WHAT BLACK LIBERATION LOOKS LIKE: 40 ACRES IN AUBURN, WASHINGTON.

For Nyema Clark, Black liberation looks like 40 or so acres in Auburn, Washington. It’s called Red Barn Ranch, and it belongs to Seattle Parks & Recreation. It hasn’t been used in years, but soon Nyema Clark will enliven its soil, and invite people to heal and grow. To reap and sow. She will call this land the “Red, Black and Green Barn Ranch” – to honor the colors of Black liberation.

When she works the land, she feels whole. “I feel like my ancestors are talking to me,” she says. Nyema is the founder of Nurturing Roots on Beacon Hill, but she wouldn’t dare call herself the executive director. She is the Farm Queen.

Nurturing Roots is a healing farm where the weeds of capitalism have been ripped out. You don’t pay for the fruits or vegetable, and there’s no supply and demand. It is land and food for the people. And now, with the dream of healing Black and brown people on a farm, she is expanding to Auburn. It is an ideal that pushes white institutions to consider giving up their idea of ownership.