From the Farmhouse Table: July 2023
Our Alumnae Make Us Think
One of the greatest personal benefits of my work at Hedgebrook is the opportunity to witness and engage in conversations that make me smarter. There are so many moments where I experience a lightbulb of inspiration, a connecting thread that brings disparate perspectives into cohesion — even if it’s just a question or statement that makes me think. Surrounded by the luminaries of this community, I find myself intellectually challenged and eager to learn.
At SAL’s event featuring Natalie Baszile last year, as a part of the Women You Need To Know series, I could feel myself getting smarter just by listening to her. Natalie was then a new member on Hedgebrook’s board, but was already beloved as one of our engaged, stellar alumnae. Her book, Queen Sugar, caught the eye of Ava Duvernay and Oprah, and she has served as a sought-after instructor for our summer intensive workshops. However, that evening I found myself immersed in her words as she guided us through a talk that was part history lesson, part folklore, speaking about the journey and research of her newest book, We Are Each Other’s Harvest.
This collection of life sings, rich with poetry and essays, stories, quotes and gorgeous images, insisting on the legacy and contribution of Black agriculture and farming in our country. As Ibram X. Kendi said, “It is a tribute to our ancestors, and a gift for us and the future.” As Natalie spoke, dexterously weaving together law and policy-making, history and previously undocumented lived experiences, I kept murmuring, “I didn’t know that!” She is clearly an academic with a devotion to her craft; more, she had that rare ability to bring lyric to nonfiction and tell a good story, sparking my curiosity and lighting my path to learn more on my own.
This fall, Hedgebrook is offering an opportunity for a small group of women-identified writers to learn from Natalie Baszile — not one evening at a lecture, but around an enormous old wooden table in a beautiful Tuscan village, over the course of a week filled with workshops, one-on-one consultations, and long conversations. Come learn and write inside walls that whisper hundreds of years of stories, be fed delicious meals by local chefs, and be held by Hedgebrook’s famous Radical Hospitality. I won’t promise you’ll leave smarter, but I’d bet you’ll leave curious, inspired, and full.
-Amber Flame, Alumna and Program Director, Hedgebrook