Rural Urban FLOW: Every seed has a powerful story

Rural Urban FLOW (FLOW) is a growing network of cultural and agricultural producers across Wisconsin’s rural-urban continuum. We look beyond neighborhoods and news feeds to cultivate common ground.

We acknowledge our Wisconsin exchange is within the traditional homeland for many different cultures—including the people of the sovereign Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Potawatomi, Anishinaabe, Oneida, Dakota and Mohican Nations—who remain present here. 

In 2021, FLOW began documenting a seed exchange initiated by Elena Terry of
Wild Bearies, with support from our FLOW Network Participant Fund. Based in Ho-Chunk Nation and Christmas Mountain, Elena is the Executive Chef and Founder of Wild Bearies, an educational, community outreach nonprofit that strives to bring ancestral foods to communities in a nurturing and nourishing way. Elena wanted to offer an exchange to our FLOW around art, growing food, and community-building from her lifelong Indigenous experience in the lands we can share.

Elena invited Milwaukee-based Venice Williams of
Alice’s Garden Urban Farm and The Table to exchange seeds. Venice is a cultural and spiritual midwife, and the Executive Director of The Table—a 1st century style community in the 21st century that cultivates faith, food and collective healing. A project of The Table, Alice’s Garden is a 2.2 acre urban farm located on the birthplace of the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin. As Venice and Elena grew their connection, they discussed parallels in their Indigenous and African-American experiences, using seeds as a form of resistance, and cultural connection through coerced migration and other hardship. They laid ground for a literal exchange of seeds, but also an opportunity to share stories and culture. 

Elena and Venice also invited Reedsburg-based Jay Salinas of
Wormfarm Institute into the conversation, in part because of his work as a rural organic grower focused on offering Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) to nearby Ho-Chunk families, and others in the region around Sauk County. Jay is Co-Founder and Director of Special Projects for Wormfarm, a non-profit that integrates culture and agriculture to build thriving communities through the Farm/Art DTour, an artist residency program, and other initiatives. 

In the spring of 2021, Elena and Jay visited Alice’s Garden for an Indigenous Unity Fire and other community happenings. The next day, the three met at Venice’s house for a conversation, and to trade seeds from their personal stores. They sat at Venice’s beautiful table, surrounded by books and plants and artworks. The conversation veered in many directions, driven by personal stories, meditations on agriculture, cultural context, race in America, and much more—but at the center: a shared vision to enliven our region by connecting people across geography and history.

Later, on a gorgeous autumn day at a retreat center nestled in Upham Woods, Elena hosted us for an in-person FLOW exchange. The invitees included established FLOW network participants, but also first-timers from Sauk County, Milwaukee, and in-between. Elena and her daughter prepared a multi-course feast for the group, with crops grown from the bounty of the exchanged seeds. For many, it was the first gathering like this amidst our pandemic. 

Before parting ways, the group took a short walk to the Wisconsin River for a photo. The backdrop was Blackhawk Island, which has roots in the Indigenous community in that land. 

Adam Carr

Elena, Jay and Venice are all dedicated FLOW network participants who have contributed to what cultural exchange can mean for our network. In turn, they offer a vision for understanding Wisconsin and the Midwest, in light of multi-faceted migration and hybrid rural and urban experiences in these Indigenous lands.

Thank you to FLOW for the continued support, encouragement and participation. The dream to stand in solidarity with each other, in each other’s communities, has continued to be a source of inspiration for me.  —Elena Terry, Wild Bearies

This video is a window into the perspectives of Elena, Venice, and Jay on the transformative power of sharing seeds. It is part of an upcoming documentary media project by Milwaukee-based artists Adam Carr, Sara Daleiden, and Wes Tank. 

© Adam Carr, Sara Daleiden of MKE<->LAX, and Wes Tank of TankThink, 2022

Adam Carr, Sara Daleiden & Wes Tank

Adam Carr is a storyteller, artist, urban explorer, community organizer, and historian.

Through directing MKE<->LAX and other related agencies, Sara Daleiden facilitates civic engagement within developing landscapes, exercising arts and cultural exchange strategies for over two decades. She encourages local cultures to value neighborhoods, public space, civic art, entrepreneurship, and racial and gender equity. Sara has expertise in working with artists and other entrepreneurs on network and small business development, as well as artist residencies, creative placemaking, and media culture-making. With a crew of incredible regional talent, Sara collaborates with the City of Milwaukee, Greater Milwaukee Committee Creative Placemaking Committee, and local and national partners on The Milwaukee Method of Creative Placemaking. This creative placemaking work includes the Beerline Trail Neighborhood Development Project and Milwaukee Night Market on West Wisconsin Avenue. She co-owns HomeWorks: Bronzeville, which rehabilitates residential and commercial properties for artists to own and occupy as live-work spaces. She also co-organizes the Rural Urban FLOW, a network of cultural and agricultural producers in Southern Wisconsin and Indigenous lands. With any of Sara’s initiatives in the Milwaukee region, strategic production and distribution of media is key.

Wes Tank is a multimedia performing artist based in Milwaukee, WI. He is the Founder and Director of the production company TankThink, which creates uplifting, community-driven content and live experiences for global audiences. In 2020, his self-produced YouTube seriesDr. Seuss Raps Over Dr. Dre Beats—became a viral sensation, creating a worldwide fanbase of children, families, and educators. As homes, businesses, and institutions initiated lockdown, Wes gave parents suddenly faced with navigating their children’s education and socialization a fresh way to teach and connect with their kids. The Internet’s heartfelt response and 100k+ subscribers on YouTube inspired Wes to expand his catalog by developing StoryRaps for KidoodleTV, which led to the inaugural artist residency at the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum. This joyful momentum built in quarantine has transformed into an interactive live performance where Wes imaginatively engages his audience with books, beats, and life.

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No Titles, Just Tasks: Social Ecologies in South Minneapolis