Seedbroadcast partnered up with SEEDS: A Collective Voice during their opening festivities on May 4th, at the Downtown Contemporary Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico to share seedy resources, network local seed actions, and shout out seed stories from around the country. These stories echoed up and down 4th Street, while passers-by stopped in to check out the Broadcasting Station and share their stories.
Marijke de Vries visited us outside the gallery and shared her seed story.
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| Street-side SeedBroadcasting with SEEDS: A Collective Voice, visitors and performers. |
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| Local seed saver and forager Peter Callen brought native seeds to the
exhibition and had this wisdom to share, [Why do you share seeds?] "It's
part of life to share life and give it away, because that is what the
plants do." |
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| Inside the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station |
The exhibition festivities celebrated the work of many artists, poets, writers, performers, farmers, gardeners, activists and most importantly the seeds that have brought us all together. The gallery was packed with people, art, conversation, and performance. While milkweed seed floated through the air, presentations were underway to share information and rouse the creative compassion and agency in everyone.
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| Man's Research?, by artist Gene McClain, acrylic, wood carving. |
Local farmer and activist
Isaura Andaluz discussed the growing concern over chile in New Mexico and the political and corporate pressures to homogenize, industrialize, and genetically modify historic land races, threatening the deep rooted agricultural practices and culture of these lands. Bubble maps documenting the relationships between multinational corporations and seeds were distributed sharing a sad truth, that almost all seed, agriculture, and food is not controlled by the 99%. Instead, it is controlled through the patent, power and greed of a handful of corporations. Read
Seed Freedom, Who Own's the Seed? for more information.
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| Who Own's the Seed? |
Albuquerque farmers Mimi and Sean Ludden of
Nepantla Farms were also busy talking to visitors about organizing a local seed cooperative and conversations emerged about joining forces to organize a living seed library. If you or any one you know is interested in this, contact Sean and Mimi and join Albuquerque seed solidarity:
nepantlafarms@yahoo.com
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| Christian Leahy reading "A Seed Cycle" |
A gourd rattles, rattles, rattles.....signally another live performance of voices and words, of the poetic story-tellers transforming critical compassion, anger, and beauty in all present. What does this listening build? Are these the stories of the seeds we try so hard to hear? Listen...
Artist and farmer, Amanda Rich from
Erda Gardens performs "Amaranth (everlasting), while accompanied by semillaista friends.
Albuquerque poet
Mary Oishi reads her poem "When I sing of seeds"
Santa Fe based writer and activist, Christian Leahy performs her story poem, "A Seed Cycle" in five parts
Albuquerque Poet Laureate, Hakim Bellamy performs his new work "Food Sovereignty" and also shared the text for everyone to read.
Food Sovereignty – by hakim bellamy
She said
What if the scientist stuck to science
And let the farmers stick to farming
It’s not rocket science
Global agriculture has changed more in our lifetime
Than the previous 10,000 years
Went from
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
To if it works
Whip it into working harder
When the sun
Doesn’t rise fast enough for us
Will we tinker with that?
Will we surrender our Eden
To the machine
Look God in the eye
Point to the third day and say
“Not good enough”
Will we piss in the same pond
We’ve evolved from
Will we turn our back
On the mud in our veins
It’s not rocket science
The chemist are covering the spread
bruising silos with fruit sky high
You think the pesticides are expensive?
Imagine the plane
Gotta push a hell of a lot more acres
To cover the gas bill that gets that thing in the sky
It’s not rocket science
Even the fairy tales prosthelytized
Jack and the Beanstalk was so obviously
Corporate, that they didn’t try to hide it
In the beginning of the story he put three seeds in his pocket
And by the end he turns a profit
It’s surprisingly not surprising
That there is no problem with how he got it
In a country founded on deception and robbery
And there’s NO WAY
A beanstalk gets THAT big without GMO coursing through its body
That’s like watching Major League Baseball
And pretending there is no difference between 1999
And 2005 Jason Giambi
But the script gets flipped
To mess with our conscious
Of course, Jack is hungry and poor
So he’s just like us
Stole the tall man’s gold
And tricked his wife into liking him
Made Jack the bad guy
Even though the beans were free
And the stalk was on his property
But Jack still wins a happy ever after
Though we all know fairy tales aren’t reality
In the end,
The corporation is still giant
And Jack can’t have no beenstalk without’em
It’s not rocket science
They say money doesn’t grow on trees
But there are plenty of companies pumping it into the ground
“Food chain” will get a whole new meaning
As soon as they figure that out
Chemicals invented for world wars
Have no business in our bodies
Fertilizing killing fields with bullshit
Will only yield a barren garden
I suppose it makes perfect sense
If the idea is to wage war on our biology
Monocrop all biodiversity
Til every seed is eugenically perfect
And leave the farming to the Nazis
It’s not rocket science
Putting dope into the soil
Makes the land an addict
Now Mother Earth can’t function without it
While just a few years ago
She used to make miracles out of scratch for our parents.
Years ago our country abolished the ability of rich people to own farmers
But they didn’t want to share crops
So they pulled all the stops
Traded slave for patent holding, full well knowing
That they will always “own” farmers
As long as they can own their seeds
It’s not rocket science
We cannot eat coffee,
Super Insects or Super Weeds
Our crops have become a courtroom
And the lawyers are woefully overdressed
For this kind of work
It’s not rocket science
If your coat is a dirtless shade of white
You are not allowed in this field
Here, brown is holy
Here, life is NOT
An experiment
It is reality
Here, is not simply playing God
Here, is tampering with blessings
Here, is not 20,000 feet
Here, is ground
Zero
Here, is both feet
Both knees
Both hands
Both lips
Kiss
It’s not
Rocket
Science.
© Hakim Bellamy May 4th, 2013
Thank you to artist, Jade Leyva and Tom Frouge with Avakado Artists who organized SEEDS: A Collective Voice and to Sharon Berman who volunteered to help SeedBroadcast during this event.
