Last year we conducted an interview with an Oakland-rooted (occupied Ohlone territory) and trans-local collective called Lead to Life. Led by Black and queer artists, healers and ecologists devoted to embodying Mark Anthony Johnson’s prayer that “Black wellness is the antithesis of state violence”, this organization is one of the most potent entities we’ve interviewed thus far.

MelaninASS has been sitting on this feature for about a year because is was so powerful and we wanted to make sure that the words of co-founder brontë velez was heard far and wide.

NOW IT’S TIME ….

We are excited to finally share the work, words and wisdom of brontë during a time when restoring the ecological foundations of sacred spaces where Black people live is mandatory. Lead to Life first entered our consciousness when seeing images alongside a blurb of weapons being transformed into shovels as a means to build community through agricultural endeavors. Additionally, their page had beautiful visuals of healing ceremonies, activism and resistance. We were immediately intrigued!

In order to understand the multi-dimensional healing justice work that Lead To Life focuses on, we asked brontë how she first got started with this work:

“I was in my senior thesis in college and working on a plantable book (book with seeds in the pages). I was really interested in book art and the book was about how do we instigate cycles of death into systems of oppression. What happens when the book itself is asking you to practice that when you can’t hold on to it, but you’re either asked to give it away or let it go.”

At the time of this interview she goes to share that she still hasn’t planted the whole book but expressed the challenges of releasing her own relationship to capitalism and materialism.

“I’m interested to see how I invite myself in with community on how we grieve and let go of systems of oppression and our relationship to capitalism, and the ways that Black liberation has gotten tied up in capitalism. A lot of the work that I do is stuff that I have questions about. I’m a disciple too but I haven’t become it. I was working as a copy editor (last reader) for Mexican artist Pedro Reyes and he did Guns to Shovel work in Mexico and planted trees.

His projects - Disarm and Palas por Pistolas - transforms weapons into shovels and instruments.

http://www.pedroreyes.net/palasporpistolas.php?szLang=en&Area=work

“In the plantable book I talked about in the future that I’m working with him and artist collectives responding to climate distastes and we’re interrupting disaster capitalists. And we’re doing ceremonial work like anti -gentrification and displacement efforts to do ceremony and grief work with the police brutality that’s happening. And of course restore the landscape. So this was a little prophecy and I would do a spiritual ecology fellowship when I graduated college and I asked myself what would this practice look like in the US? Even to do ceremony and grounding work in any organizing around gun violence? So I was curious on how to use it as a means to organize … and that’s how it started.”

Lead to Life started with just brontë and her co director Kyle Lemli who also was in the spiritual ecology fellowship and had history in urban forestry. They bridged their complimentary and diverse histories in community organizing, climate resistance and art as a social practice to form Lead to Life.

“We ended up merging our funding - I wanted to do the guns to shovel and like a Black security network in the south using land at Black churches to do gardening. We merged and did our stuff together - he lived in the Bay … so we said okay we’ll do Atlanta and Oakland.”

They now have 5 people on our team - but there’s literally hundreds of people who make it happen when it comes to organizing their gatherings. This organization has such a beautiful network of support - galvanizing a community by bringing different people with varied skills and resources - creating a blueprint for eclectic village mindset.

“We’ll organize Black farmers, a tree planting organization who helps us manage stewardship. In Atlanta it was Trees Atlanta. Our main metal artisan is based out of Minnesota and he brings on his team and when he came out to Oakland we enlisted local metal artists to accompany him for the transformation. We’ll work with local racial justice organizations in Oakland - such as Anti Police Terror Project Oakland. We’ve worked with different ancestors and local ecological orgs, farms and land trusts that are Black and/or Indigenous.”

Later on in the interview, we discussed Blackness and post capitalism? How do we “ecologize” Black liberation?

“We got liberations and accumulation confused. It’s a righteous thing to feel when the precedence of identity formation in this country , especially, has been what do we have and own that makes us feel whole. And I can’t tell Black people that we need to start using less shit. We want to look fly and rightfully so … and I still want to do that. But this is what’s really required of us to be free. Reparations will ultimately mean - how are we going to repair with the Earth - our home. Ecology and Black liberation is going to require re-entering where we focus and trusting that it’s not going to be … having the same things as white people had - what we need is in alignment with the health and wellness of the earth!”

Lead to Life without question is mobilizing a regenerative future for Black Lives - one that is rooted in the Earth and grounded in community and ancestral healing. At this time they are certainly seeking funding especially since thee pandemic - but they are focused on leading healing circles, funding care packages for mothers, trauma stewardship programs and tree-planting teach-ins & ceremonies in Perth Rico, Oakland, Detroit and beyond.

These are the types of authentic organizations that need recognition, notoriety and support in the sustainability space. Collectives such as Lead to Life have been pioneering conscious activism and we’re elated to support their work and efforts.

Led By Black & Queer Artists, Healers & Ecologists, Lead To Life Is Decomposing Systems Of Oppression Through Land-Based Black Liberation In Oakland

NOW IT’S TIME ….