MARCH 2021

March 2021 is about going forward with 'Lekol Toupatou! / School Everywhere!' in Haiti and with Sticking  Up For Children's new efforts for  'Growing Gardens' in New Orleans, Haiti, Texas, and elsewhere.

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We have several pieces for you below.

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•Three audio Lessons from Madame Franck Paul

for Lekòl Toupatou! (School Everywhere!) in Haiti.

'Growing Gardens' in New Orleans and Haiti.

•Interviews with community-gardeners

Joe Icet and David Young.

Joe Icet in Houston Chronicle, 2009.

David Young on WGNO, 2016.

Kirk Joseph plays in SUFC's

Festiva #5, December 2017,

Ashé Power House, photo by

Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee.

Roger Lewis plays in the Festiva

#5, photo again Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee.

•Musicians continue the legacy of home-gardening and 

community-gardening in New Orleans. Nick Harris of Dillard University and Gloria Walker of University of New Orleans help projects grow, as do WWOZ volunteers Bruce Gebhart and Diana Shaw. ​

Herlin Riley, Roger Lewis and Kirk Joseph with Larry Blumenfeld's drawing

of Kidd Jordan outside the New Orleans Jazz Museum, November 2020.  

Botanical Interests donated the astounding totals of 73 kinds of flowers and 17 kinds of vegetables and

more than 170 packs of seeds to Sticking Up For Children! 

Homage to New Orleans' community at a disabled athletes' softball game,

Rivers Of Dreams at Louisiana Music Factory, November 2016--Mario Abney,

KIrk Joseph, Roger Lewis, and Don Paul.

The warm and appealing voice of Madame Franck Paul teaches an imaginary first-year student, "Simone", in Haitian Kréyol, French, English,

and Spanish.

Next, the subject for learning is Hygiene. Then, of course in Haiti, Poetry.

Hill Horizon Farm in Leon County, Texas, KBTX in March 2020.

Interview with Joe Icet in New Orleans, December 20, 2020.

David Young's calling to create gardens and food for and by communities

came in 2009. He'd been a Sheriff in Indiana. Four years after the devastating "Federal flood", David volunteered in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and in St. Bernard Parish. He got a feeling from people in both places. He saw where and how he could make empowering differences.

​

By 2016 David had more than 30 lots growing food in the Lower 9 and more than that number of residents there who were (and remain) committed to gardening for their and others sustenance. His Capstone Farms' Raw Honey was already celebrated.

​

David was among a force who arose, independently and/or cooperatively,

to meet agricultural needs and originate solutions in the Lower 9. Rashida

Ferdinard and Sankofa. Jenga Mwendo and Guerilla Gardens. Nat Turner

and Our School and Blair Grocery. Laura Paul and lowernine.org. First in the Lower 9 post-2005-flood, Common Ground Collective and Common Ground Relief. Two decades before the 2005 flood, Parkway Partners. 

​

Some accomplishments of Capstone Farms' participants are shown in Rob

Greenfield's video of 2016. 

David Young has fought two kinds of cancer since 2019. He says that he's "getting stronger" now. 

​

​

Maryse and I talked with David on a Saturday evening, January 30, 2021.

Interviews with two pioneers of community-gardening, Joe Icet in Texas and David Young in New Orleans.

​

Both felt a spiritual calling. Joe started the Last Organic Outpost in Houston's 5th Ward round turn into the 21st century. The Outpost came to involve dozens of families. Now Joe is expanding Hill Horizon Farms in Centerville, Texas, midway between Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth. His

interview has a lot to say, including stories of the invaluable expertise that West African farmers brought to the Outpost.

​

Joe in the Houston Chronicle, 2009. And in 2015 and 2018.

​

Joe in Seedstock, 2016.

Hill Horizon Farm in Leon County, Texas, KBTX in March 2020.

Interview with Joe Icet in New Orleans, December 20, 2020.

David Young's calling to create gardens and food for and by communities

came in 2009. He'd been a Sheriff in Indiana. Four years after the devastating "Federal flood", David volunteered in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and in St. Bernard Parish. He got a feeling from people in both places. He saw where and how he could make empowering differences.

​

By 2016 David had more than 30 lots growing food in the Lower 9 and more than that number of residents there who were (and remain) committed to gardening for their and others sustenance. His Capstone Farms' Raw Honey was already celebrated.

​

David was among a force who arose, independently and/or cooperatively,

to meet agricultural needs and originate solutions in the Lower 9. Rashida

Ferdinard and Sankofa. Jenga Mwendo and Guerilla Gardens. Nat Turner

and Our School and Blair Grocery. Laura Paul and lowernine.org. First in the Lower 9 post-2005-flood, Common Ground Collective and Common Ground Relief. Two decades before the 2005 flood, Parkway Partners. 

​

Some accomplishments of Capstone Farms' participants are shown in Rob

Greenfield's video of 2016. 

David Young has fought two kinds of cancer since 2019. He says that he's "getting stronger" now. 

​

​

Maryse and I talked with David on a Saturday evening, January 30, 2021.

Hill Horizon Farm in Leon County, Texas, KBTX in March 2020.

Interview with Joe Icet in New Orleans, December 20, 2020.

David Young's calling to create gardens and food for and by communities

came in 2009. He'd been a Sheriff in Indiana. Four years after the devastating "Federal flood", David volunteered in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and in St. Bernard Parish. He got a feeling from people in both places. He saw where and how he could make empowering differences.

​

By 2016 David had more than 30 lots growing food in the Lower 9 and more than that number of residents there who were (and remain) committed to gardening for their and others sustenance. His Capstone Farms' Raw Honey was already celebrated.

​

David was among a force who arose, independently and/or cooperatively,

to meet agricultural needs and originate solutions in the Lower 9. Rashida

Ferdinard and Sankofa. Jenga Mwendo and Guerilla Gardens. Nat Turner

and Our School and Blair Grocery. Laura Paul and lowernine.org. First in the Lower 9 post-2005-flood, Common Ground Collective and Common Ground Relief. Two decades before the 2005 flood, Parkway Partners. 

​

Some accomplishments of Capstone Farms' participants are shown in Rob

Greenfield's video of 2016. 

David Young has fought two kinds of cancer since 2019. He says that he's "getting stronger" now. 

​

​

Maryse and I talked with David on a Saturday evening, January 30, 2021.

Interviews with two pioneers of community-gardening, Joe Icet in Texas and David Young in New Orleans.

​

Both felt a spiritual calling. Joe started the Last Organic Outpost in Houston's 5th Ward round turn into the 21st century. The Outpost came to involve dozens of families. Now Joe is expanding Hill Horizon Farms in Centerville, Texas, midway between Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth. His

interview has a lot to say, including stories of the invaluable expertise that West African farmers brought to the Outpost.

​

Joe in the Houston Chronicle, 2009. And in 2015 and 2018.

​

Joe in Seedstock, 2016.

Hill Horizon Farm in Leon County, Texas, KBTX in March 2020.

Interview with Joe Icet in New Orleans, December 20, 2020.

David Young's calling to create gardens and food for and by communities

came in 2009. He'd been a Sheriff in Indiana. Four years after the devastating "Federal flood", David volunteered in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and in St. Bernard Parish. He got a feeling from people in both places. He saw where and how he could make empowering differences.

​

By 2016 David and partners had more than 30 lots growing food in the Lower 9 and more than that number of residents there who were (and remain) committed to gardening for their and others sustenance. His Capstone Farms' Raw Honey was already celebrated.

​

David was among a force who arose, independently and/or cooperatively,

to meet agricultural needs and originate solutions in the Lower 9. Rashida

Ferdinard and Sankofa. Jenga Mwendo and Guerilla Gardens. Nat Turner

and Our School and Blair Grocery. Laura Paul and lowernine.org. First in the Lower 9 post-2005-flood, Common Ground Collective and Common Ground Relief. Two decades before the 2005 flood, Parkway Partners. 

​

Some accomplishments of Capstone Farms' participants are shown in Rob

Greenfield's video of 2016. 

David Young has fought two kinds of cancer since 2019. He says that he's "getting stronger" now. 

​

​

Maryse and I talked with David on a Saturday evening, January 30, 2021.

Next month, Maryse and I learn from Nick Harris at Dillard University of the 

15 Churches in New Orleans that have Gardens growing from and for their

congregations.  

Charles Coleman and Nick Harris of Dillard University's programs of 

engagement with New Orleans' Churches and communities.

Botanical Interests (see this Colorado-based company's splendid and helpful

website!) estimates that 16 million new home-gardeners have arisen acroos the United States in the past year of Lockdowns, Bankruptcies, and insecurity regarding food-supplies due to COVID-19.

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Clearly many in 2020-2021 feel the urgency of providing healthy sustenance for themselves and their communities. Sticking Up For Children recognizes 

that nutrition is especially key for young people's development. We particularly thank Botanical Interests for their essentially free donation

toward our start in 'Growing Gardens'. The volume and variety from Botanical Interests was astounding. 73 kinds of Flowers! 17 kinds of Plants! More than 200 packs of seeds altogether!

Botanical Interests' seed-packs--vivid colors, language, and abundamce go with paintings

from Haiti. Photo by Maryse Philippe Déjean.

Sticking Up For Children began with musicians and with volunteers' generosity. February of 2013, Cyril and Gaynielle Neville brought Maryse and me the idea that drummers' sticks could be painted into art-work and sold to benefit the FEPE orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Everything of SUFC evolved from Cyril's and Gaynielle's initiating act of grace. Within a year we had donations of drumsticks and more from Idris Muhammad, Johnny Vidacovich, Stanton Moore, Paul Siegel and Pedrito Martinez, Hamid Drake, Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins, the Doobie Brothers, ...

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So it's in keeping that musicians and generous volunteers are among first

participants in our move that 'Growing Gardens' become means and action to promote future generations' independence and prosperity. Such independence and prosperity is far more in OUR OWN HANDS than Big

Tech, Big Pharma, Big Media, Big Finance, ... would have us know. In the 1930s, households in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward sustained themselves by sharing crops, block by block, and traded in a community-currency. By end of World War II, 40% of produce eaten in the United States came from households' 'Victory Gardens.'

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Below is a small, beginning gallery of musicians and friends.

Nick Harris and Charles Coleman.

Kirk Joseph.

Roger Lewis.

Evan Christopher.

Gloria Walker.

'New Orleans Drummers' Medley.' 27 minutes of syncopation like there is nowhere else.  

Herlin's 2019 album. 

Mint growing beside David Young's Lower 9th Ward house, March 22, 2021.