The San Jose State Black Women's Collective (BWC) and Campus Community Garden hosted an event Monday night about the importance of nature and the influence it has on the community.
The Campus Community Garden was created to provide students a space to gain access to healthy food, learn about sustainable organic garden practices and earn service learning hours, according to its webpage.
Aisha Williams, environmental studies senior and president of BWC, said the purpose of the collaboration was to create a program centered around “Black culture and connect it with nature.”
“I want to be able to cultivate that atmosphere for others and myself,” Williams said. “This is my first time doing something like this and as a Black student at SJSU we don’t get a lot of programs like this, so being able to actually do it myself is different from being able to attend it.”
She said as Earth Day approaches on Sunday, this week is “a chance to highlight environmentalism.”
“I think Earth Day is important to spread awareness about our habits with environments, and [people] don’t really think about that on a daily basis,” Williams said.
She said she believes the brown and Black community are mostly affected by environmental damages and there needs to be more education on environmental sustainability.
Aurion Wiley-Green, social justice senior and BWC treasurer, said she helped Williams create the project.
“I want people to learn, no matter what you do, every day you impact the environment, make sure you take one step to better the environment,” Wiley-Green said. “Even if that’s carpooling, buying less plastic, whatever you can, one step a day is 365 steps, it will impact in one shape or form.”
Other attendees also discussed their personal connections to nature.
“Nature is everything to me, the way I look at life is 360º, everything has a full cycle,” Wiley-Green said. “Nature symbolizes more than just existing, when I look at a tree it symbolizes strength, resilience, growth.”
She said she believes everyone should appreciate nature and its role in “the circle of life.”
“Life is about appreciating nature, looking up at the sky and just appreciating how blue it is or the sun or even the rain and how it helped me be here today,” she said.
Sociology senior Kenny Jackson attended the event and said it’s great to see the community learn how to appreciate nature and learn new skills, including potting plants.
“Nature to me is beauty, it’s life, it’s regenerative. It’s important to connect with nature because a lot of our leaders don’t and [people] should learn skills to help combat that and be beneficial to saving the Earth or simply how to take care of yourself,” Jackson said. “Planting and working with your hands can be very therapeutic.”
Campus Community Garden coordinator Matthew Spadoni said there needs to be more conversations about colorism and its connection to nature.
“There should be an Earth Day every month,” Spadoni said. “It’s nice to have some solidarity at least once a year and have everyone focus on the environment and how we can all do better to rally around and fight against climate change, be more sustainable and have better food systems.”
He said discussing climate change and how people eat is the first step to learn how to treat the environment better.
Jackson said it's important to share stories because “Earth gives people everything they need.”
“Everything we have comes from the Earth and we must appreciate what we have here and the miracle that is mother Earth,” Jackson said. “Nature is healing.”
