Oral History Archive

Interviews

as part of Free the Land! Free the People!

a study of the abolitionist pod

Community

Services

Unlimited

Interview with Heather Fenney, Cristian Marroquin, and Maira Quintanilla

April 2024 | South Central, CA

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Avery Clark [AC]: In what year was Community Services Unlimited founded? 

Christian Marroquin [CM]: Community Services Unlimited was founded in 1977 as the non-profit arm of the [Southern California chapter] of the Black Panther Party.

ali reza [ar]: What had inspired the founders to create Community Service Unlimited?

Heather Fenney Alexander [HFA]: I think at the time the chapter created the non-profit to do the things that nonprofits do, [i.e] raise resources and carry out programing. The non-profit was the arm through which the local party carried out community programs, food giveaways, health screenings, Freedom School, that kind of work. Then with the demise of the party in the eighties, the folks who had founded CSU kept it operating, kept it running, and had it maintained as a vehicle to support other community grassroots efforts that were coming up and act as the fiscal agent. [Some of which were] Police Watch, Community to Support the Gang Truce, [and] other organizations through that time. Then in the later part of the nineties, our former executive director, Neelam Sharma, came on board as a volunteer and the party was still doing some of the work. You could see some of [her work during] that [time] in the photographs behind us, [she] really helped to reinvigorate CSU to do its own programing. [Neelam] reformed the board, revisited the by-laws and initiated processes that brought together the programming that we have today.

AC: Under what conditions or circumstances was Community Services Unlimited founded under?

HFA: I think what is most relevant now is this current iteration of our work, because we're an organization with a really long history, you know, 46 years old. But our food systems-focused work has been in place for about 25 years, and has kind of been in the making. There's a lot of parts to that story. It's the story of the neighborhood. It's the story of individuals. But in part, I would say that, some of that story, it's not all my story to tell. But Neelam was living here in South Central with her children, going to neighborhood schools, encountering all the same issues that folks across South Central have with accessing healthy food and started to organize just as a parent, doing that work with the Healthy School Food Coalition and looking and trying to get healthier stuff into schools and then her son also as a young teen, had friends and she was converting her yard into a space where she would grow food and was involving young people in that work. I think you'll hear more of our stories. So much of what we do like has grown organically from what was happening. But I mean, the context of that was just that there was this immediate need for access to healthy food, but there was also a community interest in healthy food at a time - because remember this is like 25 years ago - when there wasn't the same kind of public support and thinking about food and food systems and food justice in a mainstream way that we are now. She was doing that work and then brought together a group of community partners,young people, a big group of middle school students and high school students and community members to do a neighborhood food assessment, like really mapping the food resources of the immediate neighborhood where she was. I think it was - I can’t remember the exact boundaries - it was like Vermont to Western and then like Slauson to King. This is a very small piece. I might have those exact boundaries wrong. And then through also with that mapping was this long engaged conversations with community members, children, parents, small businesses. What did we want? And really, they knew - I mean, I say we, I wasn't there at the time - but they knew what folks wanted, right? They wanted healthy food. They wanted their kids to learn about food, they wanted...It was really just documenting what we already knew. In order to counter this misconception that if you are having to feed yourself on a limited budget, then somehow you care less where your food comes from. Of course that's not true. That assessment was the launching point for what we called the Community Food Village, and that was after-school programs, internship programs, gardening classes, and then the social enterprise eventually, and all this kind of interconnected web of food systems oriented programing that came to be that is food focused, but really is kind of community development, personal development, economic development in its intention. It's just really using food as that tool because it's such an effective and powerful tool for so much community building and personal building and all of that.

ar: Describe the community in which Community Services Unlimited was founded?

CM: The project was founded here in South Central LA, and it was founded on this request and need for locally fresh organic food. And also, like Heather mentioned, there is a demand for not just having access to food, but growing food and learning how to grow their own food. That's why we have gardening gateway workshops that we do over at the Farm.

AC: Can you share more about the farm?

CM: The Expo CSU Urban Farm is a farm located on King and Bill Robertson lane. It’s right next to the Coliseum. And that's the space we use more as a learning ground where individuals can come in, learn about growing their own food, maintaining the food,and a place where we host workshops, where we provide free materials and a cooking demo and supplies so they can do what they learn in the farm at home. This space has been around for about 20 years. We broke ground in about in 2004 and we have all sorts of fruits and vegetables growing in the space: herbs, California native plants that we've added, culturally relevant crops, mushrooms. It's a space where individuals can come in and learn how to grow their own food.

ar: Can you share more about the CSU Village Marketplace? 

Maira Quintanilla [MQ]: The Village Marketplace [VPM] is CSU Social Enterprise and the market downstairs really grew as an extension from the work that we were doing at the farm. It started with an abundance of produce that was growing there. And community members who were coming through and volunteering saw all the beautiful things that were coming and wanted to buy it. There was a pop up that kind of started and grew from there where community members would come through and buy food that was grown here in South Central. From that then we saw that there was a kind of a further interest in that [resource]. We [also] saw community members that couldn't come to the stand, which was [available] a couple hours, one day a week. [This need] then that kind of grew into a delivery service and a CSA, a produce back subscription service, where we would deliver and it would be a surprise bag of fresh, fresh fruits and veggies for folks. Then from there, not wanting to have any food waste, we did our value-added products. Making jams and jellies from any fruit that was too sad to sell -you know, it's still perfectly good. But that's kind of another way that we would use what was being grown at the farm and not waste anything. And just seeing the support that grew from that, we really expanded and at some point in 2007 - no, when did we buy? Like Heather shared I love her joke, CSU continues to grow organically and she can share a little more about the center and where we are now.

HFA: Yeah…the Village Marketplace as a social enterprise was growing. We got to the point where we had like five or six stands every week. We were delivering produce bags to multiple locations. We were regularly catering, we were creating value-added products, partnering with a number of local farmers, sourcing from our own farm. But there was a need for space. Like so many in South Central, we were being displaced consistently. We would be in one location and we got bumped to another and we got bumped to another. And we recognized like so many [others], we needed a piece of dirt, right? We needed a place to be where we knew we could build and grow. And we saw the future. The Lucas [Museum] was coming in, the soccer stadium was coming in. SoFi, the developments happening along Manchester, all of this kind of wave of gentrification that was coming and that we needed to get someplace before we wouldn't be able to be here. We looked for a space for a long time that could house our food hub and also our programming. We had a lot of really unique kinds of needs for our space, and luckily this space came available and we were able to purchase it in 2015 and there's a lot of information online about that. That's its own story. But we developed this space, and so the first floor is the Village Marketplace Community Food Hub, and then the entire property we call the Paul Robeson Community Wellness Center. This is our organizational headquarters where we operate our community programs, outreach, education and training programs out of. And then the first floor is all the VMP. The café in the front and the market and café in the front. We have a commercial kitchen in the back and an urban farm space that is developing on site as well.

ar: Can you elaborate more on food justice in relationship with gentrification, displacement, and the ownership of land? In consideration of spaces like South Central Farm, and more recently Compton Community Garden and Plant Chica that have been impacted? 

HFA: Yeah, I think that's exactly what led us to needing to purchase this space, or a space, so that we could avoid that, because we see that [displacement]. In fact, we've encountered efforts to displace the farm multiple times - where we've had to organize community campaigns to ensure that we could stay on that land because of all this pressure to turn it into a parking lot. Higher value, right? Parking cars is a higher value for land than it is growing food. Because that's a part of Park and Rec that's public land that we have an agreement to use. But even public entities are pressured to put their land to a higher value. That's the space we've had to defend twice.

CM: Three times?

HFA: Definitely two…We've had two full on community campaigns, letter writing, you know, all of that and it's not outside the possibility it could happen again. I mean, what is there to say about it except for it is really happening, right? We [gather] as much resources as possible that can be driven toward helping community, people, community groups, community-invested entities to own up land. Otherwise, how do people stay [rather than] to be displaced? I mean, I think the other thing - that maybe Maira can say more about this - is something that we've always been conscientious of as well, because we're bringing in this beautiful market with the highest quality of food that is unique in terms of accessibility around here. How do we ensure that [this resource] maintains - that it's here for the historic residents of the community and that it's not seen as a role in [furthering] gentrification? Because just on aesthetics...Maybe Maira can say what the experience is with some folks coming into the market.

MQ: Yeah, I think that [experience is] definitely something that's being felt by community members here in South Central. I mean, the folks who have lived here historically come through and share about how they can't come through the market anymore because their rent got raised too high [so] they had to move away. We've had folks who come into the store now that don't look like historic community residents if we're being honest. They're supporters, but they're definitely new to the neighborhood. When we have community members who are here - and they have shared, like Heather mentioned, that they didn't think that the store was for them - but [like] I mentioned, we have a suggestion board. I stock what folks are asking for. We have plant based milks because Black and brown folks are lactose intolerant. I make sure that we source items that are accessible and because that's another thing, food insecurity and people's limited budgets. It's just really real. When community members come in and see - because we're all local, we all live within 20 minutes of the store. The staff - we all are buying what we're selling. Folks really do appreciate that we're here for the community. When we share information about our programing and the kind of bigger picture of all that we do,  they're very receptive to it and are interested in being involved however they can and supporting. Because it is felt. People do come in like, “This place is so nice - are you guys in different places?” thinking that we're like a…

HFA: …chain?

MQ: Yeah, exactly. They think “chain.” That's what they think that we're kind of [a] part of something bigger. We're like, we're just here and trying to grow and support the community and stay local. It's something that's seen and felt. But we do our best to try to show folks what we're about. 

HFA: I think what Maira said, that we are actively seeing ourselves losing customers because they're moving to the Inland Empire, because they're moving out of state. We've had many sad farewells where the customers come in for their goodbye. You know, 

“I'm not going to see you.”

“I'm moving in with my daughter in Texas.”

“I'm moving to my cousin's in Florida.”

“I'm moving out to Lancaster.” 

HFA: We even have some folks that when they're in town visiting the folks who are still here, they drop in. “Hey, I'm in the neighborhood. How's it going?” You know, and come by and shop. We see that happening. The other thing I also want to add is I think, like Maira said, we do obviously have customers we see coming in who are not historically from the neighborhood. They're new to the neighborhood. And one thing we do in the market is ensuring that the highest quality food is consistently available and as affordable as possible, and that we're not premium pricing because of the lack of accessibility or because of the potential new customer base that's here. We offer a 75% discount on produce for folks who shop with EBT. Maira and the team are actively working to bring in all the products that customers want and ensure that we're very competitive with our pricing. Yeah, so [we] even [are looking] for the best things and buying from people in the neighborhood who grow. We buy from backyard growers and farmers right in the neighborhood as well. We're not just a source for food, but potentially a source for income, right? They can be our vendors and then through the gardening program, we can train you to grow food. We support folks. Maybe Cristian can talk about the South Central Growers and Harvesters Network, which is kind of that bridge between the farm and the store.

CM: The South Central Growers and Harvest Network just kind of developed out of the individuals who are participating in our gardening gateway workshops, who are now growing their own food, maintaining their own food, or have fruit trees in their properties that can now, with the abundance that they have, bring it back to the Village Marketplace to sell it for some side income. We provide not just the tools and some of the supplies like seeds, but we also have a tool library so individuals can use those tools to grow more food or help with the harvesting or help with the transportation of their food to the Village Marketplace.

HFA: And then you also provide training on, like, pricing.

CM: Yeah, Thank you. We also provide training on pricing. How to bunch something, how to harvest something, what to look out for, how to help you treat your plants if there is a pest or disease. [We are] trying to find all the necessary tools and knowledge so individuals can go out there and create these little micro-enterprises. 

ar: The training program sounds like community empowerment and autonomy by building localized economies. How can this be a model for the larger agricultural movement towards food justice? 

CM: The way that I see that, like the training or like [how] you mentioned localized economy, if you walk around the neighborhood, you see just about every property that has a fruit tree and just by doing this work, harvesting in different locations, harvesting from the farm, you can kind of guess how much you have in terms of dollars on a tree. That ultimately, what I see, is there's money everywhere where everybody can make a little - a couple bucks - here and there. it just takes the right information [and] training for individuals to feel confident [to] say, “Hey, I can do this. I have either a truck or bike or a backpack or I can just put some fruit in and be able to harvest and increase the access of food to my neighbors or somebody across the street.” There's opportunity here. It really just requires you to just go down the neighborhood to see the amount of fruit trees that you can find and the amount of food available here. Even though it's mentioned and said that [our neighborhood is] a food desert. But, no, there's a lot of food and a lot of potential in our neighborhoods.

AC: What are some contemporary spaces that are doing similar work? 

HFA: There's so many folks, and especially in the last five years, [they’ve] have popped up, and in the last ten years, they are doing things more systematically and even just filling little niches. [There’s] this kind of web that's developing amongst them. I'd say it's hard to name a group because there's so many. I think as an organization, what we look to a lot is inspiration from groups like us that are kind of using food as this tool to really multiply the powerful effects that we can have economically, socially, health [wise and] environmentally, because of food. I would draw attention to - CSU is a founding organization of a national network called the Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD) and there are organizations like CSU that are using food as a community development tool [through] building out spaces, farms, markets in communities that [similarly] to us are facing gentrification, displacement, and are using food as that tool to keep people, and food and things, grounded. Groups like Mandela Marketplace, now Mandela Partners up in Oakland have long [since] been like a sister organization for us [with] doing training, doing urban agriculture, [creating] corner stores [and] working with small farmers. The Detroit Black Community Food Security Coalition is another [organization]. Those are folks that CSU partnered with in [the] early days to help bring together the EFOD Network.

ar: Describe the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on your work. 

MQ: I mean, yeah, it was immediate. That's one of the things, we're a small group, a small organization. We all lean on each other. One of the things was that a lot of our staff were single parents, and had older parents who were fearful of catching COVID. A lot of our team had to step away and we respected that. [We] didn't want to push people and so we had to close down, like physically, the gates were closed and the shutter was down. We still wanted to keep our efforts going so we worked to set up our online web store [and] we set up [a] delivery service. We also partnered with other non-profit organizations in their food distribution efforts [like] churches and other organizations. We worked with like Get Love, Hunger Action L.A. [and] Westside Infant-Family Network [WIN] Families. We partnered with other nonprofits to also do community food distributions and source [food] for them. For a moment we were also able to provide free groceries. But, as time came and went on, we also wanted to keep our support going for the community so we did that for years [being a closed store] but still allowed customers to put in their orders [online] and come in to [pick up]. When we reopened, we were able to also keep that support going by providing [food for] community members who are on EBT food stamps. [We accepted] Cal fresh here [so community members had] the capacity to buy fruits and veggies with their benefits. We were able to offer 75% off [so we were able to support] community members so that they can buy $100 of fruits and veggies for [just] $25 of their benefits. That was one of the ways that we continued our Covid efforts of wanting to support the community. Food access is kind of the big one for the VMP.

HFA: I'll just add one of the major things we did as well on the program side, we have a program where we assist folks in applying for CalFresh benefits. We stepped up those efforts, calling out to partners and doing a lot of online applications, helping people enroll into the program. Then what we set up internally was a program where we were providing groceries to households in that interim between when they would apply and when they would receive their benefits. In some cases, households who didn't receive benefits or whose benefits were dramatically below what their household needed, we continued to provide groceries to them after whatever the outcome was of that. We kept that program going for about a year and a half. We were very intentional with that because we were hearing from folks in the community, especially [the] early days [of the pandemic], when you couldn't get things in the grocery store and the food distributions would happen and I remember one woman telling us her husband - it was like a part time job going from food distribution to food distribution to try to collect the appropriate groceries to actually nourish their family because they were getting potato chips and mac and cheese and very low quality things. So it's like, “Well, we have to go to four or five free food distributions to have enough produce, whole grains, all the kinds of things that can actually nutritionally feed our family.” When we went to create our program, we said, “No, we want to give people the food they need.” So we talked to them [and asked], “Who's in your household? What are your dietary restrictions? What are your health needs?” And [from that inquiry] folks got specific groceries. If they couldn't have dairy, they didn't get dairy. We had people who had medical conditions, severe allergies, and [so] we made sure they got the groceries that were appropriate for their household. That was our own kind of mutual aid effort that we were doing for those households.

CM: At the farm there was definitely a decrease in participants and volunteers that were coming in. We still had one or two individuals coming in [while] still doing social distancing, but through the years of COVID there was definitely a need for more food to be coming in. Through the years of COVID, we didn't have in-person workshops, but instead we uploaded a lot of the workshops to our YouTube page [and] did a lot of livestreams. We did capture other individuals through the livestream and virtual methods. And then just coming out of the COVID years, we did eventually start seeing an increase of individuals wanting to come out, that they were essentially tired of being indoors and having their virtual classes and or virtually volunteering. They wanted to come out and get their hands dirty, participate, [and] be out in nature. [We] definitely saw an increase in that, as well as an importance in growing their own food and not just as a hobby, but the [seeing] larger value of it and the importance in their lives.

AC: Describe the impact of the Uprisings of 2020 on your work? 

HFA: I think in the actual moment, we were still open. We were operating clearly, we had staff who were impacted and how we operated day-to-day [was impacted as well]. There were curfews and all of that that was happening here on the ground in L.A. So we had to adjust to be sure that our staff were safe and could be here. But I think combined from the Uprisings and also from COVID, [there was] this elevated awareness about the need and importance of community self-reliance, in general. I think that [awareness] really has that whole moment, COVID especially, kind of heightened the broader kinds of consciousness. And so, like Cristian was saying, seeing more people involved in the programing and I think it just was a moment for kind of raising consciousness around supporting efforts, like what we're doing. That there actually is a difference between which businesses, which corporation you invest in and all of that. I think that's another place where we see more people kind of engaging and connecting. I think on a larger scale in terms of our work and the work of other non-profits, that there's this interest in investing in the philanthropic community. And even with government funds, investing in community-led efforts, I think those kinds of political movements unfortunately lose steam, in terms of how they influence funders or how they influence investors and whatever. So we'll see how that persists as we get further from that political moment. But yeah, I don't know. I feel like there's more interest and consciousness around kind of why we should invest and deepen our roots around in our neighborhood and with a focus on historic residents.

ar: Describe the notable shifts in your work since 2020 that have been influenced by both the Uprisings and Covid-19. 

HFA: I mean, Maira and Chris, please add. I just want to say that I feel in a lot of ways we're continuing to do what we did, and there’s just - in some spaces, more space to appreciate the dynamics of what we've been trying to do. I think it was harder maybe to explain the interconnectedness of all the things we did to some people before and [now] I think there's more appreciation - because I think the work looks very similar. 

MQ: Yeah, so I can share on the changes and what's going on with COVID and everything. I think like Heather mentioned, there's definitely been kind of an awareness around wellbeing and more of an intention around community efforts. A lot of people, when they come through to the store, talk about how they want to support. That's the big thing. And it's just really kind of inspiring. I mean, like Heather also mentioned, another kind of support, financially and in terms of COVID and the funding that happened with COVID, in the store, we see people who were impacted and the impact continues to be felt. Even with the food distributions running out, people's food stamp benefits have been cut. So now families can't feed their kids during the summer since there used to be a kind of funding for food budgets for the summer for their kids. So it's called pandemic EBT. So kids would get like little lunch cards that they could swipe. And so with money running out from COVID, it feels like there's kind of been like, “Oh, COVID’s over. So people don't need money for - or don't need help with things anymore.” But they've always seen who's there for them. I think that people are really now starting to open their eyes to see where it matters or where it's important to care and where their support is coming from.

HFA: Just in terms of the mechanics down in the store, like Maira was saying, we eventually had to end our free grocery program. But then when we reopened, it was July of 2022. We were closed for about a year and four months to walk-in traffic. We were still doing deliveries and online [orders] but in terms of walk-in customers, we didn't reopen until July of [2022]. When we reopened, we were like, “Well how can we offer the maximum benefit to folks who are coming?” And so we had long time offered a 50% discount on fresh produce and then when we reopened, we expanded that to 75% and now it's all [discounted] produce. So fresh, frozen, canned and dried. We were just like, “How can we make the structure of our business so that offering that added support to community members who needed it wasn't just a one off thing, but it was structurally part of what we did as a social enterprise in the business piece.”  I mean, we're always supporting people with our gardening workshops and all of that. But in the [social] enterprise, how do we expand that support and make it permanent and that was something we knew we could sustain. Like Maira said, CalFresh benefits got cut again last year. [Pandemic] EBT isn't coming back this summer. The food aid - the mutual aid - food distributions are drying up. You know, there used to be many [happening] every weekend, and now they're fewer and far between. So we wanted to try to have a benefit that was kind of sustainable for us long term.

CM: I think I've mentioned it before- that we did see an interest, an increased interest, in [folks] wanting to grow their own food. Folks wanting to learn and to just do some of that hands-on learning. As soon as it started to die down, the COVID restrictions, we started to see a little bit more of an increase at the farm and participation as well. Like I said before, the value of growing food beyond just being a hobby. 

AC: Describe your collaboration with Crenshaw Dairy Mart.

MQ: So, I mean, for a bit, we were even able to support some of the distribution network that was happening with you all [CDM]. I know for a little bit, we supported with orders and things like that, and then we were also able to keep our work going and then through Cristian at the farm and then supporting with the [abolitionist] pod.  It's just been really great being able to collaborate and I know it's going to continue growing. I know Cristian has shared some interesting things that are going to be coming up.

CM: Like Maira mentioned, we provided some support at the [abolitionist pod] (prototype) over at MOCA with some supplies, with seed, soil, and just announcing some of the activities that were happening there. I was able to host, along with Te’Amir, the workshops over at the [Hilda L. Solis] Care [First] Village. That was great working with the different individuals and just seeing their interest because that's always fun - to see other people’s willingness to just get their hands dirty, want to learn, [be] curious. We hosted workshops on soil compost and making tea, using herbs for people and for plants as well. That [experience] was great as well. 

ar: What vision do you hold for the future of food justice programs in our local LA community and beyond?

CM: I would like to say we'll continue expanding the programs and just expanding that interconnectedness between each of the urban agricultural programs with the social enterprise and as CSU as a whole. Just keep growing, doing what we have always been doing and using food as a tool to connect with individuals, to connect with communities, and just creating spaces to share more knowledge.

MQ: I can speak about the growth for the VMP, so for the social enterprise - the Village Marketplace - I'm really excited to keep the store going. I mean, I've got an opportunity already to work with a lot of local entrepreneurs bringing their products into the store. I know you all saw the delivery that we got from Grow Goods, that's a local urban farm out in Bell. We're buying from local growers like Cristian has shared. I'm really excited to see that we're able to support community economic development in that way, but also keep going in supporting folks. In our commercial kitchen the vision is to allow that to be a commercial kitchen for rental for other small businesses to use, to expand with what they're offering. The market is also growing, maybe coming back to the pop-ups that we're doing in other strategic places where folks can have access to produce. Supporting more vendors, bringing more options to folks. I think that we've always done our work, but there's always opportunity for growth and to support each other in different ways. I’m really excited to see the VMP grow and for us to keep doing what we're doing. 

HFA: I think this question, you know about in 20 years what does it look like? I think just as Cristian is saying, just continuing to strengthen the web. I think of it almost like a web, right? Like a spider is building that web… initially it's just a few tension threads, but the wind could still compromise it. A storm could still come. But as we tighten and interweave those threads more and more, then we're stronger. [Now that] we're getting more of our stuff local [and] we're working with more entrepreneurs, a larger portion of what we're selling in the social enterprise is coming from around our community. [Also] the kind of depth of training and knowledge and connection that people are building at the farm is expanding. It's not just expanding because there's more people, but it's expanding, like deepening the roots, right?

The roots are growing deeper in terms of the content that folks are getting. That's one thing that like the Garden Gateway program and the work at the farm, has as the work, quote unquote “grown.” It hasn't always grown vertically, right? Or horizontally. Right? It's growing vertically because those individuals who are coming to volunteer are now coming to a gardening class, and are now selling their produce to VMP. It's not necessarily always more bodies. It's the depth and the interconnectedness of the relationships. I think when we talk about growth, we're not just talking about that typical idea of growth [but instead growth] that's about more people, more places, more whatever. But it's a growth that is deepening as well.

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This interview was conducted by CDM co-founder alexandre ali reza dorriz with 2024 California Lawyers for the Arts Designing Creative Futures Exhibitions Intern Avery Clark on April 10, 2024 at Community Services Unlimited in South Central Los Angeles, California. The archived transcript has been edited by 2024 California Lawyers for the Arts Designing Creative Futures Exhibitions Intern Avery Clark and 2024 Getty Marrow Undergraduate Programs and Exhibitions Intern Avery Collinsbyrd. This interview has been edited for brevity.

Gallery Open

Thursdays - Sundays

11:30 AM - 3:30 PM

On view September 21, 2024 through February 15, 2025

Free the Land! Free the People! a study of the abolitionist pod is organized as a survey and studio of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart artist collective’s ongoing research for the abolitionist pod, autonomously irrigated, solar-powered gardens within modular geodesic domes built with communities impacted by food insecurity, housing insecurity, and the prison industrial complex. The exhibition falls in conjunction with the artist collective’s year of programmed study and research, entitled Imagination Year, collating ongoing illustrations, archival documentation, architectural renderings, sketches, and drawings of the collective’s many configurations of the geodesic structure during its prototype phases as the year-long curriculum engages with a history of collectives and cooperatives at the interstices of food justice, land sovereignty, and the Black Liberation Movement.

The exhibition coincides with a concurrent resource and larger oral history archive indexing the networked Black farmers, gardeners, and Black-led organizations across Los Angeles county with whom Crenshaw Dairy Mart has collaborated with on the abolitionist pod, traversing contemporary movements towards alternative permacultures, which include localized, small-scale farming and micro-farming as models for community care, community safety, and economic autonomy within the larger contemporary abolitionist movement.

Free the Land! Free the People! a study of the abolitionist pod is among more than 60 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art