Earthseed Speaker and Skillshare Spring 2025

The Earthseed Speaker and Skillshare honoring Octavia E. Butler at BCC is an inspiring, accessible, and engaging event that brings experts from a variety of fields and experiences who provide unique insights into overcoming local and global challenges. Earthseed recognizes that imagining a better world and taking action requires the equitable inclusion of diverse voices and the sharing of deep-rooted wisdom and skills often ignored by broader society. Each session allows attendees to connect with speakers and probe deeper into specific areas of interest, fostering a collaborative environment that invites meaningful dialogue and interaction. The event aims to cultivate a community of learners, equipping them with insights and hard skills to enable us to adapt to inevitable change by making big ideas accessible, bridging knowledge gaps and providing attendees with actionable insights that can empower them both personally and as members of the greater community.

Earthseed Speaker events are open to students, staff, faculty, alumni, OLLI members and the public. The Skillshare is offered to students first as participation is limited to eight to 15 participants for hands-on learning, depending on the topic and modality.

Leah Penniman (all pronouns) is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm (SFF) in Grafton, NY. She co-founded SFF in 2010 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our 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 and 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. Leah has been farming since 1996, holds an MA in Science Education and a BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a member of clergy in West African Indigenous Orisa tradition. Leah trained at Many Hands Organic Farm, Farm School, MA, and internationally with farmers in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. She also served as a high school biology and environmental science teacher for 17 years. The work of Leah and SFF has been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Pritzker Environmental Genius Award, Grist 50, and James Beard Leadership Award, among others. Her 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.

Soul Fire Farm

SFF is a community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. SFF uses Afro-indigenous agroforestry, silvopasture, wildcrafting, polyculture, and spiritual farming practices to regenerate 80 acres of mountainside land, producing fruits, plant medicine, pasture-raised livestock, honey, mushrooms, vegetables, and preserves for community provisioning, with the majority of the harvest provided to people living under food apartheid and targeted by state violence in our local community. SFF is a resource for education in ancestral farming practices and collaborates with the land to support our communities in healing from racial trauma and imagining bolder futures.

Volunteering at SFF will teach students about some of the farming practices while supporting SFF's work and getting their hands on the land.