by Andrew Engelson
A community garden planted at Jimi Hendrix Park by the activist group Black Star Farmers is still growing lettuce, pumpkins, cucumbers, and other produce despite recent demands from Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) that activists remove it. Planted about two months ago, the garden is part of a network of six food plots across the South End designed to draw attention to the need for equitable use of public space, environmental equity, and the lack of access to fresh food near Communities of Color.
On Thursday, July 8, staff from SPR arrived to remove the garden but left the site when several activists surrounded the shed and garden plots.
Marcus Henderson, the creator of Black Star Farmers, was behind the effort to plant a garden in Cal Anderson Park during the Capitol Hill Organize Protest (CHOP) in the summer of 2020. Since then, the group has now expanded its activist efforts throughout the South End.
“The privatization of public space is a huge issue,” Henderson said in an interview with the Emerald. “The system has evolved to prevent mistakes, but now it’s so cumbersome and huge that these spaces are not being utilized because the processes to access them are over-managed. We’ve also very much focused our public spaces on recreation and not actually sustaining our community.”
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