Live at Broccoli City Solange Lil Yachty 21 Savage GO INSIDE DC’S FIRST CANNABIS MUSEUM
XAVIER BROWN
OF SOILFUL CITY TALKS URBAN FARMING
The Green Issue
APRIL 2017 | VOL 3, ISSUE 4
APRIL 2017 | VOL 3, ISSUE 4
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
PUBLISHER
Denise Rolark Barnes
PHOTO EDITOR Dejah Greene
LAYOUT EDITOR
Dominiqua S. Eldridge
EDITOR’S LETTER
DC’s First Marijuana Museum Opens on 4/20
5 CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jade James-Gist
D.C. officially has a cannabis museum where we go inside and explore the history of the plant and how it has shaped society over the past few centuries.
Of course we have you covered with the full itinerary of the Broccoli City Music Festival as they celebrate 5 years in May with a weeklong series of events.
Releaf Launches Partnership with Local Dispensary
PAGE Broccoli
This month in honor of Earth Day we are celebrating and acknowledging greenery in all of its forms.
Xavier Brown the founder of Soilful City gets candid about urban farming, food policy and being the face of young Black farmers in the city.
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Users Rate Weed
The History of Cannabis Explored
Sarafina Wright
With sustainability and the environment taking center stage in April - and the official weed holiday of 4/20, this issue was the perfect opportunity to tie those themes together.
PAGE Cannabis App Helps Medical
PAGE
4
City Celebrates 5 Years with Flagship Music Festival
5K Run, Panels, Pop-Ups, Parties and More From April 29 - May 6
Meet Xavier Brown: The Face of Black Farmers in DC
ON THE COVER
PAGE
6
WI BRIDGE TEAM
Solange returns to the District after headlining the BusBoys and Poets Peace Ball to take the stage at the festival along with Lil Yachty, 21 Savage, Rae Sremmurd and more! Interested in photography or writing for the Bridge? Email me at swright@ washingtoninformer.com. See you in May for our Fashion Issue!
The ladies of the Bridge Jade, Sarafina and Dominiqua caught up with each other on Saturday, March 25, a beautiful spring day at Union Market in Northeast. / Photo by Steve Garrett.
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Xavier Brown, founder of Soilful City poses for the WI Bridge at Sankofa Video Books and Cafe on Friday, April 21 in Northwest. / Photo by Steve Garrett.
APRIL 2017 | VOL 3, ISSUE 4
Cannabis App Helps Medical Users Rate Weed Releaf Launches Partnership with Local Dispensary
Photo courtesy of Releaf.
By Sarafina Wright Editor-in-chief Releaf, an app out of Los Angeles that allows users to detail the strain of cannabis they’re trying in real time and share with each other, has partnered with a local dispensary to expand their product to a wider audience. Takoma Wellness Center of Washington, DC will collaborate with Releaf allowing patients to put their information into the app, which they claim creates an important feedback loop for the industry. “Patients at Takoma record their sessions in the app and they have a nice log of what’s working for them,” Franco Brockelman, partner, Releaf said. “We take those and roll them up for Takoma by symptom. So, if you have arthritis, here is what is working for that and here’s what isn’t.” “And when we say it is local, it is about what that dispensary has. This specific Blue Dream, grown on this plot of land, with these nutrients, that has expressed itself in this way.” Brockelman and his partners Branden Hall
and Keenan Keeling, along with the creative development and design team at Automata Studios created the app in response to challenges Brockelman’s mother faced.
a unique experience to make informed decisions about their medicine,” Stephanie Kahn, president, Takoma Wellness Center said.
She struggled with finding an alternative to the “Since cannabis use is such an individual prescription medications for pain management experience, often utilizing a trial by error and other chronic ailments. process that can be overwhelming, the The group claims that medical cannabis Releaf app allows Takoma Wellness Center helped Brockelman's mother, but there an excellent opportunity to emphasize the wasn’t enough available information on how importance of patient education and an excellent and individualized tool with which cannabis actually worked. to provide it.” They asserted that most patients rely heavily on strain names to get their desired effects. “The strain names, unfortunately, don’t mean a lot,” Brockelman said. “The idea of Blue Dream being the same everywhere is a wonderful idea, but unfortunately it just isn’t the case.” Brockelman and company hopes that partnering with dispensaries like Takoma Wellness Center will better track users successes or failures with each strain while maintaining their privacy. “This partnership provides our patients with
Photo courtesy of Releaf.
3 | WI BRIDGE
APRIL 2017 | VOL 3, ISSUE 4
DC’s First Marijuana Museum Opens on 4/20 The History of
Cannabis Explored
A bong featured inside the The History of Cannabis Museum on Thursday, April 20 in Northwest. /Photo by Steve Garrett.
The History of Cannabis Museum staff celebrates the opening with a ribbon cutting on Thursday, April 20 in Northwest. /Photo by Steve Garrett.
By Jade James-Gist The first cannabis museum on the East Stepping down into the purple exhibit, a wall Coast opened in Washington, DC on the of ancient portraits greets you, setting you back Inside The History of Cannabis Museum located at official weed holiday of 4/20. 9000 years before the first camera’s invention. The History of Cannabis Museum kicked off its grand opening with a ribbon cutting officially opening its doors to educate the public on the plant.
The first of three rooms explores marijuana’s early beginnings, documenting the 8000 B.C. era and civilizations in China, Southeast Asia that used, cultivated and traded cannabis.
The time to squash decades of bad rumors is now, according to Jason Forte, museum founder and owner of Grow Club DC, a membership-based service club providing legal, in-home marijuana plant maintenance and installation.
“We really want to educate people more than anything,” Reneé said. “So many people have false perceptions of marijuana, though it’s one of the most useful plants on the planet.”
“This is Jason’s baby,” Marché Reneé, events coordinator for the newly minted museum and its parent company, Grow Club DC said. “He felt that the museum would reflect D.C.’s museum culture really nicely, and it's the perfect time for people to educate themselves.” With the District’s recent marijuana legalization ordinance and similar laws approaching the rest of the country, D.C.’s newest museum offers the chance to learn how deep cannabis’ roots run throughout human history and dispel harmful stereotypes surrounding pot use. WI BRIDGE | 4
1426 Park Road Northwest. /Photo by Steve Garrett.
The museum curator plans to rotate the room themes every three months, and up next is the investigation of millennials, a generation with a unique relationship to cannabis. Inside The History of Cannabis Museum located at “We have to keep it moving,” Reneé said. “The 1426 Park Road Northwest. /Photo by Steve Garrett. story of cannabis cannot be told in these three rooms, there’s so much to say.” sluggish, criminal, violent or depressed. We In the final two exhibits, celebrity culture and want people to come read and learn how the science of cannabis comes into focus. Next cannabis can be used to help people.” to a chemical structure of THC, a placard Visit The History of Cannabis Museum just notes marijuana’s presence in hundreds of a block away from the Columbia Heights pharmaceuticals in some shape or form today. metro station at 1426 Park Road Northwest “Marijuana is known to treat over 15,000 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and illnesses and diseases,” Reneé said. “And it’s Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. still viewed as something that makes people
APRIL 2017 | VOL 3, ISSUE 4
Broccoli City Celebrates 5 Years with Flagship Music Festival 5K Run, Panels, Pop-Ups, Parties and More From April 29 - May 6
By WI Bridge Staff
Broccoli City Week:
Broccoli City’s flagship music festival will celebrate five years with music’s top artists and a two-day conference aptly named BroccoliCon.
BC 5K Run & Fitness Saturday, April 29 Anacostia Park
Grammy winner Solange, Lil Yachty, Rae Sremmurd, 21 Savage and other up and coming artists will take the stage on Saturday, May 6 at Gateway DC in Southeast.
BC All Night Art & Music Pop Up Thursday, May 4 Ivy City DC Broccoli Conference Friday, May, 5 Kellogg Conference Center National Museum of African American History and Culture
Broccoli City, a leading non-profit organization committed to educating, equipping and mobilizing millennials to build thriving urban communities will have a weeklong series of events to celebrate the group’s anniversary. “We launched the Power of One campaign last year where people could Broccoli City Festival flyer courtesy of Broccoli City. earn a festival ticket by volunteering at a community service event; within networking receptions and special events. 24hours, all the events we posted, “With the five-year anniversary of our reached capacity,” Brandon McEachern, music festival coming up, we knew founder, Broccoli City said. that this would be the perfect time to “It was great to see the dedication to bring together pioneers across different improving our communities, but I industries who are making an impact in think that’s when we really realized the our communities,” McEachern said. potential that our generation has to “We’re excited to provide our peers with create lasting change wasn’t being fully the opportunity to discover the ideas, tapped and that we needed to do more inspiration, and tools to help them Build as an organization to educate people.” Broccoli Cities and make a lasting impact BroccoliCon, an immersive social for years to come.” entrepreneurship focused conference To purchase Broccoli City Conference will feature Jason White, Head of tickets, please visit BCFestival.com. Marketing, Beats by Dre, Shahendra Ohneswere, VP of Creative Marketing, RocNation, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, founder, Economic Education, Michael Lastoria, Co-Founder & CEO, &Pizza and many more. The programming for the week will include interactive panel discussions and workshops, inspiring keynotes, cooking demos, book signings, film screenings, live art and music pop-ups,
Rae Sremmurd. /Photo courtesy of the Houston Press.
Broccoli City Music Festival Saturday, May, 6 Gateway DC
Solange Knowles. /Photo courtesy of Solange Music.
Lil Yachty. /Photo courtesy of Instagram.com/Lil Yachty.
5 | WI BRIDGE
Xavier Brown, founder of Soilful City speaks with the WI Bridge at Sankofa Video Books and Cafe on Friday, April 21 in Northwest. /Photo by Steve Garrett
APRIL 2017 | VOL 3, ISSUE 4
Meet Xavier Brown: The Face of Black Farmers in DC By Sarafina Wright Editor-in-chief
What is Soilful City?
Soilful is like an adjective that describes the feeling you get when you're connected with nature. Hopefully, ten years from now it can be around the world. Say you're down in Rocky Mountain somewhere and you go for a hike after that you're feeling “soilful.” It’s a lifestyle. The way we live, relating and connecting back to the natural world.
What activities do you guys do?
Right now we do a ton of urban agriculture in D.C. growing vegetables, composting and educational things. We are part of a Black Farmers Collective and I work with them to host larger Black farmer gatherings. Also working with two of my homegirls, we got a fellowship last year with the Robert Wood Brown showing onlookers how to plant in a garden Johnson Foundation. So, we are trying to bed. /Photo courtesy of Soilful City Instagram. create a new culture of health around the city with food, changing policy around cooperative economics and centering food and Black people few weeks back home from an with the land.
A
agroecology encounter in Puerto Rico, Urban Farmer Xavier Brown, 31, is more energized than ever to change the food culture in Washington, DC particularly in Black communities. A Parks and Recreation Small Parks Specialist by day, the D.C. native and current Southwest resident founded Soilful City a few years ago as a way to bring justice and heal the sacred relationship between communities of African descent and the earth. As one of the premiere urban farming organizations in the District, Brown has his hands full with Soilful City programming, pursuing a masters in Sustainability and Ecological Leadership from the University of Vermont and lending his expertise to other farming collectives.
How did you get into farming?
I would like to say it found me. I went to school at North Carolina A&T, and I was living in Greensboro getting a masters, but the program shut down, so I ended up having to move back home living with my parents. My father told me I should take this D.C. master gardening class at UDC. I took the class 4 or 5 years ago, and around the same time my friends Ryan and Joel were starting an organization called the Green Scheme, so I joined and started doing urban agriculture with them. During that same time period I was interning at other farms, meeting other people growing food and taking advantage of any learning opportunities I could. I traveled to classes in Baltimore and other parts of Maryland, just learning.
What was your motivation to be an urban farmer?
It gave me something to do. I had gone to a tree planting with my father and he had taken the master gardening course too. It was a bunch of white people there planting trees in In between jobs he still manages to predominantly African American communities and I was like yo I want more Black people to be catch a day party or two in the District, here. So that was my motivation in the beginning. but then it’s back to planning marches, I enjoyed the way it made my spirit feel, like my speaking on panels and gardening - ancestors were talking to me because it is a part of our culture. the hustle he enjoys the most.
What do you enjoy about farming?
I enjoy the process of working with the land, nature and the people. It’s easy to start a garden, but it’s harder to work with the community to sustain that garden. It’s a whole process of organizing people, having discussions, building and connecting with folks to get the garden going. I enjoy that process.
What’s next for Soilful City?
Compost training is going down this year. This year we will have a compost training class, dedicated to returning citizens or people formerly incarcerated. It will be a compost program just for them. We are trying to partner with Tightshift Laboring Cooperative, God willing, to start a compost business. Working on starting that up in June. On Thursdays, I host this thing called Soilful Thursdays in Southeast, a community garden day where people can come, work and get vegetables. We are working on having a few Soulful products on the market like pepper jelly. Also, going to start growing micro greens. Most people use them as garnishes, but they are like tiny greens or plants. You cut them when they're between 7 and 14 days young. They are super nutrient dense and flavorful. I want to sell them as a healthy snack for people.
How does it make you feel be the face of Black farmers in DC?
I’m humbled, but it’s definitely other people who grow food in the city, but I’m humbled. We’re just trying to give the city a new look. Urban farming to me is like Black people from D.C. being able to reach back and connect people with the land. I would suggest to all to definitely start growing your own food or buy food from a local farmer, preferably a Black farmer, woman farmer or a Black woman farmer. Get organized and start thinking about your relationship to the earth. Definitely as Black people our relationship with the earth has been…my homegirl said it in Puerto Rico. We’ve confused what happened to us on the land, with the land itself. She (earth) will continue to give to us if we give back to her in everything we do. 7 | WI BRIDGE
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