Speakers
Chris Bolden-Newsome, originally from the Mississippi Delta, is the oldest son of farmers and justice workers Demalda Bolden Newsome and Rufus Newsome Sr., and a fourth generation free farmer since emancipation in 1865. Chris co-created Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden, where he co-directs a three-acre crop field, orchard, and 60-bed community garden. Sankofa Farm is a spiritually rooted, African Diaspora urban-centered farm and youth development program. In 2012, Chris married seed farmer Owen Taylor, with whom he co-founded Truelove Seeds.
Owen Taylor is a seed nerd who loves growing Southern Italian and Irish heirlooms. He co-founded Truelove Seeds—a farm-based seed company offering culturally important and open pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds—with Chris Bolden-Newsome. Trulove’s seeds are grown by more than 50 small-scale urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture.
