Yonnette Fleming

Yonnette Fleming
Occupation	Urban Food Justice Farmer
Website	www.hattiecarthangarden.com

Yonnette Fleming is a healer, an Urban Farmer and Community earth steward based in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She is a multi-disciplinary artist.^[1]

Yonnette Fleming is an urban food justice educator for the Hattie Carthan Community Garden Farm in the Bedford Stuyvesant community in Brooklyn, New York. The Hattie Carthan Farm was started by Hattie Carthan.^[2][3] The Hattie Carthan Community Garden farm is located at Marcy and Lafayette in Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood.^[4] It is named after Hattie Carthan. Hattie Carthan founded the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Neighborhood Tree Corps in 1971. She is a community based education initiative organizer. ^[5]

Yonnette teaches the community that growing food is a way for communities to empower themselves and enrich their communities. The farm is an educational farm. They do bee keeping, raise chickens, youth projects, make food products, have cultural events, art exhibits, etc. Their approach is holistic and communal. She is a lifelong musician and trained priestess. She incorporates healing with gardening work and activities.^[6]

One of the missions of the garden is to bridge the gap between generations to collaborate in the sharing of historical knowledge for sustainable living and health. It is a farm urban community where all ages participate in the development, well-being of the gardens, well-being of the community residents of Bedford Stuyvesant community in Brooklyn. She facilitates and teaches the Bed-Stuyvesant community to reclaim and cultivate well being. The garden project is a Bedford Stuyvesant community revitalization project. The urban farm is an educational food justice farm. Food justice is at the core of what Yonnette Fleming does.^[6]

She is a part of a growing movement of community gardeners – growers and the rise of Black farmers.^[7]

Early life

Yonnette was born in Guyana. Her family worked with indigenous communities and grew coconuts, sugar, rice, and other crops. Fleming has worked since 2003 to address food insecurity in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant (or "Bed-Stuy") neighborhood. While working on Wall Street years ago she joined the community garden. She left her wall street job in 2008 in order to invest herself fully into community, food, and community empowerment.^[8] Her grandmother raised chickens in Berbice, Guyana, South America.

Career

Yonnette Fleming has been doing urban gardening and farming for over 16 years. She is a project catalyst and Vice President of the Hattie Carthan Community Garden farm. She is the main coordinator for the Hattie Carthan Herban Farm and two community food markets. She has worked to address Food security and Food justice concerns since 2003.^[9] She teaches local children, and various communities in New York City creative cooking and urban farming at the Hattie Carthan Farm in Brooklyn. She teaches workshops in herbalism and plant medicine. There is also a Hattie Carthan Herban Farm and Apothecary Market. The Herban farm grows and teaches how to use, and cook with medicinal herbs. The cooking classes are free. The workshops teach seniors and youth groups. The Hattie Carthan Garden farms have trained youth chefs. She teaches a Food Justice course for the Farm School in NYC. She is a member of the Farm School's advisory board.^[6][10]

Yonnette is a raphaologist, ordained minister, plant and sound medicine practitioner, reiki master, healing circle facilitator, and a herbal Wysewoman. ^[11]

Photograph of Hattie Carthan Herban Farmers' Market in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Women's History Month, March-2016, Interactive Art Exhibit, Hattie Carthan Herb Garden

Yonnette Fleming is an advocate for community based knowledge systems to build healthy individuals, families, and communities. She works on a local level to address and find solutions for Food sovereignty and food insecurity issues in the Bedford Stuyvesant community. The focus is on inter-generational education, and to address needs of the community; an aging population and youth development. The Hattie Carthan Urban Agriculture Youth Corp employs and educates local teenagers within the Bedford Stuyvesant community. She is the founder of the Urban Bush Educator Project. It is a multi-dimensional ancient healing arts project created by Yonnette Fleming. A healing learning framework for community support,healing, and community revitalization. She combines her healing training with farming and gardening. She conducts workshops in re-connecting with nature,herbal healing, drum journey meditations, percussion circles, nature art, aura cleansing, etc. She has been conducting healing workshops for over two decades.

Yonnette teachings scent making and teaches the connection between healing and scents.^[12] She is a trained Reiki healing master. She considers herself to be a "I consider myself to be a social change activist". She is a Just Food community food educator. Just food is a nonprofit organization in New York City. As a community food educator she gives cooking demonstrations at green markets in New York City.^[13]

External links

• A Day in the Life of an Urban Farmer
• Food justice for All- Hattie Carthan
• Food Justice for All - Growing the food movement from the ground up-BROOKLYN
• Cooking demo @ Hattie Carthan Community Market
• Hattie Carthan - Growing food and community from the ground up
• Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in NYC | The New School
• Hattie Carthan 2014 Season
• Hattie Carthan Volunteer and Youth Testimonials 2014
• Drumming Workshop in the Garden.
• Movement Workshop in the Garden
• Hattie Carthan Community Projects 2014
• Drumming Circles
• Hattie Carthan Community Food Market
• Race in the Food System
• Fort Green - Brooklyn, Community Food Conference
• Black Farms - Grocery Stores
• But What is Yonnette Fleming, Really?
• Yonnette Fleming on Heritage Radio
• Heritage Radio interview with Yonnette Fleming

References