How can we reconnect with the land and reclaim our relationship with food as an act of liberation?
In this inspiring episode of Radical Remembering, I chat with Isa Jamira, founder of Liberated Lands, to explore the transformative power of agriculture as a means of liberation and community building. Isa shares her journey of establishing Liberated Lands, a project she began in 2021 with a vision to reclaim ancestral relationships with the land and food.
We also discuss the significance of farming as a pathway to liberation, the importance of decolonizing the concept of agriculture, and the resurgence of holistic and communal ways of living. Isa's passion for connecting with her ancestral roots and reclaiming land ownership is evident, as she speaks about the joy and challenges of building a sustainable agricultural project that honors traditional ways of growing food and fostering community resilience.
Listen to Radical Remembering: Season 2 Episode 7 and find inspiration on your journey towards liberation!
Or watch the full episode on my YouTube channel.
Relevant Links
Radical Remembering Podcast
Website: https://radicalremembering.com/
Connect with Isa Jamira
Website: http://liberatedlands.org
Connect with Dr. Norissa
Living Liberated app: https://livingliberated.passion.io
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Radical Remembering is a podcast that covers personal growth, self-awareness and awareness of topics at the intersection of mental health, spirituality and self-help. Each episode will leave you with intimate knowledge of the liberation process, sprinkle a little healing magic, and leave you with wisdom for your journey into living out your purpose. Stay tuned for the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Radical Remembering podcast! Listen to our next podcast and tell a friend about us.
TRANSCRIPT
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Welcome to Radical Remembering with psychologist Dr. Norissa Williams. This is a weekly conversation where we explore ways we've internalized oppression and consider what it really means to live liberated. Each episode would leave you with intimate knowledge of the liberation process, sprinkle a little healing magic, and leave you with wisdom for your journey. As you get settled in for today's episode, please make sure to like and subscribe. And if you've liked what you heard at the end, please share.
So welcome to Radical Remembering. We have our guest, Issa Jameera, today. And so welcome, Jameera. Issa. Hi.
So I met I will actually, this is the first time I'm actually meeting Issa. I've heard of Issa for, like, the last 9 or 10 years because I used to work with her mother, and I've heard all the stories of you growing up. So even you were, like, a teenager actually when I started hearing of you. Late teens. But, last year, when your mother and I were talking about season 1 of the podcast, she just mentioned that you had a farm, liberated farms, and I was like, oop, next season.
And so now here we are, and so I'm super excited to hear about your journey. Yes. I'm very excited to be here and honored and humbled that you’re Dr. Norissa. Right? Yeah.
Soft eye Nerissa. Nerissa. Doctor Nerissa invited me to be on your podcast because, yeah, I have a lot I guess I could share, but I'm also just learning a lot. So I'm excited to be here. Good.
Good. Good. So let's talk about it so do you mind if I share your age? You just told me your age. So I'm super impressed also.
Well, first of all, the younger generations have a knowledge and, like, a more natural, reflex towards liberation than older generations who are just more steeped. I mean, nothing has changed. Things are still you know, we need a liberated context to be in, period. But your reflex to do something as big as buy land and to start liberated farms. So let's start first with what liberated farms, or what will it be?
Sure. So the company is called Liberated Lands. Okay. Liberated Farm Liberation Farm is another black owned farm that I feel like you should definitely think maybe next episode or whatever other episode. I think there are other great, like, great black farmers to talk to.
Nice. Liberated lands. And I think the reason why I decided not to call it Liberated Farms is because farms the word farm to me automatically I automatically think about the food system, ultimately. And I think about the fact that we even have a food system implies oppression to me, because the type of farms that feed America are industrial farms. And food, the way that we, the people, have interacted with food over generations has been, like, on a really close knit in a really close knit type of way.
So, you know, the way that we, like, originally had food was growing it ourselves. Right? And so, like, farms we didn't think about, like, our food in terms of farms. We thought about our food in terms of, like, oh, that's in my backyard, or I'm gonna go get this from my cousin down the street, or, you know so I think about when I think about farms, I think about the industrial food system. Although there are many, like, farms today that are doing amazing work, that is why I decided to call my company Liberated Lands Yeah.
Instead of, like, Liberated Farms. Yeah. Right. So I wanna hear it before you get a little bit further. Yesterday, I actually was just watching a clip.
I don't even remember the doctor's name. Black man from Georgia. His book, I think, is vegetation medication or something like that. Just just Google it. But he was so you're mentioning how industrialized our food is, and he was talking a lot about how after World War 2, I believe it was, that's when we started industrial or 1.
I don't know. That's when we started industrializing our foods. It started with the soldiers not having anything to eat when they were away. So that's when processed foods began and they could use it while they're eating it while they're in battle and different things like that. Then, of course, in a capitalist country, they found that, you know, storing foods like that and processing it like that was profitable, and they began to do that.
So I think that this notion is because we don't think about these intricacies, and this is exactly what I wanted you here. Right? We don't think about the intricacies. Like, we accept, like, this is how it is, and and that just because how it is, is that how it how it has to be? You know?
So what are your what if there is anything more you can say about industrialization of food? I'm just thinking about that example that you just brought up of the canning. And I was a long time ago, I can't really speak on this too much because it was a long time ago, and I need to revisit this book. It's called Kitchen Literacy, but it's about how we've lost our connection to food. And there's examples in there about how, at one point, children thought that butter children in New York City, like or in just, like, city areas rather than rural or suburban areas Thought that butter came from butterflies.
Like, it's like the knowledge just started to the more we came disconnected from the land, or disconnected from nature, disconnected from growing our own food, like, we people just didn't know where their food was coming from. But in that book, they spoke about canning, and this exact example, and how canning food was supposed to be like canned food is supposed to last us till the end of the world. This is stuff like canned food is supposed to go through wars. And women, like, sustain people, like, that is a very interesting way to nourish ourselves. Like, canning is a beautiful thing though.
Like, learning how to preserve food to, you know, for, you know, the off season when it's the winter. If you live in a climate where you have a winter and you cannot grow all year round and the abundance that you can grow in during the summertime, learning how to preserve food is very important. I would say also, though, how we would can food is different from how industries would can food because we're still thinking health and for ourselves, and we're not thinking profit. So we're not gonna put risk and put things in it that would kill us. So I like that you added that though because we don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
We just have to think consciously about what we're doing. Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. But, yeah, that's my reflection from what you just shared.
But you said when when what is liberated lands? That was your question. Yes. And so liberated lands are a growing institution where individuals learn how to take care of themselves, through taking care of the earth. And, the mission I am reading, just because I just made this document today, and I, like, for my I know this is a podcast, but I just have, like Black History Month is my day that I'm posting to the Instagram, about all the growth that Liberated Lands has gone through over the past 3 2a half slash 3 years.
So I just have the mission statement right in front of me, so I'm just gonna think verbatim. The mission of Liberated Lands is to create healing and educational growing spaces for free thinkers. So, yeah, that's what Liberated Lands is. I founded Liberated Lands in 2021. I actually let me backtrack.
I started operating as a sole proprietor in 2021, and that's when I had my first fundraiser to buy land. And that fundraiser was very successful financially and spiritually and energetically. It was a really great fundraiser held intentionally on the new moon, which is a time when you plant seeds. That's a really good time to plant seeds, physical seeds, or, you know, like your career seeds, like, those other things. So and then I founded Liberated Lands in 2022 as an s corporation, in the summer of 2022, like, August 2022.
And since then, I have been piloting various programs. And, one program that I'm really, really, really proud of, and we're going into our 3rd annual this year, is the Liberated Lands Festival. Started off as a really small gathering in a community garden in Jamaica, Queens. And then last year, I partnered with Roots and Culture Farm in Marlborough, New York in the Hudson Valley. And we had it was amazing.
It grew. And it's just it's a it's I'm just amazed at the growth that is happening, right now. And I really feel like it's due to the fact that there's, like, an awakening happening right now. Like Almost been. There's always been people who are awake, but I think there's, like, a grand, like, awakening happening right now.
Happening in the collective. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
So what happens at the festival? So either of them, the roots and culture one, but the one that you have. And what time of year is it? Yeah. So the 1st annual festival was in November.
I had this mission of, like, people returning to the land when the land is resting because I think a lot of people wanna come out when things look really abundant and lush and green. And then they, like, retreat back inside when the land is resting. And I think there's a myth that is being passed around that there's nothing to do in the wintertime. And there are ways to connect and nurture and care for the land in the wintertime. There are.
So that's when the first festival was planned. And then the 2nd year was at the end of summer, beginning of fall, because I wanted I was collaborating with Joce and Friend at Roots and Culture Farm. And, we just compromised on that day and because we wanted it to be warmer, ultimately. November was cold. And, it was a challenge, but it was great.
It was still great. And so this year, we're gonna do a similar time frame. It's gonna be Labor Day weekend, Saturday, Sunday until Labor Day weekend. So if people still wanna hit up the Eastern Parkway, they can still hit up the Eastern Parkway on Monday. But, yes, that is it.
So it's end of summertime right now, but in the future, I see the festival happening, like, a festival happening every season. Like, in Turquoise, spring, summer, fall. Who's invited? Like, is this open to the public? Or This is open to the public.
This is open to the public. It's a family event. I'm trying to find out, like, am I invited? Like Yes. You are invited.
Of course, you're invited. It's a beautiful event with the mission to celebrate and connect the power of the earth and the power of the people. Mhmm. Our values are, black consciousness, celebration, and unity and unity. Yes.
And knowing that black black consciousness isn't something we define black consciousness as something that isn't skin deep. It's someone who's just con like, committed to the truth. Uh-huh. So when you say that, does that mean it's multiracial, but as long as you're rooted in a black consciousness when you say skin deep? We definitely so I mean, yeah.
People come, people come like, our participants are definitely a diverse group of participants. We have instructors during the festival. I didn't do a good job of describing the festival. So what the festival is is that we invite educators, we prioritize BIPOC educators to teach workshops. So last year we had a Qigong workshop, we had an elderberry syrup making workshop, we had a crystal scavenger hunt that was at one of our family workshops, right?
And we had yoga in the morning the next day because it was an overnight camping event. And, yeah, we had altars for our ancestors. We had a DJ. You know, we were dancing, loving on ourselves and the earth. It was a beautiful time.
I love it. I love it. I love it. I wanted to go back to a point you said, how can we connect? Because I'm one of these people who, you know, in the northeast, once it gets cold, like, I walk in the it's important for me to get the sun, that pineal gland when it's warm.
But once it gets summer like, winter, I'm like, okay. We're gonna use the crystals underneath my desk because it's too cold outside. So what are the ways that we can connect with the earth in the winter? Because I haven't thought of it. Yeah.
I think you could start by going for walks outside. I think that's a great place to start and, like, observing the trees. What's going on with the tree? You know what I mean? Like, you're looking up for the tree.
What's going on with the trees? I think it's those simple, simple, simple things. It's not like it doesn't always have to be so grand. You know? Yeah.
We mystify things, and it makes it that much harder, and it keeps us from it. You're right. So, how did you get here, though? Like, what what like, I'm smiling ear to ear because, first of all, this is Debbie's daughter, but I'm smiling ear to ear because I'm like, what would like, how did you get to this consciousness? What was a part of your liberation journey?
Mhmm. Mhmm. I'm sure, also, I look just like my mom. Like This is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm thinking.
How did I get to this consciousness? I have to say this when people ask me this question, like, what made you choose this career? Like, how did you get here? I have this corny answer where I feel like I've always somehow been here, like, since I was a child, and my mom can verify this story. Like, when I found out about global warming in 2nd grade, I came home and I just unplugged everything.
Like, I unplugged everything. My mom's in the kitchen, like, why is nothing working? I'm like, because of global warming and the polar bears. And she's like, what? And yeah.
And I think with that, just kind of an innate connection, I think, to the Earth. I also had really great support from my family and from my mom, my sister, my dad, my grandma, like, you know, just to see even my mom stop buying plastic water bottles, like, when I was growing up. And, yeah, I would have not have been able to pull off my first fundraiser without my family. Like, I definitely am standing on my family's shoulders and my ancestors' shoulders. And, like, everybody, everybody I'm leaning on a lot of people around me as well.
I guess I can also talk about in school, I was an environmental studies major. And it wasn't until at one point, I was gonna leave the major because I was not concerned about solar panels. Like, I was not concerned about power. Like, how am I going to power the world? Right?
And it wasn't until I started learning about food and the amount of, like If you enjoy listening to Radical Remembering and would love to get the season dropped before everyone else, if you want exclusive invites to live and virtual events and could benefit from daily liberation inspiration, like affirmations, thought provoking questions, and daily guidance, then download our free app, Living Liberated, in the App Store or on Google Play. You can also find the link below in the description box. How much our food system is causing our decline as a species? Because the earth is gonna be here. But as a species, how much the way that the way that we produce food on a mass scale, is killing us, that I was like, oh, okay.
I get it now. And this is also how I can help my community. Like, I can bring this back home, and it'll help where I'm from. Like, I can't walk around talking about solar panels in Mount Vernon, but I could talk about some food and talking about good food. And how can we get good food, like, nourishing food.
And let's talk about why don't we have a community garden here, a functioning community garden here. So that is when it clicked for me, like, oh, this is the connection. Like, I've been, like, feeling this connection for a long time to the earth. And so once I started and then once I started finding scholars that look like me or farmers that look like me, Leah Penneyman. Right?
Karen Washington, Yemi Amu at Oko Farms, which is the only outdoor aquaponics education farm in Brooklyn, New York or New York City, being led by a black woman from Nigeria. Right? Like, doing the things. Like, it's it was and then, you know, like, after realizing, like, oh, I really care about food, and then finding that representation in the field was major for me. And then being able to work alongside some of those people was major for me.
Being able to have conversations and go, like and that my heroes, so to or sheroes, so to speak, like, are still alive and I could, like, contact them, like, it just reinforced to me that the time is now. Mhmm. Yeah. That's good. I love it.
You were saying about how the food system is killing us. I don't know if that's the exact phrase. The fruit production system is killing us, how it's produced here. Can you say more about that? Yeah.
The food system is killing us. The industrial food system is killing us. There's so many reports, like documentaries. Like, there's so many articles that are, like, out there about this that will have all the facts and statistics that I won't give you right now. But there we are on the industrial scale, what's happening is that they are spraying poison, pesticides, and fertilizers on the land, killing the soil.
Right? And what happens when you kill the soil? You kill light. That's what happens when you kill the soil. And what is contributing also and one thing among many things that that does is it prevents the soil from being able to do carbon sequestration.
And what is carbon sequestration? Carbon sequestration is making sure that there isn't all this c o two in the atmosphere. Like, all the c o two that's in the atmosphere is supposed to be in the Earth. Right? That is just one of the many ways that our food system is killing us.
The poison that they're spraying on the food is poison. So why are we eating it? Like, why are we eating it? Right. That's another thing.
It's killing our gut lining. It's killing the things in our body that keep us alive. Right? It's poison. I yeah.
Those are just 2 major ways. I can go on. Like, I can go on. I can go on. Oh, it's kind of There's and then okay.
Let's take it back from, I guess, the plants or, like, the trees that are cut down so that we can grow monoculture, rows and rows and rows of lettuce that will also be thrown out. Half of the lettuce is gonna be thrown out. Like, it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't the more you look at it, it's like this doesn't make any sense. I have to laugh.
It's not funny at all, but sometimes I just have to laugh because I'm like, how did we get here? Right. Right. Right. It's crazy.
But yeah. So yeah, the food system is killing us. So when you were talking earlier, you were saying, like, we used to. Like, we're not, we're not connected to the earth like we used to. So I know that your family is from Jamaica.
You have a nice Jamaican flag on your head. How much of that being, like, 1 generation removed from the land, you know, influences you, do you think? I think it influences me a lot. I think, yeah, again, the support from my family has been major just since I was a baby, the way that I was fed. Right?
Like, the that I was given from my grandmother, and learning and knowing how much better it tasted when we grew it in the backyard. And then being able to visit Jamaica when I was, like, privileged enough to be able to visit at one point every summer when I was really young to, like, know where my family, my mom's side at least, comes from, is major. And yeah, and I think we have conversations all the time in the kitchen just about how the food in America is not as nutritionally dense as the food back in Jamaica. And we talk all the time about how when people would get sick, they would just go get some fever grass, right, which is lemongrass. And or, you know, I think that, yeah, I mean and also Jamaican food is just amazing.
I just I I I'm yeah. That's my immediate reflection about that. But, yeah, my cultural background, I think, in general, seeing being able to, like, be connected to a life and culture outside of America has definitely been really important for me to see. I'm not sure if I fully answered your question just now. But You did.
I mean I mean, it may what makes me ask too is because I know growing up my family's from Trinidad, and I know the default was always to what can we get that's grown outside or you know, because we had, we grew up in Long Island and my grandmother is like an avid still, like, planter, like, and she can grow things, you know, without all the chemicals. She can grow zucchinis that are like this big and, you know, and it just tastes really good and really rich too, right? And so I know I have always had this health consciousness because of her and our lineages connection to the land and what have you. Of course, it was impeded for a while because in the early stages of my earlier development, we didn't have she wasn't doing that as much. It was more when she got more time that she was able to do it.
But this connection is a theme I'm hearing running through what you're saying. Right? You're you, you're connected to your ancestors. You're connected to your family. You're connected to the land.
Sounds like you spoke of spirituality. Sounds like you're also very connected to yourself. I do my best to be yes. Yes. I think, like, something that also reinforced my journey or, like, helped me in my journey was garden gardening and farming and just having my hands in the soil or at the aquaponics farm interacting with the fish and seeing life grow.
Right? Planting a seed and watching it grow is magic. And not magic in the, like, oh, oh. Like, no. It's like magic.
Like, oh, I work towards this. Like, I I said things and it happened. Right? I said I was gonna plant these seeds. The plants are gonna grow and then I'm gonna eat it.
And that's what happened. Like, that's magic to me. It's not like the illusions and the facades and things like that. So how does this show up in your life, right, in your day to day in your cabinets behind you, do you have a bunch of herbs, like lemongrass and moringa and all those things? In my cabinet?
Yeah. Anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. I have, I have citronella that I wanna make into some bug repellent stuff.
I have fever. Yes. I have fever, grass, lemongrass, and actually soaking in some alcohol to make a tincture. I have some tulsi basil, which some people call holy basil or just tulsi. What else do I have?
I have some lemon balm as well. I have some dried lemons and lavender. I have some lavender. I hope to grow more herbs next year. I also have mint.
Mint is so easy. I also have frozen pesto cubes from the Italian Genovese basil that I grew over the summer. I do my best to preserve a lot of the harvest. I still have a lot of preserved tomatoes in my fridge. What else do I have in there?
Yeah. I have some herbs, oh, some cut up squash as well. I yeah. And some Swiss chard, some chopped up and frozen Swiss chard that's from the garden. Like, I have my dried peppers right here from my garden.
Yeah. I do my best to preserve as much harvest as I can. Also, distribute as much as I can to close family and friends or people who need it. And I, yeah, definitely eat it. I think that's one thing that people grow food and then they don't eat it.
I'm like, what's up with that? Right. Yeah. So okay. Good.
So can you tell us I mean, it's not a is it I mean, I'm not gonna put you on the spot and be like, give us a recipe for how you preserve tomatoes. Right? But is it easy? Oh, you can share with us. Is it something that we can do in our own lives? Yeah.
So what I do is that I slow roast them. I slow roast them at a very, very low temperature. So let's say at around, like, 170 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Fahrenheit. With some olive oil, I cut them in half. Yeah.
Let me start from the beginning. I harvested the tomato. I wash the tomato. I cut all the tomatoes in half, and I placed them on a thin sheet. I could probably send you some videos or pictures if you wanted it.
Love it. And a baking sheet, and then I put olive oil. Right? And I put the olive oil to, like, cover, let's say, half of the cut in half tomato. So let's say to cover a quarter of the tomato, right, sitting there.
And then I sprinkle my salt and pepper, and then I add fresh herbs from the garden depending on what I have available. Sometimes it's some rosemary, basil because basil and tomatoes just love each other. Garlic chives, garlic chive flowers. Sometimes I'll put it actually, that's it. I think I said chives already.
Yeah. I said chives already. And pop them in the oven for hours for hours. The whole room's gonna smell like a pizzeria. The whole place is gonna smell amazing.
Mhmm. And then I put them in a jar with the oil, and I put them in the fridge. It lasts a few months. How do you cook this? What do you do? You could also put them in the freezer, but then you wanna leave and you don't wanna fill your jar all the way up because it's gonna expand.
So you wanna leave room for the jar to for the contents in the jar to be able to expand a little bit. But I've been doing that for a couple years now, and it's good. So what do you cook with it? Like, are you like, you have pasta and you add that to it? Are you seasoning your meats with it?
Like, what? Yeah. You could use it. Yeah. You can use it for anything that you would typically use tomatoes for. So I'll make some sauces with it.
Definitely put it in some pasta. I made a vegan baked ziti with them. What else? What else? You could put them in sandwiches, pizzas. Right?
Put them on top of pizzas. Yeah. Any way that you would use a tomato. Mhmm. That's good.
And I like how easy it is because, you know, the thing that keeps us since we're actually so separated from what is so natural to us, right, the thing that keeps us is that we're like, we don't have time for that in our busy lives, in our days, and different things like that, but you actually just made it super simple for us to to think about how we can use something as small as a tomato and keep it in our lives. Are you growing indoors, or are you growing outdoors? I mostly grow outdoors right now. Yeah. I do wanna greenhouse eventually to see how that works, or experiment with some type of natural naturally built greenhouse.
Mhmm. But not right now. Yeah. Just outdoors. Okay.
Excuse me. So what's happening on Liber Liberated or Liberation Farms? Liberated? Liberated Lands. Oh, liberated sorry.
Liberated Lands. What's happening to it right now? So at Liberated Lands, we have our 4 parcels out in parcels out in Narrowsburg, New York, which is in the Sullivan County Catskills. In June, I have a volunteer day coming up where we're gonna be helping to build the fence. I wanna create a living fence.
Right now, I'm looking at some willows that could be woven. And then every year, they do need to be maintained. And when you cut them, you can use it to weave baskets, which is really awesome. And so right now, what I'm doing is I'm working on the fences ultimately, and I want it to be a collective effort as well. I love it.
And I am also doing some garden planning at roots and culture in Marlborough, New York as well. So Liberation is 100% about being in the right relationship with our power. It's so easy from day to day to disconnect from our source and forget who we really are. On our app, Living Liberated, we have the tools to keep you plugged in. You'll find a library of affirmations, guided meditations, guided journeys, and tapping sequences to keep you in a state of alignment with who you really are.
Topics range from self love, healthy relationships, activating our DNA, to guided journeys with your ancestors. Download our free app, living liberated, and start your free 7 day trial now in the app store or Google play. You can also find the link for Plugged In in the description box below. There's liberated lands programming happening in Marlborough, New York. There's liberated lands happening programming happening in Narrowsburg, which is where the official first campus is, where I bought the land.
And there's also liberated lands programming happening in Brooklyn, New York this year, with the change for the better dinner and discussion group that's happening. And then that's happening again in New Rochelle, New York. So Liberty Lands is operating a lot of different programs in various spaces with various partners, and then we have our actual 1st campus that's out in Sullivan County Catskills. Okay. What's the vision?
Are you gonna have, like so you're building the fence? It's a large plot of land. Right? And what is the future vision? Do you want, like, a building where you said, campus.
Right? Do you want where you can have classes and whatnot? What are you thinking? So there's there's 3 parcels that are on the same road. Can we say we can define what parcels are?
Because I don't, I'm not sure I know. Oh, yeah. A parcel is just a piece of land. Oh, okay. Okay.
Yeah. It's like, like a house is on a parcel of land. Okay. Yeah. So yeah.
Those there's 3 pieces of land on the same road. And on those three pieces of land, those will all be off grid. That's the goal. Off grid living with tiny house structures where people there'll be gardens there as well where people will be learning how to maintain and, like, take care of those spaces and that people can stay there, like, as, you know, camping or glamping ish experiment experience, not well, life is an experiment, but experience. Right.
And then there will be one parcel that has, you know, the electric, the things that we know and love with other tiny house structures on there as well. The idea is to have classes out of there, but it's also to if people want to, like, stay there as well and visit, That's a that is also I'm hoping for that to also be a source of revenue for Liberated Lands. Mhmm. Why did you choose Liberated for the name? What does it mean to you?
Liberated. Liberation. So I was thinking, like, when I get my land, I when I get the land in the conventional sense, because nobody really owns land, then this land is gonna be liberated. Like, now it's liberated. Now it's free.
And liberation is, I think, what we're all fighting for right now. Yeah. And I wanted it to be, like, when people show up, they know, like, okay. This is a liberated space. And therefore, it's a safe space.
Mhmm. And I did lands instead of land because I knew I wanted multiple campuses, which is why I'm building multiple partnerships across various spaces and organizations and partners. Yeah. Nice. So how do you find and define liberation?
Oh, that is such a good question. I've answered this question before for a magazine. But I'm gonna use some of the inspiration from that and probably build on my answer. Oh, that just touched my soul. What does liberation mean to me?
I think liberation is, you know, there's always some questions that, like, you know, when you just think about that all the time, like, your life is living it. So then when somebody asks you the question, you're just like, woah. I don't know how to answer this. Right. Right.
And because I'm sitting across from you and I'm thinking that you seem really embodied. Right? I think we live in a world with lots of messaging about many of the identities that we have in our place in the world. So I think we're always gonna have to do some liberation work until our greater context, like, more macro level and until it's liberated. So we no longer operate under hierarchical ideologies that say some groups are better than others and so on and so forth.
But in terms of, like, your personal power sitting across from you, it feels you feel super, like, embodied in your liberation. Thank you. That feels thank you for that. Yeah. I think that liberation is self care.
Absolutely. I think liberation is slowing down. I think liberation is compost. I think liberation looks like I'm not gonna I I can't give, like, the, I think, the typical answer right now. I'm just giving examples of, like, what it looks like.
I think liberation is cooking for your family as a man or woman or a non gender identifying person and being proud of that and not being pressured to think that cooking for whatever reason is some lower class thing. Right? That you should be getting food or going out to restaurants and things like that. Like, cooking for yourself is liberation. You know?
Growing food is liberation, actually. And we've been fooled to think that the land is our oppressor. Right? And that the land is what enslaved us. No.
The land did not do that. Right? The land has always been here for us, will always be here for us. Yes. Growing food is liberation.
Learning how to feed yourself is liberation. Reading. Reading is liberation. Reading the right things is liberation. So is writing.
Yeah. Singing. Singing is also liberation. Dancing. Yeah.
All those things. That makes me think of liberation. Mhmm. Oh, I didn't mean to cut you off. Sorry.
No. I was trailing off. I was Okay. And so you in those things that you've named, you feel aligned with that? Like, do you feel like you're living that way?
I will do my best. I do my best to do those things. Yes. I do my best to practice self care, to write, to read, to dance, to sing. I am a work in progress, so, you know, I still have to keep up with my tasks, like, you know, doing the annual reports.
Those things that matter, right, on paper for us. It's important to document, you know, your business achievements or and, like, also set budgets and things like that. And I'm 27, so I'm still learning how to do these things. And so I am working on the liberation work balance lifestyle, because work, the way we do it, you know, is whack. But we have to do it the way we have to do it.
Right. Right. So yeah. Is this so your full time work, or are you also working outside of this? Right now, it's my full time job.
I work 2 days a week at my family's restaurant at Jolo's Kitchen in New Rochelle, New York, which is a vegan Itau style food restaurant. My father owns it. Uh-huh. And he's the chef there. I do some baking there and I do some cakes there, and I'm supposed to pick up potentially more culinary responsibilities and grow some food for the restaurant as well this season.
But, yeah, I would say Liberated Lands is my full time job. Liberated Lands is my full time job as well as taking care of myself, which is another full time job. It is. It really is. I just like that in a world where there are so many systems that would wanna pull us out of balance.
Right? I I think of liberation also is about balance, And I think of balance, like, in that in that space that you described for us, the self care, the, you know, the scent the self the centering, not self centered, but self centering in order to be connected to yourself first and everything else rooted in that extension. Right? And so in a world where a 9 to 5 could potentially pull you out because you got you gotta leave the house. I work at home, and I work for myself as well.
But pull you out of the house at, like, 7:30, 8 o'clock for your commute, and you might not come back to 6, 6:30. It's like that's the potential, but you chose otherwise. You made choices in favor of your freedom, your liberation. And so I think that that is, like, celebration worthy. Thank you.
Yeah. I just kinda figured that look. I have this business. I had this fundraiser. I also had this really successful Kickstarter.
Like, I seem to be getting a lot of support right now. I'm 27. At the time, I was 25, I think. I'm like, I don't have no. I quit my full time job this past fall.
So I was 26. I'm like, look. I don't have kids. Right? I don't have, like, the responsibilities that, you know, that make people stop and think.
Right? Like, I'm actually gonna keep my I need to keep my job because I have a child to take care of, or I need to keep my job because I have my mother to take care of, or whoever else. Like, I have been blessed enough to have so much support again from my family and to be put in certain rooms and through my schools and different jobs and internships to get me to this place that made me feel like I have to keep going. Like, I need to give this my full potential. I don't wanna keep writing these expense reports for nonprofits that I won't ultimately benefit from.
You know? Like, they're when you're working for someone else, you're working for somebody else. Mhmm. And I was ready to stop treating my passion as, like, a side gig or a side hustle. And that's what it was feeling like.
Yeah. And I have had so much more time to, like, think about what I want, one for myself, and how is the rated land going to grow. And I've been really happy with the work that has been done and how it's growing and how there's things being delegated now. I can successfully say liberated lands aren't just me. Yes.
I'm the fund founder. I still do a lot of the work, but I have a collective around me. On the about page at liberatedlands.org, it does say that Liberated Lands is intended to be a collective of educators. At the festival, I'm not teaching the Elderberry workshop, I'm not teaching the Chagong workshop. I have a collective of educators and people who are dedicated to the mission and want to also see Liberated Lands grow and support it.
Like, I'm not the one just building this, building the stage at the festival. I had someone within my collective within my network helping me and supporting me. And it's just been great to, like, find a group of people who are about it. Yeah. So I just feel like I can't stop now.
Good. So you said earlier you mentioned ancestral your and the altars that you have at the festivals festival and stuff like that. Is that part of your liberation practice, having a relationship with your ancestors? Yes. I think history is, in general, a part of, I think, liberation like, practicing liberation.
Yes. Sankofa. Right? You have to understand your past to know where you're going. And, yeah, sometimes reading about history can be hard.
Sometimes healing can be hard. Like, you know, there's different like, we talk about the right now, I think there's a lot of people talking about, like, healing and self healing and the healing journey and how hard it gets. Right? Sometimes you're just angry. And sometimes I'm reading some political philosophy.
I'm just angry. And I have to, like, handle that anger rather than, like, go outside and take it out on someone or something or you know? So remind me of your question. Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts. What was oh, if you have ancestral practice and if that's part of your liberation practice.
Right. Yeah. I am connected to one of the educators within the Liberated Lands Collective is this artist and healer. She goes by the name of Amulet Fairy. Her name is Sam.
And she is I don't believe that she was really the first person that introduced me to the concept of altars, but she was the first person that introduced me to the curation of altars and how important it is to welcome your ancestors to into a space and how, yeah, how important it is yeah. How important it is to, like, make sure your ancestors feel welcome and acknowledged, and why it is important to have your people's ancestors present with them when they arrive. And so, yeah, I would say that I do my best on a regular basis to recognize that I'm not here alone and I didn't get here alone and that I'm I'm I'm nowhere without my ancestors. Mhmm. I can't point to, like, rituals that I do on a day to day basis, but it's just more of, like, a consciousness that I have that yeah.
It's just I think it's just more of a consciousness. I'm gonna leave it there. Mhmm. That's important. And so, lastly, are there any tips, right, if we're narrowing down back to, like, your area is connection with land, also foods and stuff like that.
For the rest of us, as we're thinking about liberation with respect to those two domains, what advice, what tips, what guidance could you share with us? Tips for liberation? With respect to, like, land. Like, you have it down pat. I got my land.
I got my you know, the projects that you're doing, and you have and you share with us just now how we can preserve foods and and, you know, all those kinds of things. What are some takeaways that we could have about how we can implement any of it in our lives? Mhmm. I always have to cite the people who, like, inspired these thoughts. So at Roots and Culture Farm, they practice a really amazing thing called consent on all the levels.
And I would say that every and what Jocelyn says and what I completely agree with is that everything is about consent. And so when you are going into the land, right, if you are trying to buy land if you're at the stage of buying land, which is at the extreme stage, and then I think I'll I guess I'll bring it back from there. If you're at the extreme extreme range of, like, you're buying land now, get to the land, meet the land. You know, like you're meeting a person. Get to the land and meet the land.
I wouldn't say just observe the land, but, like, get to know the land. Walk around. Look around. Right? Don't I think something that a lot of people ask me is, like it was funny.
My first neighbor asked me when he first met me. He was like, what do you have planned to do here? And I was like, I have to let the land talk to me first. Like, I have to let the land decide. He was looking at you like, wait.
What? Yeah. He was. Yeah. That he was.
Most people do, and I'm very used to people looking at me that way. But, yeah, I know, when you buy land, you know, have a discussion with the land before you decide that you're going to do something. Right? Have a consensual conversation about, you know, your dreams and aspirations and what the land can allow. Because the land will tell you what is not possible after you've already spent x amount of dollars in doing certain things.
Right? So I think that on the smaller scale of, like, how, like, liberation in the land or just, I guess, on a general scale, I would say something to keep in mind is that the scene of the crime, which is, you know, worldwide oppression, is the earth. Right? Mhmm. And we are all extensions of the earth, ultimately.
So, like, as we are fighting for our liberation, we need to remember, like, the earth also needs liberation. So let's not get caught up in these, like, made up things like the economy. Like, I don't like, what is the economy? You can't touch it. Like, you can't, like what is it?
You can't touch it or feel it. It's not an emotion. It's not a physical structure. What is it? Right.
You know? So but as we are, like because I we're in this awakening. We really are. So as we are, like, fighting for what is right, like, let's not forget about the Earth and the land, and that the Earth and the land also needs to be found. Yeah.
I can attest. I didn't do the relationship with the land, consent with the land. I didn't do that. I didn't know what to do when I was buying this house or my last house either. But for something that I'm going to do, I wanna get land in Grenada.
My husband is from Grenada as well as I have my, some of my grandparents are also Grenadian. And so I the way that I have a pro like, it's something in the making of maybe even a 2 or 3 years off still. But I I I I can I sat and I spoke with them from the beginning and asked them for their help in the process, and just miraculous things seem to keep happening towards that end? And I can't wait to be at the end of the story to share the glory of the story, but I also know and trust that because I've I've consent I've asked them in this way, they think he told me what to do. They keep pointing me in the right direction and who to talk to and how to talk to.
And, you know, because I asked them, this is what I wanna do with Atlanta's at. You know? Because what I wanna do is build a retreat. Or so I'm gonna have a place that my family can stay on the side. But I wanna build, like, a 20 room kind of retreat and have, like, you know, part of the retreat being, like, a mango tree, the you know, all sorts of vegetation around so that we can connect back to the land, connect back to ancestry, whether you're from Grenada or what what have you.
Even in this, they've made me know my ancestors with my ancestral practice. I've never even really thought of my indigenous heritage. Right? And so I do have who are now called Caribs, but they were Quilinago from the area that is now called Guyana in South America that populated Grenada, Puerto Rico, a lot of places. Right?
But even in this journey, because I've included them and had this relationship, I've come to even that knowledge. Right? So it opens up something brand new for you. It makes it so that, like, you were just sharing about how many people are invested and are helping you, like, invested really, like, donated even and, a part of this collective. It blesses it in a way that if we approach it in capitalistic, Eurocentric ways, like, I own the land, which is, no.
We're stewards of the land. It decolonizes it. And like you said, it liberates the land as well. Do you know who were the original people of the land that you have? So I don't fully know yet.
No. I can't say I fully know. I I believe that they were a part of the Algonquin. But, yeah, I don't really know because I know the Algonquin people are, like, circles of all these different people. I just started reading Native New Yorkers, actually.
I'm, like, almost through the whole chapter. I'm almost through the whole New York City chapter. And I've yet to get to Westchester, which I'm excited to get to, and the Hudson Valley and other and, like, other parts of upstate New York. But I still need to do more research on that, to be honest. Well, I love that you've already. I mean, you already gave the web it'll be good, I guess, to to, like, know the name and the culture of the people, but you've already done so much work and that you've you've you've worked directly with the people.
You know what I mean? With the people of the lands by asking for, you know, consent and different things like that of the land and of the people, the original peoples of the land. So that is good. I'm glad that we had this conversation. It was everything that I had hoped it would be.
And do you have any final words for our audience? Free your mind. Free the land. Yes. So as with every guest, in the description box below, we'll have Issa's contact information because I'm trying to go to the festival so that we can join in this collective, in these efforts going to the festival.
So thank you so much, Ysaan. Thank you. Thanks for listening. If you've loved what we've had to share and wanna be the first to get releases of our new episodes and learn about events, download our free app, Living Liberated, in the Apple or Google Play Store.
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