Panel Discussion: Resistance In and Around Nature’s Metropolis

"Resistance In and Around Nature’s Metropolis" explores methods of land stewardship that can bridge urban and rural divides. This panel discussion will address how food production intersects with environmental and social justice and discuss how facilitating land access for those without can soothe racial and economic disparities around healthy food. Featured guests include Fred Carter, Black Oaks Center; Erika Allen, Growing Power; Ben Helphand, NeighborSpace; and Amy Mall as moderator. This discussion precedes the exhibition The Earth Will Not Abide, on view at Gallery 400 April 21 - June 10, 2017. 

Moderator: 
Amy Mall - Family Farm Defenders 
Panelists:
Fred Carter - Black Oaks Center 
Erika Allen - Growing Power
Ben R. Helphand - NeighborSpace 

The Earth Will Not Abide is an aesthetic response to a world in which seeds and soil are reduced to financial abstractions and where humans disappear into mechanized supply chains. While specifically focusing on the cross-continental relationships between the grain fields of the US, Brazil, and Argentina, this exhibition will question the ecological and social viability of this system while exploring both traditional and emerging alternatives.

This Land/That Land is a program series supported by the Humanities Without Walls consortium, based at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Humanities Without Walls consortium is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This series is affiliated with Deep Time Chicago, an art/research/activism initiative investigating humanity as a geological agency, and offering a variety of formats where Chicago area inhabitants can grapple with the crucial questions of global ecological change. See deeptimechicago.org for more details.