What do you think is a quintessential Echoing Green Fellow trait?
The trait that I have noticed is service. You cannot meet an Echoing Green person that’s not like, “Hey, what do we need? Do you want to schedule a talk? Email us anytime. What can we do to help you? We’re here for you. We got your back.”
What is your favorite time of day?
Evening. I love when 4, 5, 6 o’clock hits. When the wind is breezy outside; it’s about 70 to 75 degrees. A candlelit dinner, a cocktail, glass of wine, music. I love that time of day, the golden time of day.
What health and wellness practices do you most hope to instill in your children?
I’m always trying to instill in my children just taking care of themselves—having a spiritual life, affirming themselves; being well from a culturally-centered lens. So, they love beans and rice and greens and soul food dinners, and they love time with family, which I think are all part of keeping us well and which build great character and help build people that can pour back into their communities.
Which Fellow(s) from your cohort do you most admire?
Josephine Edward, Kwamane Liddell, & Maria Uloko
What is your ultimate vision? What would it look like when your work is “complete”?
I don’t think that it will be complete by any government entity, any safety nets, or anything like that. My vision is for us to again be very self-reliant and self-sufficient upon and within in our communities on a hyperlocal and defined local level. It looks like us getting back to the land for health and wealth—growing our own food, cooking our own food, making for ourselves, packaging and selling, inserting ourselves into the food system, but especially for community independence. It looks like us having gardens back in our homes and sharing food amongst one another, sharing meals, being deeply involved in our civic processes, because that’s what our ancestors have died for, and we know they’re trying to take that now. I think that we should get back to it. They fought for it for a reason. Our vote must matter if it’s under attack. And so, when I look at the future for us, there are Black businesses, Black-owned home goods stores. There are robust dineries, restaurants, art, and we’re circulating all those resources to one another.
What was the last book you read?
Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness by Ashanté M Reese
As you near the end of your first year as an Echoing Green Fellow, what has the experience meant to you so far? Has it surprised you in any way?
It is definitely is living up to what I expected, what I needed, and what I wanted, which is a community who could help me get through the ins and outs of being a founder-leader, especially as a Black person raised in the South, not college degreed, but with a business acumen and in need of a community to bounce things off of, to share with. [This experience] is also just affirming that we’re all human with the same struggles, whether you went to college, graduated college, you’ve been in business for a long time; we still often have the same goals, same challenges, and we can still think together and learn from one another through our various perspectives. And I honestly thought that Echoing Green was going to be like boot camp, but I was very taken aback by the fact that they were very confident in who they chose, no matter where you are in your journey, and that it is, you know, rigorous, and it is serious, but it’s not stressful.
What are you doing tomorrow?
Attending my daughter’s Pre-K graduation!
