Farmers: Through The Artist’s Eye at Green Mountain Film Festival, King Arthur, Northern Stage

Farmers are having a moment, on screen, stage, and gallery walls.

Among the many offerings at the upcoming Green Mountain Film Festival is Farming While Black, a documentary film featuring Leah Penniman, (co-owner of Soul Fire Farm in neighboring upstate New York) who is leading a movement that focuses on Black American farmers and their land. In 1910, Black-owned farms constituted 14% of the nation’s farms; today that number is a mere 2%.

The film chronicles Penniman’s and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. All are leaders in sustainable agriculture and food justice movements. In its press release, the film’s makers describe their economic and legislative goals concerning Black farms, and this:

Another important goal is to uplift and support the growing movement of urban community gardening pioneered by Karen Washington, co-founder of Black Farmer Fund and Black Urban Growers, BUGS. Community gardens are becoming a viable means of addressing issues associated with food access, public health, and environmental sustainability, while promoting social capital and civic engagement. We hope that Farming While Black will educate and inspire the practice of gardening and spur the creation of more urban gardens.

One viewer of the film reported: “The guy I was with cried during the documentary . . . And he watered his plants as soon as he came home.”

Farming While Black will be screened at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier on March 15 and 16. Streaming options and more information about the Festival and its other films can be found here. Passes and individual tickets are available.

Closer to home at King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich, Vermont is a photographic exhibition, Vermont Female Farmers (just above) by JuanCarlos Gonzales, that you can enjoy at your leisure over coffee and a croissant. “Through his lens, visitors gain insight into the lives of these [17] hardworking women, contributing significantly to the state's culture, identity, and economy. JuanCarlos also published a book to accompany the exhibit offering readers an in-depth understanding of each farmer’s story and the “why” behind their commitment to farming.” There may be a need for a second project and exhibition to include more of the many women farmers here in the Upper Valley.

Northern Stage just announced its new 2024-2025 season, and one of the upcoming productions is about—you guessed it—Vermont farmers.

The Vermont Farm Project is a brand new, indie-folk musical about farming in Vermont, inspired by two years of interviews with farmers in the Upper Valley and beyond. The heartwarming musical, developed right here at Northern Stage, follows the stories and songs of an eclectic agricultural community through one day in the life of working on the land and asks us to consider what we harvest and what we leave behind.

Northern Stage’s subscriptions to the new season, which also includes Sisters, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, King James, and Waitress, are on sale to the general public as of March 12. Single tickets are available from July 15.

“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” – Daniel Webster

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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.