WMU Humanities Center puts focus on urban food in presentation

Contact: Mark Schwerin
Photo of a gardener using a shovel.

Pothukuchi's talk is free and open to the public.

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Growing food in the middle of a metropolis might seem counter-intuitive.

But those who attend an upcoming presentation sponsored by the Western Michigan University Center for the Humanities will get an inside look at the exploding urban agriculture movement, when an expert on growing food in the middle of the city speaks as part of the center's Reimagining Community Speaker Series.

Kami Pothukuchi, associate professor and interim chair of the Wayne State University Department of Urban Studies and Planning, will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, in 2452 Knauss Hall. Her presentation, titled "What Is the Community that Feeds You? Re-imagining Community in Detroit," is free and open to the public.

Detroit a hotbed

Detroit is now considered to be the hotbed for urban agriculture and local food system development. Drawing from her study of these activities in Detroit, and on conversations with community leaders over the last decade, Pothukuchi will discuss how ideas of community have grown and evolved as activities to grow urban agriculture and local food systems have developed. Although conversations about community are never done or resolved, she will highlight what it means in a particular place and time to re-imagine community by rethinking our food.

In addition to being a professor and interim chair, Pothukuchi is founding director of SEED Wayne, a campus-community collaborative dedicated to building sustainable food systems at WSU and in Detroit neighborhoods. Her action research examines how interventions in community food systems may advance goals in public health, economic development, social justice and ecological sustainability.

The theme for this year's humanities center speaker series is "Reimagining Community." The series is designed to help people reflect on a global culture of war, social injustice and environmental calamity, and the nation's stark racial and political divisions, and then reimagine the idea of community, putting an emphasis on healthcare, racial and gender equity, feeding the hungry and fostering community.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/humanities/events.

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