HbC! FALL POSTCARD: D-Town Harvest
Art and Writing by Aziza Knight
Fall Postcard
by Aziza Knight
Our fall postcards will be available for purchase on our ONLINE STORE soon.
Image Description: A painted image shows two intersecting streets. The street block at the lower left corner shows a building of residence with a tree, and small garden. The street block across the top right shows a few small buildings with signs that read, “Live More Store, Unique Boutique, and Free Market.” Directly to the right is a waterfront and skyline of downtown Detroit. In the lower right corner, a full and bursting garden fills a street block. Within the garden, between plants are the following words, “Self care is taking your power back. I am a miracle. Peace. I am imperfectly perfect. Music is in me. I am safe. Love.”
Plantcestor: Collard Greens, Black-Eyed Pea, Sweet Potato plants
I remember when I first learned the term: “food desert”. I was still in college, and deciding what
I wanted to do with myself, and where I wanted to go. As usual, I waited until the last second to
register for my classes. I ended up “having to” enroll in an urban studies class- and it turned out to be
one of my favorites. I found it appalling that I had grown up in a place, Detroit, MI, that was now being
seen as a desert. “Too much snow for that, right?”, was my first thought, because I had never thought
of the place that bore me as fruit as being a desert.
A food desert is defined as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality
fresh food”. Well, by that definition, I could certainly see how Detroit was probably a food desert. I
grew up in Highland Park, MI where we had one close and accessible grocery store that I could
distinctly remember. I began to become interested in urban design, and the importance of fair policy
and access in cities- especially majority black cities like Detroit.
By the time I’d graduated in 2005, some answered prayers and hard work had manifested a
movement in my home city. Some of the most influential and prominent urban farms in the country
were seeded in Detroit. The farming movement presented people with new solutions to self-
sustainability, self-sovereignty and health.
Our work in the earth, and with the earth, helps keep us connected to the earth. We preserve our
traditions in growing food and medicine, and by remembering and recording the recipes and remedies
that help keep us healthy. This piece celebrates soul food: food that is good for your soul. The three
prominent plants: collards, black-eyed peas, and sweet potatoes soul foods that are harvested
annually in the fall, and prepared, with love as soul food.
-Aziza
Haiku: Ya’ll remember when
Detroit was a food desert?
It ain’t one, no mo’.
Land: Highland Park, MI; Detroit, MI
Fall Colors/Ideas: The earth, and roads are a reminder of the Earth element. The fall is a time of
slowing down, becoming quieter, and harvest. Collard greens, black eyed pea and sweet potato plants
are shown growing on a farm in the city. Families grow food in small plots in their own yards and their
yard trees turn colors as the days grow shorter.
Greens: food in the harvest, grass before the fall of leaves
Represents: life/cycles of life, abundance
Browns: the soil, the fields, bricks of an old home, structure of buildings.
Represents → connection to the earth, the cycles of physical objects.
Reds: Brick/ earth home, tomatoes in harvest