Social Justice Roundtable Discussion Series 2011-2012

Sponsored by Eckerd College and USF St. Petersburg

The Studio@620 is pleased to present another season of Social Justice Roundtable Discussions! The September 7 session will discuss growing community through gardening.

Can we grow community in our gardens? What do food shortages and food deserts say about contemporary American life? What can home or locally grown fruits and vegetables do to improve the quality of not only what we eat but the "us" that makes up our society? Join panelists Kent Alexander "Kip" Curtis (Eckerd College), Andrea Hillebran Smith (Green Florida) and Janisse Ray (author, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood) and moderator Thomas Hallock (U. South Florida St. Petersburg) for a lively roundtable discussion. Plenty of time for q&a!

Kent Alexander "Kip" Curtis is a professor, historian and organic farmer who has spent the past three years developing a schoolyard organic garden education project at Lakewood Elementary School in St. Petersburg, Florida. He teaches humanities and interdisciplinary classes in the Eckerd College Environmental Studies program including Environmental History, Environmental Writers, Environmental Ethics and Justice, and Sustainable Cities.

Janisse Ray is the author of four books of literary nonfiction, including Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. She is at work on a book about seeds and the revolutionaries keeping heirloom varieties alive. She livesat Red Earth Farm near Reidsville, Georgia, where she and her husband grow organic produce, milk, eggs, and meat.

Andrea Hillebran Smith is the founder and Executive Director of Green Florida, a non-profit organization dedicated to community gardens as an engine for sustainable development in Florida neighborhoods. A successful writer and grassroots advocate, Andrea served as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance and the Public Education Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) in Boston.

Thomas Hallock (moderator) is the author and editor of several academic works, most recently about the eighteenth-century naturalist William Bartram. He teaches American literature and environmental writing at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and is on the Board of Trustees at the Studio@620.