We, three, came to be out of working side by side with folks who were incarcerated on Rikers Island. We had the honor of being garden collaborators to support green spaces of refuge for those who have been taken from their loved ones and communities. However, the respect and care co-created within the garden was always overshadowed and surveilled by the jail. When the gardeners, builders, and creatives were escorted back to their dorms, the vibrant technicolor of the garden life was seemingly undone. The experiences in the gardens live only as pockets of joy, but they are still joy. Building rituals of seed selection for the upcoming seasons of growing filled the absence of autonomy during incarceration. Gardeners at every level felt excitement from watching their seeds flourish and provide food for themselves and the group. Yet, stepping outside of the garden with one’s personal harvest of fresh herbs was criminalized as contraband. To criminalize something that brings joy is to criminalize joy itself.

We left this program.

We are a burgeoning group, not yet with our own garden home and still look to support community members who are experiencing incarceration, as well as offer support to their families by way of the inherent healing properties of collaborating with nature, observing nature, and being in peace with nature.

We stand with the return to the Land.

Those who understand the quiet reciprocal relationship between the Land and the steward are the ones with the real power. Land is sacred and oppressively gatekept. The staged obstacles, protocols, and red tape intentionally keeps us separated from that return and intercepts the abundance that the Land would freely give, with that promise of reciprocity. We grieve with Indigenous nations who have had their Land stolen, and also grieve the loss of access to Land in the name of healing and supporting communities and its people.

- RU

(An excerpt from The Land Back Late Spring Luncheon Edition, June 11th, 2021)