Of Seed and Soil
Hosted by Sommer Sibilly-Brown, founder of the Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition, “Of Seed and Soil” seeks to digitize the often untold and uncelebrated stories of farmers, fishers, producers, and food advocates from across the Virgin Islands and wider Caribbean. Through heartfelt interviews and candid conversations, the series invites listeners to reflect on the deep relationship between food, memory, identity, and resistance.
Of Seed and Soil
Episode 4: Land, Legacy, Liberation
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this deeply insightful episode of Of Seed and Soil: Unincorporated Voices of Food, Farming, and Freedom, host Sommer Sibilly‑Brown sits down with Dr. Hadiya Sewer, philosopher, environmental justice advocate, and Co‑Founder & President of St. JanCo: the St. John Heritage Collective. Together, they explore the vital intersections of land rights, food sovereignty, and environmental justice on the island of St. John and throughout the Virgin Islands. They also discuss how Dr. Sewer's mission of fostering sustainable, community-led stewardship of land and culture in the face of climate crisis and ongoing colonial legacies continues to fuel her work locally and nationally.
In this episode you will hear:
---How land conservation becomes revolutionary when centered in liberation and autonomy
---The importance of preserving ancestral heritage, advocating for land rights, and reshaping land-use planning in environmentally resilient ways, and
---What food and land justice look like in practice—and why they’re inseparable from cultural survival in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This is not just a conversation about land - it is an invitation to listen, learn, and support efforts that center Indigenous and Caribbean sovereignty. It’s about building sustainable ecologies, reclaiming ancestral stewardship, and imagining futures rooted in justice.
Learn more about St. JanCo and their work at www.stjanco.org
Explore Dr. Hadiya Sewer’s broader work and philosophy at www.hadiyasewer.com
Subscribe for more stories of resilience, resistance, and radical care from the people tending to the land that feeds us.
