About this Event
You're invited to a party about the 32nd Street Farmers Market! Bird in Hand is thrilled to launch Story Seeds: Growing Home at the Farmers Market, the result of a thoughtful, years-long project by author Megan Lovely and photographer Michael Caballes. After a morning at the market, the authors will join us at Bird in Hand, just a few blocks up the street, for a conversation with influential figures in Baltimore farming and farmers markets: Eric Jackson, Denzel Mitchell Jr., and Susan Walther.
Since Lovely’s inaugural Story Seeds stand in October 2021, Lovely has gathered more than 200 stories from vendors, farmers, and community members at the 32nd Street Farmers Market through her interactive storytelling practice. These stories, more than twenty hours of recorded interviews, and photographs are woven together in multi-vocal vignettes, demonstrating how, as Baltimore Heritage executive director Johns Hopkins writes, “a market on a parking lot can bring a neighborhood together.”
Books will be available for purchase with signed copies available. A combined 15% of all copies sold will be donated to Baltimore-based nonprofits including the 32nd Street Farmers Market, Black Yield Institute, and Farm Alliance of Baltimore. In addition to selling books, Lovely and Caballes will have original photographs on display; the Story Seeds board documenting the hundreds of stories gathered; and interactive storytelling exercises prompting marketgoers to reflect on their own reasons for showing up at the market.
We can't wait to see you there!
Books will be available at the event.
Megan Lovely is a social practice artist and educator. With her community-engaged arts practice, Recipes for Community, she aims to create space for intentional communion and reflection on the ingredients that make up our communities. Visit: recipesforcommunity.com
Michael Caballes is a food service professional and freelance photographer, specializing in small business startups. Visit: kuhaphotography.com
Eric Jackson is an organizer, educator, and filmmaker, humbly serving as the visionary and a co-founder of Black Yield Institute, committed to building a movement toward Black Land and Food Sovereignty in Baltimore. Currently, he and his team are committed to a 1.25 acre urban agriculture operation and building a cooperatively-owned grocery store in South Baltimore, while also conducting Black-led research, facilitating political education, and organizing an action network.
Denzel Mitchell Jr. brings a fusion of leadership, varied professional experience, and a deep-rooted connection to agriculture. Raised a country boy with cowboy roots in Oklahoma, Denzel’s journey into farming began early, sparking his interest and commitment to food, consumption, production and sovereignty. Denzel was a founding organizer and member farmer of the Farm Alliance. In November 2012, he completed Future Harvest-CASA’s Beginning Farmer Training Program. Soon after, he (alongside a farmer friend, a chef, and a food historian) brought a nearly-forgotten heirloom pepper variety, Baltimore’s Fish Pepper, back to the Chesapeake foodshed’s culinary palette.
Susan Walther is the former secretary of the 32nd Street Farmers Market. She is an avid weekly Market shopper and continues to be delighted with its locally grown produce and ongoing support of entrepreneurial opportunities. A former museum publication designer, she enjoys promoting events at the Market, to encourage greater community participation with its vendors.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bird in Hand Coffee & Books, 11 East 33rd Street, Baltimore, United States
USD 0.00
