Toward a Chican@ Hip Hop Anti-Colonialism; The Chican@ Hip Hop Nation: Politics of a New Millennial Mestizaje; and Chicano Rap: Gender and Violence in the Postindustrial Barrio. Since 2008, he has worked in the decolonial food movement as executive director of the Green Lots Project. He is a certified permaculture designer and became director of The Permaculture Institute of Chicago in 2020.
McFarland applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Food Autonomy in Chicago, and reported the following:
Page 99 of Food Autonomy in Chicago is from the chapter, “Learning from the Land: CommUnity Pedagogy in Place.” This chapter describes pedagogical approaches used by members of the sector of the Black food autonomy movement of which I have been a part for the past 18 years. The discussion about the land as teacher found on page 99 extends from the previous page:Learn more about Food Autonomy in Chicago at the University of Georgia Press website.The students not only learn about the historical genius of African, Indigenous, and diasporic foodways but also how to employ this genius in their own lives. In Indigenous food systems throughout the world complementary planting is used as a technique to improve plant growth, resist disease and pests, and develop soil. ‘Las tres madres’ teach students a practical lesson they can employ in their plots as well as further illustrate the genius of Indigenous people. Along with teaching complementarity, soil conservation, and polyculturalism, las tres madres teach survival, subsistence, and spirit…Through touching the seeds and lovingly tending them, we learn the deep lessons of reciprocity that they teach. We see how they provide a model for human relationships and the values of respect and interdependence central to Indigenous social organization. We see how the uniqueness of each is nurtured when they grow together. The mothers teach us that life requires diversity to thrive as their yields increase in direct proportion to their cooperation.Page 99 is a good place to land if you want to get a general understanding of the book. It captures a lot about what the book is about. The browser will read words like Indigenous, Indigenous Knowledge, land as teacher, reciprocity, responsibility, in lak’ ech, and maiz narratives. Thus, The Page 99 Test is a generally good ‘browser’s shortcut.’ However, it misses a few things that might mislead the reader who happens upon this page. You won’t read about important concerns of the book such as Black American traditions and identity, Indigenous/Black anarchism, gender and race. The browser might miss that the book is an analysis of a primarily Black food movement in Chicago.
The book is an autoethnographic account of my work and that of my camaradas. Primary amongst our concerns is teaching Indigenous (including African and Black American) lifeways in our movement spaces especially gardens and small farms. We have developed a set of ever-evolving pedagogical practices that center elders and the land as our primary teachers. I call these practices CommUnity Pedagogy. This discussion of how ‘las tres madres’ (corn, beans and squash) teach with the assistance of the ‘fourth mother’ (or gardener) is a great example of all that we try to do in this movement; teach sustainability, reindigenize our identities and practices, solve food and health related problems, resist current systemic abuses to Black, Indigenous and other people of color, and work collectively to create a new world. This discussion provides the reader with a glimpse of how we creatively imagine and cultivate a “world in which all worlds fit” using Indigenous Knowledge modified to take on contemporary challenges, technologies and circumstances.
--Marshal Zeringue
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