Harriet Tubman Beacon of Hope Festival in Salisbury connected kids with environmental legacy
SALISBURY, Md. – The Harriet Tubman Beacon of Hope STREAM Festival- in downtown Salisbury saw children learning about the unique abolitionist history of the eastern shore with dozens of interactive events and booths highlighting local agriculture, the signs used to help slaves escape, and the life and legacy of Harriet Tubman.
Organizers say it’s her resilience that they hope kids walk away from the event appreciating.
“The perseverance, the power, and like just knowing that you come from a person or from people who were able to overcome odds, that is a huge lesson for youth,” said Organizer Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins of the University of Maryland Extension.
Mitchell-Hawkins says she wants kids from local schools and community groups who came out to the event to see the beauty in black and local history with the event showing off Harriet Tubman’s legacy as a naturalist who later in life even ran her own Victory garden.
“Harriet Tubman was truly a naturalist, so she was all about foraging on her way through the underground Railroad, she was able to use the natural resources around her in order to benefit her and the people that she was helping so with the seed balls and the seed packets, we’re trying to emulate the plants that she was able to introduce herself to and figure out about and also spread native plants around the community as well,” said Diamond Nawase of UMES who helped show kids the ways to grow plants right in their own backyard.
“We want to have them grow their own food, their own vegetables, and ultimately empower themselves, especially since we are in a food desert. The Eastern Shore, unfortunately, does not have a lot of access to fresh food.,” she said.
Nawase says we may not think about it from that lens, but advances in agriculture show the history of black culture and stem right here on the shore.
“Just being able to teach youth about the STEM aspects of the black history. So not only can black youth be involved, but other youth of all races and all creeds can be involved too.,” Nawase said.
