 253

31 A New Country with Dorcas Young 257

32 Raised and Rooted with Deric Harper 263

33 Making Space with Moretta Browne 271

34 Call Me by My Name by Harryette Mullen 275

35 Wheel of Fortune with Martha Calderon 277

36 Exceeding the "Yes" with Marvin Frink 283

37 Swarm by Tonya Foster 291

38 A Brief History of Tobacco by Natalie Baszile 293

39 After Tobacco with the Wrights 297

40 Yellowjackets by Yusef Komunyakaa 301

41 Home Games with Kellye Walker and Werten Bellamy 303

42 Butter by Elizabeth Alexander 311

43 A Love Letter to Future Generations by Naima Penniman 313

44 Inside Queen Sugar: Jason Wilborn Reflects on His Years in the Queen Sugar Writers' Room by Natalie Baszile 319

45 The Boudin Trail by Natalie Baszile 327

Black Harvest Fund 335

Acknowledgments 337

Notes 339

Credits 345

Contributors 347

Photographs 349

Editorial Reviews

01/11/2021

Novelist Baszile (Queen Sugar) explores the legacy of “Black and brown farmers” in this winning anthology of essays, poems, photographs, and interviews. Analena Hope Hassberg, a professor of ethnic studies at Cal Poly Pomona, examines farming as a “revolutionary act,” noting that enslaved Africans kept small garden plots on U.S. plantations and “often had higher vitamin, mineral, and protein levels than poor whites who also struggled to survive in the face of starvation.” Clif Sutton and his father, Dexter Faison, owners of Straw Hat Farms in Turkey, N.C., discuss their family’s farming legacy and the advantages of passing land from one generation to the next, as opposed to starting from scratch. Novelist and memoirist Clyde Ford details how discrimination against Black landowners by elected farm service committees in the South helped to fuel the civil rights movement, while Jim Embry, founder of Sustainable Communities Network, looks at how Indigenous agricultural traditions and communal structures can help fight climate change and racial inequality. Throughout, poems by Kevin Young, Joy Harjo, and others resonant with the themes discussed. With its attractive presentation and incisive blend of academic, creative, and real-world perspectives, this inspirational survey is a fitting tribute to Black farmers throughout history. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

“We Are Each Other’s Harvest is a groundbreaking and amazing collection of voices that reveal Black people’s devotion to agriculture. Expressing our contributions to the world from ground up, it is a tribute to our ancestors and a gift for us and the future. May these words free our soul indefinitely, while keeping our roots strong.” — Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

"Every page of this poetic assemblage is watermarked with love—the same love for farmers and their painfully forged legacy that birthed the success of Queen Sugar.  The love in We Are Each Other’s Harvest also incites a visceral remembering of the rich legacy from which we all come and celebrates the resilience that is our DNA."  — Tina Lifford, actress, and author of The Little Book of Big Lies

“Black, brown and tan hands in dark rich loamy soil or in sandy shoals have been a part of the agricultural life of this country since its inception. Yet, all too often, the stories of African American farmers have remained unharvested. In We Are Each Other’s Harvest, Natalie Baszile reaps a bounty of tales and shares them along with photographs, history, poetry, and more. This is a must-have volume for anyone who revers that land and those who work it.”  — Jessica B. Harris, Ph.D., Culinary Historian, Professor, and author of My Soul Looks Back

“Journeying from Alaska to Louisiana to Napa Valley, We Are Each Other’s Harvest uplifts the voices of Black farmers, honoring their perseverance and resilience. This insightful, eye-opening collection helps to reimagine what it means to be dedicated to the land.”  — Alice Waters, chef, author, food activist, owner of Chez Panisse and founder of The Edible Schoolyard Project

“With stunning color portraits and quotes from iconic writers, leaders, and others interspersed throughout, this well-researched collection is readable (while it requires sitting with some hard truths), informative, and inspiring. Black farming and farmers play a much more significant role in American culture than is typically represented, and this collection brings that information beautifully to the fore, as well as inviting readers to interrogate their own connections to the land and this history.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Novelist Baszile (Queen Sugar) explores the legacy of “Black and brown farmers” in this winning anthology of essays, poems, photographs, and interviews… With its attractive presentation and incisive blend of academic, creative, and real-world perspectives, this inspirational survey is a fitting tribute to Black farmers throughout history.”  — Publishers Weekly

“We Are Each Other’s Harvest offers moving, edifying food for thought and will whet your appetite for action.” — BookPage

“In her new anthology, Natalie Baszile examines the relationship between Black farming and American culture through essays, photographs, first-person accounts and more. Together, these pieces dissect the legacy of Black farmers in the U.S. and the impact of land loss and food injustice over generations. In illuminating how these farmers persevered in the face of such challenges, Baszile creates a moving collection about identity, food and community.” — Time magazine

“Baszile’s beautifully produced compendium of essays, poems, and photographs explores Black Americans’ connection to the soil.” — The Boston Globe

"[T]he celebration Natalie Baszile refers to in “We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers Land, and Legacy” is leavened by hard truths and cruelties of efforts to run Black farmers off the land...Baszile has recruited some strong writers to tell their family farming stories of perseverance and a kinship with the land best understood by people who work the rhythms of soil, plants and weather."
— Associated Press

“Baszile's collection of essays, poems and family histories pay homage to the Black farmers who tilled North American earth, first under enslavement and then as free people. . . . Baszile brings a personal passion for her theme.”
— Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

We Are Each Other’s Harvest offers moving, edifying food for thought and will whet your appetite for action.

BookPage

With stunning color portraits and quotes from iconic writers, leaders, and others interspersed throughout, this well-researched collection is readable (while it requires sitting with some hard truths), informative, and inspiring. Black farming and farmers play a much more significant role in American culture than is typically represented, and this collection brings that information beautifully to the fore, as well as inviting readers to interrogate their own connections to the land and this history.

Booklist (starred review)

Black, brown and tan hands in dark rich loamy soil or in sandy shoals have been a part of the agricultural life of this country since its inception. Yet, all too often, the stories of African American farmers have remained unharvested. In We Are Each Other’s Harvest, Natalie Baszile reaps a bounty of tales and shares them along with photographs, history, poetry, and more. This is a must-have volume for anyone who revers that land and those who work it.” 

Jessica B. Harris

“We Are Each Other’s Harvest is a groundbreaking and amazing collection of voices that reveal Black people’s devotion to agriculture. Expressing our contributions to the world from ground up, it is a tribute to our ancestors and a gift for us and the future. May these words free our soul indefinitely, while keeping our roots strong.

Ibram X. Kendi

Journeying from Alaska to Louisiana to Napa Valley, We Are Each Other’s Harvest uplifts the voices of Black farmers, honoring their perseverance and resilience. This insightful, eye-opening collection helps to reimagine what it means to be dedicated to the land.” 

Alice Waters

"[T]he celebration Natalie Baszile refers to in “We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers Land, and Legacy” is leavened by hard truths and cruelties of efforts to run Black farmers off the land...Baszile has recruited some strong writers to tell their family farming stories of perseverance and a kinship with the land best understood by people who work the rhythms of soil, plants and weather."

Associated Press

"Every page of this poetic assemblage is watermarked with love—the same love for farmers and their painfully forged legacy that birthed the success of Queen Sugar.  The love in We Are Each Other’s Harvest also incites a visceral remembering of the rich legacy from which we all come and celebrates the resilience that is our DNA." 

Tina Lifford

In her new anthology, Natalie Baszile examines the relationship between Black farming and American culture through essays, photographs, first-person accounts and more. Together, these pieces dissect the legacy of Black farmers in the U.S. and the impact of land loss and food injustice over generations. In illuminating how these farmers persevered in the face of such challenges, Baszile creates a moving collection about identity, food and community.

Time magazine

Baszile’s beautifully produced compendium of essays, poems, and photographs explores Black Americans’ connection to the soil.

The Boston Globe

★ 03/01/2021

Proving that Black people have always had a deep connection to the land, writer Baszile (Queen Sugar) elevates the voices of Black farmers and ongoing conversations surrounding food justice, land stewardship, and intergenerational wealth. Through powerful firsthand interviews with Black and Mexican farmers in the Carolinas, Virginia, Louisiana, California, and more, Baszile shows how, for many, farming means freedom. Baszile's compelling narrative excels in telling how growing one's own food has long been critical to Black people's survival, from slavery to the present day. The author also details the increasing number of women farmers, and how Black women are navigating both racism and sexism. Interwoven are contributions from historian Michael W. Twitty and poet Kevin Young, among others. Perhaps the strongest parts of the book are contributions from historian Pete Daniel, on the difficulty of Black farmers to receive assistance from the USDA and the FSA, and author Clyde Ford, on the connection between land and wealth. As Ford writes, "Black landownership has always been an act of defiance and an affirmation of humanity." Vivid photographs by Baszile are a highlight throughout. VERDICT This noteworthy book, the first of its kind, brings an untold history to the forefront and succeeds in showing how land and legacy are interconnected.—Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Library Journal