● ▲ ■ Kinship Agroecology
designed with research support from Jonathan Lee from Yale School of the Environment at Yale University (2020)
This proposal seeds an infrastructural system that integrates code compliance with a flooding event response protocol to limit the further contamination of already polluted soil—while also remediating the land, water, and community. This reimagined Combine Sewage Overflow system adopts techniques from active indigenous practice to develop a land stewardship program operated by New Haven community organizations.
Link to Phoenix Press Farm Flood Plan zine
Link to Flood Regenerative Code zine
Link to Construciton Manual zine
Gather New Haven has many programs working with youth communities to address food security and apartheid—Phoenix Press Farm, a community garden, is part this network that could be described as a form of kinship agroecology: a peasant-grown method of agriculture, based on multi-generational knowledge and customs, which centers co-production and social reproduction of kin to improve ecosystems.
The land was given to New Haven Farms after the Phoenix Press experienced an extreme flooding event that eroded the shoreline around 2015. New Haven Farms prepped the land with geo-textiles and trucked in new soil, as the flood water has contaminated the already toxic earth (due to previous industrial waste).
The farm holds events for Gather New Haven. Produce is sold at the English Garden Farm Stand, another community garden north of the site. The market accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIP), and Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). Food boxes are sent every Tuesday and Friday as part of the Farm Wellness Program, a partnership with New Haven Community Health Center to provide fresh low glycemic food for patients with diabetes. The farm also partners with Peels and Wheels to set up compost infrastructure on-site.