To Repair Our Lives - Mid September, 2021

Share & Repair

I ended the last 'To Repair Our Lives' with wistful words about the sweet potato plants in the garden. ...That somehow the delicate root strands would connect me to generations separated by enslavement, ocean, and centuries. That the root-memory would repair the holes in my genealogical records and story.

Recently I stopped by the St. Mark Giving Garden (also known as Bertha's Kids Garden) in the Hillside Neighborhood of Duluth, MN. There were clumps of sweet potato leaves mounded in a raised bed. They were planted by youth and their adults. I and others had started these plants for the young ones. I have dedicated much of this last year to this garden. I know that residents here have an 11-year lower life expectancy than in neighboring zip codes. I know poverty, food access, health issues, and other results of racial inequity play here more than in most parts of the city.

I know that an African American church, an African American community health organization, and a varied group of partners - churches, synagogue, food co-op, community garden, etc. - and diverse individuals came together to create this garden for the repair of the community's connection, health, cultural identity, and soil. I have had the gift of helping to coordinate this food access, health, racial equity, empowerment project. I have had the gift of creating invitation for white organizations to offer tiny reparation. I have had the gift of repairing my own soul and story as I held out my meager offerings. I am reminded of what so many people know who have much less than I have: sharing from your little, grows spirit and life.

So I held out a handful of bare root sweet potato seedlings...

Regina LarocheSeptember 19, 2021