Could you please tell us about Yourself and where we are right now?
I'm originally from New York City. I'm a plant-based chef, music producer, just a creative person, and I love gardens. I've been living in Los Angeles for the last nine years, and gardens and green spaces have been a common thread throughout my time here.
We are in a section of L.A. also known as Adams-Normandie. Adams-Normandie is part of the greater West Adams district, historically known as Sugar Hill. This neighborhood was home to many prominent Black artists and leaders, including Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel and civil rights attorney and judge Loren Miller. A lot of Black Hollywood lived in this area at a time when they couldn't live anywhere else, and eminent domain was used to seize large parcels of land in this area to make the Ten Freeway. So it's an interesting historical place. We're also on the outskirts of the USC campus.
Could you talk to us about your community garden?
We're at the Erika J. Glazer Community Garden. This is a space that affords people in the community plots. They are plots that members of the garden operate and upkeep. There are also communal spaces. This is like an oasis in the middle of this concrete jungle.
I got my plot in the fall of 2024, I think around late October. My plot was rugged when I first got here. It was all full of weeds, and it hadn't been tended to in a while. But I enjoyed the process of sort of reanimating it. It reminded me of revitalizing or restoring a house. I'm not a master gardener. I'm still someone that's actively learning the process, but I look at the garden as a place to actually make mistakes willingly, or maybe unwillingly, and then make the correction afterwards. So it sort of mirrors life in that way.
My plot right now, it's a little bit of a mixed bag. I have a strawberry plant there. I have a plant called Chipilín that was sort of grandfathered in from the previous person that was in my plot. I have two big sunflower plants. I have some amaranth, which spreads around very easily. I have maybe two different types of mint, I have garbanzo beans, I have kale.
I'm going to plant some stuff too. I have some stuff going in the greenhouse that I've started, like some cucumbers and things like that. I want to create a little watermelon patch in the back in one of our communal spaces. And I'd also like to help build a medicinal herb plot.
Could you describe the different ways that you use this space?
I use this space in a multitude of ways. I might come here and take a nap, believe it or not. I might come here, bring my laptop, and do some work. I might even conduct a business meeting here, depending on who it is or what it is I'm looking to do.
In the beginning of the new year, I celebrated my birthday, and I had a small birthday gathering here. I have a vision of possibly doing a chef tasting here. Earlier this year, in response to the fires, I got support from the Land Trust to produce an event where I literally handed out prepared meals to people. I also created a herb blend that helps heal our lungs because we had a lot of ash in this community from the fires, so our air quality was compromised.
The Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust is offering me a lot of opportunities to bring my strengths to the table and to help add to the fabric of this community. I see that similar to a plot of land, right? Someone might see a plot of land and it's just dust and dirt, but somebody might say, you know what, I can grow an avocado tree here. I can feed my community through this.
Why do you think community gardens are important?
I think gardens can afford people a different level of peace, a different level of connectivity, a different level of nervous system regulation. As much as we take in the world—whether it's our job, driving, a family, or whatever—we have to have a healthy release and let go. This is a space where you can just leave all of that stuff behind for however long you're here.
These spaces are sacred, and you kind of understand the sacredness just by immersing yourself in these spaces. We have lemon blossoms, we have all types of plants that help our breathing all around us. So you might have a different type of breath in this space. You might find a different type of calm in this space if you allow yourself to. You might have a different type of observation in this space. You might notice the way an insect or hummingbird is interacting with the space. All of these things are a super real part of life that the concrete jungle reality we live in cuts off.
You might connect with another member of this garden, or it could just be the rhythm of working with your hands in the soil. It could be something as simple as the colors that you are observing in the space. The sounds of the birds. We have lemon and other citrus blossoms here. There's a very pungent, beautiful smell that comes from that. All of that stuff is healing.
Why do you think the work of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust matters?
This work matters because it redirects us to our humanity. Our connection to humanity is life itself, right? And this is a place of life, and an organization like the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust helps facilitate this access point all throughout L.A. Our world would be more oriented with healing, more connected to healing, if everyone had access to green spaces.
I have a lot of big ideas and big ambitions, and I feel like this partnership can yield some really unique experiences for people that come by. Some people are not very well connected with these green spaces. I think there's a similar way that most people aren't very deeply connected with plant-based foods.
What are your hopes for the future of green space in Los Angeles?
We need community gardens everywhere we go in this city, especially in densely populated areas. If there were an effort to promote gardening and urban farming in the city, we could almost have an urban utopia, believe it or not. If everyone uses whatever land is available to them— a community garden, their backyard, or the parkway on the sidewalk—we can produce and harvest food and exchange with one another.
Living in Los Angeles offers us a very unique climate and a unique opportunity to grow a variety of things all year round. In New York City, you can't do that. Many places around the country, you can't do that, but here you can. I think that's part of the richness of living here.
Is there anything else you want to mention about your community garden?
I think community gardens offer us an opportunity to test our social skills. In this garden, the majority of people who come here are seniors. I'm one of the younger people who are engaged with this garden. And I'm also not a native Spanish speaker. Most of our population at this garden is from Latin America, and they speak Spanish. Some don't speak English, so it's an interesting opportunity to connect with a different generation, and there may be a language barrier present. I do speak some very basic Spanish, but it's an exercise in the human exchange.
it's of the utmost importance to have these spaces available to people of all ages, all backgrounds, all circumstances, because there's something transformative that happens. There's a different set of instructions, a different knowledge, a different awareness that you can tap into in these types of spaces.