Jun 6: Inspire lecture on Food & Sustainability

Inspire Speakers Series presents Food and Sustainability with Stephen Ritz, Karen Washington, and Raqueeb Bey
Food is the foundation of communities, a means of connecting people to place and place to opportunity. Cultivating this relationship is Stephen Ritz, a dedicated teacher who has spent the last 20 years raising test scores and vegetables in his South Bronx classroom. Stephen lives and works in the nation’s poorest congressional district, and uses food to grow ‘organic citizens’ as part of a new green economy.  Stephen will be joined by the godmother of urban farming Karen Washington, who began one of the first community gardens in the Bronx in 1988. Having founded farmers markets, a garden coalition, and now a farm of her own, Karen plants seeds of resilience, growing food to inspire unity and collaboration among residents.  She understands the power of a tomato to promote racial justice, economic equality, and urban sustainability. The conversation also features local food leader and advocate Raqueeb Bey, president of Pittsburgh chapter of Black Urban Growers (founded by Ms. Washington), and Jake Seltman, Grow Pittsburgh's executive director, as the emcee.  

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Stephen Ritz, educator and green innovator, teaches at CS 55 in the Bronx, and is the founder of the Green Bronx Machine

Karen Washington Karen is a farmer and community activist, and co-founder of Black Urban Growers.  

Raqueeb Bey is an urban agriculturalist, community activist, mother, and Garden Resource Coordinator for Grow Pittsburgh.


5:30 p.m. at the Elsie H. Hillman Auditorium at the Hill House Kaufmann Center.  Networking, food, and drink begin at 4:30p; and resumes after the event at 7 p.m. along with a book signing with Stephen Ritz.   Free childcare provided with advance registration;  see details on the registration web page.  More info and online registration here!

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