This article is from the Summer 2022 Agraria Journal.

By Omopé Carter Daboiku

My path to now started in Ironton (Lawrence County), Ohio, in north central Appalachia, along the river bordered by West Virginia and Kentucky. I've had an affinity for growing food all the life I can remember. As a small child I had three unfenced family properties to roam. My mother told me the first time she “lost” me, I was found in my great-aunt’s garden, slurping on strawberries, oblivious to the flies and bees. Hill climbing, crawdad catching, star gazing, and preparing our backyard garden were childhood joys.

As an adult, I lived in Cincinnati for over 30 years, growing a reputation as wordsmith, storyteller and actor. With great hesitancy, I moved to Dayton in 2012, and was “told” that I would work on food issues. I thought that meant I would work on my own body, pudgy after late-life childbearing—and late-night meals. But the move finally made sense during Covid-19 quarantine. While shut up in the house, I pondered what I would regret not having done if “the rona” caught me. My childhood dreams had manifested: traveling abroad performing, my name up in lights and in print.

Then the revelation came: There were no regrets, but the future needed me. I needed to teach others how to grow food, particularly those who grew up on concrete.

Once acknowledged, the Universe began to spin and made manifest my destiny. Within 48 hours, I was asked to create a community garden in one of Dayton’s most financially challenged neighborhoods. While there, a fellow elder visited and invited me to visit Greater Edgemont Community Coalition’s (GEEC) Solar Garden, founded in 1978 by southern migrants who had come to Dayton for the security of industrial wages. They had retained agricultural knowledge; however, as they passed away, so did the ancestral wisdom about food systems. Living on an abandoned industrial landscape, Edgemont residents face serious health disparities, many that could be addressed with dietary changes; but living in a nationally recognized food desert makes obtaining healthy, affordable produce nearly impossible.

I joined the board of GEEC thinking I would support the reclamation of the greenhouse and neighborhood garden program; but, the Universe had more in store. Through bumps and twists I became the Farm Manager and site liaison for Central State University Extension’s beginning farmer incubation program. Then, I was chosen to be in the first cohort of Agraria’s Regenerative Farming Fellowship, in 2021. During those 28 weeks, I relived longgone family experiences and bonded with others striving to share Earth wisdom.

At near-70, I have come to recognize when I am “pot bound,”when I need to stretch out and continue growing. Being asked to be Agraria’s first artist-in-residence was indeed that “new pot”! It has been an honor to work along staff who recognize how important story-sharing and storytelling are, that they are the foundational elements of community building. A shared story forms a shared identity; and, through writing workshops and story performance, I get to weave a garment for a noncontiguous community of Earth stewards. I relish having a nearby rural landscape that offers solace for my heart and inspiration for my soul.

When asked about church affiliation, I reply that I’m a member of the Church of Dirt; working the soil is a meditative practice for me. The poem with the same name on page 25 was written during my first Dayton summer Residents from Greene, Clark and Montgomery counties shared their stories as part of Story Collection project led by Omopé Carter Daboiku. Their stories were audio recorded and made into a digital anthology. The series was funded by an Ohio Arts Council grant. when I was growing food around the bricks of my apartment patio. I think of the poem now as a prophetic indicator of where my life was headed. Ase'!

Omopé Carter Daboiku, a storyteller, writer, and educator is Agraria’s first artist-in-residence and Farm Manager of Edgemont Solar Garden in Dayton, Ohio.

Click here read the full Summer 2022 issue of the Agraria Journal.