WAYFC Takeover 2: Tracy Stewart of Gathering Roots

The Washington Young Farmers Coalition (WAYFC) takes over the Young Farmers Podcast to talk about resilience and community building in the time of COVID-19. Become a member of the National Young Farmers Coalition at younfarmers.org/join and sign up for our advocacy network by texting FARMERS to 40649.

Tracy L. Stewart is a mindfulness based mental health therapist at the Nile’s Edge wellness collective and activist in Seattle, WA. She currently serves on the board of SURGE, a BIPOC centered reproductive justice organization, Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) – Seattle, and has served on three Social Justice Fund (SJF) giving projects. Elizabeth was able to get Tracy on the phone to help connect the dots between food-growing, uprisings for racial justice, and our mental health. Our conversation sprawls between rage and love, trauma and healing and does include explicit references to police brutality, internalized oppression, and other forms of harm. We acknowledge that some of this conversation could be triggering, and we encourage all our listeners to please take care of your needs. Tracy sees her role in community as working to create supportive, safe space for BIPOC folx in discovering their gifts through mindfulness practice and social justice awareness. Her cup is filled by the outside places, silly friends with microphones, passion for life, and folx sharing their good medicine with each other. “My focus is learning to be a good elder in order to support those out in the community fighting for all us to BE. In my work, I see a lot of suffering of black and brown folx who are warn from fighting to be their full selves. With Gathering Roots, the intention is creating a place where that burden can be released, people can fill their cups with joyful learning and the beauty of the Earth, witnessed and empowered to be all that they are.” 

You can learn more about Gathering Roots at their website: https://gatheringroots.org/ 

Throughout the episode we make reference to the work of: 

Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams : https://angelkyodowilliams.com/ 

Michelle Lee, Author of Working the Roots : https://kpfa.org/episode/the-herbal-highway-may-9-2019/ Llama Rod Owens: https://www.lamarod.com/ 

Leah Penniman: https://www.endoftheworldshow.org/blog/2020/5/6/apocalypse-survival-skill-4-braiding-seeds 

My Grandmother's Hands: https://www.resmaa.com/books 

Music credit to Made By Finja by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6171-made-by-finja