People pick food while working in a farm field

Film Screening:
Farming While Black

Saturday, June 29, 2024

12 p.m. | Ross Hall

Followed by a conversation with Mark Decena and Karen Washington

Join us for a screening of the widely acclaimed documentary Farming While Black (2023), which examines the historical plight of African American farmers in the United States and the rising generation reclaiming their ownership of land and reconnecting to their ancestral roots. Directed by Mark Decena, the documentary chronicles the efforts of Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, a community farm in upstate New York, and the pioneers who inspired the project, including urban farmer and organizer Karen Washington, to recuperate their agricultural heritage. Collectively, their work has had a profound impact in the sustainable agriculture and food justice movements.

The screening will be followed by a lively conversation between writer and director Mark Decena and NYBG trustee Karen Washington, one of the film’s main characters.

Organized by NYBG’s Humanities Institute in partnership with Kontent films.

This event is free and open to the public.

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About the Speakers

A woman with dreadlocks and a gray shirt poses for a photo in front of a sunny garden scene

Karen Washington sits on the Board of Trustees at the New York Botanical Garden and is also the board president of Greenworkers Cooperatives, which leads workshops on growing food and food justice across the country. She is also the former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, and she has sat on boards of organizations such as Just Food, WhyHunger and Farm School NYC.

She was named a Woman of Distinction by New York State for her role in creating a vibrant urban agriculture scene in New York City. She has received numerous awards for her commitment to the food justice movement and improving the lives of low-income Bronx residents, such as the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award (2014), the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian Award (2023), the GreenThumb’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2021), and the Black Women Future Award (2021), and many others.

A person in a black shirt poses for a black and white photo

Mark Decena is a writer, director, and producer of award-winning feature films, television programming, web and brand films. He is a three-time Sundance alumnus whose work spans from narrative features to documentaries and shorts. Mark’s first feature, Dopamine, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize in 2003 at Sundance. Since then, Decena has built a body of documentary work that spans themes of social justice, sustainable design, and the environment.

His previous work includes the Redford Center film, Watershed, executive produced and narrated by Robert Redford; the Gates-funded Stand Up Planet, using stand-up comedy to look at serious global development issues; and Not Without Us, following grassroots activists to the UN climate talks in Paris. Decena’s latest film, Farming While Black, premiered at the 2023 Mill Valley Film Festival as part of the Active Cinema Program. In addition, Mark is the founder of Kontent Films, a boutique production company based in San Francisco, housing a Kollective of award-winning filmmakers, producers, and creatives.

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Film Screening: Farming While Black

Followed by a conversation with Mark Decena and Karen Washington

RSVP

About the Speakers

Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about all things NYBG

Film Screening:
Farming While Black