The 5th District Mini Farm in Manchester will host the 16th annual Happily Natural Day festival on Aug. 25. (Photo courtesy 5th District)
Duron Chavis, manager of community engagement at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and founder of the Happily Natural Day festival, believes African-Americans are disconnected from farming, a state of affairs he hopes to change.
The 16th annual grassroots festival is a celebration of cultural awareness, health and wellness, social change, and urban agriculture in the African-American community, and it takes place Saturday, Aug. 25, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 5th District Mini Farm in Manchester.
“That disconnect is part of the racist narrative of the United States; [the government] intended [African-Americans] to work the land, not own the land,” says Chavis. “This is the story of America — when people of color were moved from rural areas into the city, they didn’t have acres of land to grow food, that wasn’t a reality.”
When Chavis began the festival, he had no idea how it would be received. The hundreds of attendees that flocked to Richmond from all over the East Coast soon made it clear that the event had an enthusiastic following.
“It was one of those passion projects; I never thought about anything beyond it," he says. “It resonates so well because we're hitting on different issues all at once. Identity in the African-American community is always a popular topic.”
The name Happily Natural Day is derived from the conversation surrounding natural hair growth in the African-American community back in 2003, when a 22-year-old Chavis, then working at the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, was tasked with coordinating an event to subsidize the museum's annual summer jazz concert.
Although there has always been a focus on health and wellness at Happily Natural Day, today agriculture — a well-worn path for Chavis — is an intentional element of the festival.
After graduating from Virginia State University, Chavis served as the inaugural project director of the Harding Street Urban Ag Center, an indoor farming incubator in Petersburg funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from 2014-16.
He promoted vertical indoor farming to community members of color, and Happily Natural Day allows him to share a similar message of self-sufficiency.
“Don’t rely on Shalom [Farms] or FeedMore, do it for yourselves,” says Chavis. “I got into urban ag because I wanted African-American people to access their own food and not rely on somebody to come into their community and say, 'This is what we chose for you,' ” says Chavis, who in 2012 founded McDonough Community Garden, an 8,500-square-foot garden in South Side in an area deemed a food desert by the USDA.
Angela Patton, a Richmond native and CEO of the nonprofit Girls for a Change, has been attending Happily Natural Day since its debut. She believes the consistency and continuity of the festival has been a part of its success.
“People are coming that are different, younger, and I love that it has grown,” says Patton. “This one festival is a melting pot and allows our community to grow around this vision.”
Chavis believes urban farming can serve as a gateway to self-determination for African-Americans and allow them to take control and ownership of their community and situation. Patton agrees.
“HND has given people the first step to think, 'I could grow this in my own yard or house, or discover this store was around the corner, or I could be a part of a co-op, or go to market,' and it gives you creative ways to think about becoming a healthy person,” she says.
Randy Minor, founder of 5th District Mini Farm, and Chavis will host an "Urban Farming Intensive" on growing food at Happily Natural Day, and there will also be a discussion on vertical farming. Vertical farming is done indoors, allowing growers to control variables [weather, temperature, pesticides, herbicides] and eliminate density problems that surround typical urban agriculture.
Cooking demos were added to the Happily Natural Day lineup in recent years, and this year will include a culinary workshop called “Cooking With Young Folks,” hosted by Victoria's Kitchen, along with a “Black Vegan Soul Culinary Arts Workshop.”
Despite the festival's strong focus on food production and sustainability, Chavis wants people to know the emphasis is not because the concepts are misunderstood in the African-American community.
“Black people are not this group of folks who are distressed and don’t understand these things … but the narrative we experience is that they are slow and poor and don’t understand where food comes from — there’s a bigger picture,” he says.
Through music, lectures, workshops and community engagement, the festival is intended to serve as much more than another weekend event, and instead provide a forum for a diverse and socially conscious audience.
In accordance, the theme this year is "Blackness Ascendant," an ode to the awakening of consciousness the festival hopes to ignite.
As a complement to Happily Natural Day, Chavis will launch his first farm-to-table dinner, Feast de Resistance, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. at the McDonough Community Garden. The three-course vegan dinner and dessert will be prepared by Chef Shawanda Harrison of Holistic Alaye, along with a garden tour and spoken-word poetry. A portion of the proceeds from Feast de Resistance will support Happily Natural Day.
“We want to localize where we get food from, support farmers and a community green space, and create a space for that type of connection,” says Chavis.
Tickets for the Feast de Resistance on Aug. 16 are $50 plus tax and fees. Admission to Happily Natural Day on Aug. 25 is free. The “Cooking With Young Folks” demo is $10 plus tax and fees.
