GHI Collaborative Projects
Gardens of Hope: Food, Justice, and Urban Agriculture in Post-Katrina New Orleans
On March 13, 2025, the “Katrina@20. Recoveries, Resistances, and Revolutions” project, sponsored by a GHI Collaboratory Grant, kicked off with the panel “Gardens of Hope: Food, Justice, and Urban Agriculture in Post-Katrina New Orleans,” featuring Dr. Yuki Kato, New Orleans-based community activist Pamela Broom, Sara Smith, and representatives from the Grow Dat Farms collective.
Dr. Yuki Kato (Associate Professor, Department of Sociology) is the author of the recently published book Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City (NYU Press, May 2025). Based on in-depth interviews with urban growers, local organizations, and archival data, the study examines what motivated a group of individuals to start an urban garden or a farm in post-Katrina New Orleans as the city was undergoing rapid changes. The central argument of the book is that the growers saw these spaces as a place for practicing “prefigurative urbanism,” or a form of civic engagement to enact alternative futures, now, but as individuals not as a collective social movement. Professor Kato describes multitudes of opportunities and challenges that the growers faced in the post-disaster city, and how they prioritized “doing something, now” over theorizing and organizing as they continued to innovate, adapt, and experiment in the garden. The book offers both inspirational and cautionary tales for those of us moved to take actions in times of crisis and uncertainties, and reveals what we often do not understand about what it takes to start and sustain a cultivation project in the city.
The panel, chaired by Prof. Kato, examined the challenges to Food Justice in New Orleans before and after Katrina and the efforts by community members to grow and distribute sustainable produce in their own neighborhoods. After the panel, The Hoya Harvest Garden Community provided a personalized tour of their garden led by student gardeners.
ENPH Events
On March 21 and March 28, 2025, the Master in Engaged and Public Humanities offered the last two events of AY 2024-25 sponsored by a GHI Collaboratory Grant.
Finding the Freeman Family
“Finding the Freeman Family: Community-Driven Public Humanities” featured Melissa Dimond (President and Executive Director of the social services organization Wellspring) and Roopika Risam (Associate Professor of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College). The two guest speakers discussed their collaboration in reconstructing the story of the Freemans, a Black family in Gloucester, MA, who owned and lived in the house where Wellspring is now headquartered.
Public Humanities and Leadership
The Workshop and Plenary Panel “The Public Humanities and Leadership: Classroom, Campus, Community” was offered by the nonprofit organization Kallion, committed to promoting leadership through the study of the humanities. Kallion facilitators helped faculty and students in attendance explore leadership opportunities through humanities teaching and engagement in public humanities.