Edible Activist

The land remembers. And Nana listening. In this episode, Melissa L. Jones sits down with Nana Kumi, a queer Black southern artist, filmmaker, herbalist, and land steward from Natchez, Mississippi — and project director of Spirit in Our Roots, an art-based land initiative uplifting Black growers and land stewards across Mississippi and Louisiana. Nana's work lives at the intersection of ancestral technology, plant medicine, and Black southern imagination, creating visual and spiritual landscapes that invite rest, memory, and radical dreaming. Nana takes us through a childhood in rural Natchez where imagination became survival, to a career in New York that Covid cracked wide open, to coming home to the land and the ancestors waiting there. She speaks to the memory held in soil, in water, in trees, and in the plants that guide her creative work in ways she is still learning to name. This one is medicine.

Some of the most powerful lessons come from the most ordinary moments — a grandmother's garden, a Sunday dinner table, a bowl of grits. Melissa L. Jones is joined by Sade Meeks, dietitian, storyteller, and founder of GRITS (Growing Resilience in the South), recording live from Jackson, Mississippi. Sade's journey is one of homecoming — from standing on a booster seat to watch her mama cook, to crying in a California coffee shop realizing her purpose was back home in the South. Together, they explore why Black Southern food has never been the problem, how Sunday dinner is a form of medicine, and what it means to build a movement out of the stories our elders are still living to tell — including Sade's grandmother, whose century of living — and the stories she carried — are at the very heart of this work.

Host Melissa L. Jones sits down with Dr. Celeste Davis—public health educator, design strategist, and director of the Public Health Scholars Program at American University—for a thoughtful conversation on how food justice, public health, and community power shape one another in today’s shifting landscape. Through her path as a bridge-builder, Dr. Celeste shares why food justice is rooted in dignity, culture, policy, labor, land, and the structures that determine who gets to thrive. She reflects on the possibilities and limits of policy, the importance of local action, and how design thinking and empathy can create systems that feel liberatory rather than transactional. Grounded in her work with emerging public health leaders, she offers a hopeful vision for collectively designing a more just and community-centered future.

Returning-generation farmer and community herbalist Bianca “Umi” Anthony shares how she’s reclaiming seven acres of her family’s 1950s land in rural Bertie County, NC—reviving legacy, building Seed of Life Farm, and raising her three kids “no screens” while they learn to grow. We talk medicinal herbs and cut flowers, creating a healing space for community retreats, the realities of solo stewardship and mentorship, and why a deer fence and basic infrastructure matter for the first growing season. Umi invites listeners into a vision of generational healing rooted in the soil.

Erin Cole, founder of Nurturing Our Seeds in Detroit, shares how a porch-side safety moment on Helen Street—mowing vacant lots for elders—grew from a first flower patch into mustard and turnip greens, and ultimately a neighborhood farm and seed-saving hub. We dig into living soil, herb-based compost teas, seed starting as food sovereignty as they supply transplants to 14 Black farms and save okra seed with the Ujamaa Seed Cooperative, and adapting to climate chaos with part-shade cucumbers. We also talk land access and how the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund strengthens community control—plus Erin’s quest to breed a hot pink okra.

From living-room swaps to a decade of citywide pop-ups, Zsameria Rayford’s SWAP DC → SWAP Universe shows how style and sustainability move together. This episode digs into the operational backbone, the ethos, and the outcomes—thousands of pounds of textiles kept out of landfills while neighbors trade clothing, plants, books, and ideas. We connect circular fashion to health and land stewardship and outline replicable models for your own community swap. A clear, on-the-ground example of the community-rooted change celebrated on Edible Activist.

Najwa Womack, founder of SiStained8 in Washington, D.C., traces her path from early nature moments to teaching compost as the art of growing soil. She defines composting in plain language, explains essentials like source-separated organics and feedstock, and tackles common myths about smell and time. Najwa connects kitchen scraps to city-scale solutions—cutting landfill methane, strengthening local soil and food, and reducing flood risk. She shares simple ways to begin at home, in schools, and with community drop-offs, outlines a vision for more three-bin and tumbler sites, and reflects on her work as a U.S. Composting Council Advocate of Compost, where national policy meets neighborhood impact.

Cotton has long been a cornerstone of American agriculture and culture. Julius Tillery, a fifth-generation cotton farmer and founder of Black Cotton, is reshaping how we see this iconic crop by turning it into a source of artistry, heritage, and opportunity. In this conversation with host Melissa L. Jones, Julius shares his journey of embracing his family’s legacy, raising awareness about the decline of Black cotton farmers, and inspiring future generations through culture, innovation, and a deep connection to the land.

Chef, storyteller, and advocate Antoinette Johnson takes us back to her Black Southern roots, where family traditions and community gatherings first sparked her love for food. She shares how those early influences—and moving across different states—shaped her culinary voice and storytelling lens, leading to her big win on America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation. This is a conversation about honoring heritage, amplifying Black foodways, and carrying legacy forward—tune in for a story that will leave you inspired and hungry for more.

After a traumatic brain injury in 2014, Chef Marly — a classically trained chef and Washington native — found healing in an unexpected place: the soil. In this episode, she shares her journey from the kitchen to farming, how growing food supported her recovery, and what’s been keeping her hands in the dirt this season.

In this episode of Edible Activist, Melissa sits down with Kenny and Cutt, the co-founders of Melon Nation — two Black farmers and agricultural specialists bringing fresh seeded watermelon and tropical fruits to communities across the East Coast. Together, they share how Melon Nation is building a vibrant supply chain rooted in health, sustainability, and cultural expression, while creating spaces where art, agriculture, and community flourish. From their mantra “It takes a seed to build a nation” to their mission of connecting rural, suburban, and urban communities, this conversation is all about the power of food to unite and inspire.

Ora Kemp, creator of The Bodega Bites, is on a mission to make sure everyone’s eatin’. As a 2025 Castanea Fellow and Senior Policy Advisor with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, she offers a candid look at New York City’s food landscape, the stakes for SNAP, and the difference between food insufficiency and insecurity. We also explore how rising food and housing costs are reshaping communities—and the bold ideas needed to build a just, resilient food system.

What would our world look like if Black imagination led the way? In this episode, Artistic Director Aisha Shillingford of Intelligent Mischief joins me to explore the power of speculative world-building as a tool for liberation, healing, and community transformation. We talk about what reparations and land justice could mean for our food systems, how Afro-futurism can reimagine our relationship to land and growing, and why cultural programming can be a catalyst for deep collective care. Together, we envision new, thriving worlds where Black people are sovereign, joyful, and free.