SANKOFA
We Feed The UK
New photography by Arpita Shah and poetry by Zena Edwards, commissioned for nationwide arts and agroecology alliance ‘We Feed The UK’, unveil Black-led food systems change.
In Tottenham and Enfield, Sandra Salazar D’eca runs Go Grow With Love to support women of African and Caribbean heritage in nurturing a symbiotic relationship with local land.
In Haringey, Paulette Henry and Pamela Shor run Black Rootz. The UK’s first Black-led food growing
enterprise to use an indigenous intergenerational approach, they reconnect Londoners with ancestral
knowledge systems, provide access to green space for marginalised communities, and achieve food
sovereignty through glasshouse-grown crops such as sweet potato, squash and tomatillo.
This holistic approach cultivates more than crops; by rooting Black People and People of Colour to their
place in the UK, Sandra, Paulette and Pamela are growing grassroots solutions for racial equality, land
reparations and food sovereignty.
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Commissioned by We Feed The UK to create a photographic study that will inspire public support,
Arpita Shah’s work reflects her own migratory experience and will be exhibited at ONCA Gallery in
Brighton from 25 September - 6 October 2024, as part of the Photo Fringe biennial photography festival.
Creative street advertising specialists Buildhollywood are supporting the project by hosting a street art
campaign from 30th September – 13th October 2024.
Arpita Shah’s images will take over poster sites in
high footfall locations near to Black Rootz and Go Grow With Love, encouraging locals to connect with
their growing communities.
Performance poet Zena Edwards has worked with Hugh Masekela, Baaba Maal and Akram Khan during
her career advocating for climate and environmental awareness. Commissioned for We Feed The UK
with the Hot Poets CIC, she will perform her poem ‘Tincture’ at events in London and Brighton during October.
The Landworkers’ Alliance is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers.
As Environment Partner for this story, they can provide positive pathways for anyone interested in
contributing to an agroecological system that furthers food justice.
We Feed The UK is a national storytelling campaign pairing award-winning photographers and poets
with the UK’s most inspiring food producers. Weaving together more than 40 Arts and Environment
Partners, these radical collaborations are opening eyes and ears to the food system’s potential to
positively impact our climate, wildlife, communities and earth connection.
This story – one of ten exhibited across the UK between now and spring 2025 – centres diverse voices in the movement for a UK-wide transition to agroecological farming and fishing.
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