JUSTICE INITIATIVE

Rashid Nuri

Rashid Nuri's Extraordinary Service   

'So he's got an extensive background and he's always had a love for "feeding the people". And that's what's always inspired him - to do something for the people.' 
Ernest Dunkley 
 
'I think our city itself was made better because of his commitment and because of his passion. And all the people that he touched over the years.'  
Kwamza Hall  
 
'What he does best, and that's growing communities,
growing food
and growing people. '  
Mario Cambardella  
 
'...the effect that Rashid has on people. He is like a watering hole.
Like the Baba Tree. You've got the human Baba Tree. '
Ras Kofi
 
Preface: On August 13,  2018, we on WRFG-Atlanta's 'Just Peace' program interviewed four Atlanta residents who have worked closely with Rashid Nuri during his career as founder and CEO of the
Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture (TLW) in Atlanta which was created in 2006. This week, August 31, 2018, Rashid will step down as CEO of TLW.

Rashid's influence in Atlanta regarding the on-going interest in and practice of organic urban production is both on-going and hugely significant. We could easily state profoundly that he has touched the heart and soul of Atlanta residents regardless of age, culture, religion or so-called racial designation.

He has routinely offered, to the community, his wisdom and extensive knowledge that has benefited us all.

Along the line of Rashid's service to the City of Atlanta, it is important to note that his favorite quote (that he includes on his email ID) is by the great George Washington Carver: "It is simply service that measures success."

Below please see the transcribed interview. Here is also the YouTube recording.

Learning about Rashid Nuri - August 2018
Learning about Rashid Nuri - August 2018

August 29, 2018
Justice Initiative

Heather Gray: My name is Heather Gray and the program is Just Peace and I'm here in the studio with co-producer Ernest Dunkley. And we also have in the studio Kwanza Hall, Ras Kofi and Mario Cambardella.
 
Tonight we are talking about the work of Rashid Nuri, the founder of the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture (TLW), who is stepping down as CEO of Truly Living Well on August 31, 2018.
 
Here is Ernest Dunkley, who knew Rashid in Nigeria in the 1980s, It was, in fact, in Africa where Rashid decided to come to Atlanta and engage in organic urban production.

Rashid Nuri (lft) - Ernest Dunkley (rgt) at Wheat Street TLW garden
 
Ernest Dunkley: In Nigeria in the late 1980s when he was working for Cargill - a large agricultural entity - and he was cornering the market on certain produce in that area. That is, in Africa there's been a problem of not being able to store food. So Rashid was entrusted with the logistics of storing large amounts of grain in northern Nigeria.
 
Heather: He was ultimately not thrilled about having worked for Cargill, but what I said to Rashid is that, who else would have had the experience like this to understand all of the infrastructure of Cargill and corporate agribusiness altogether, which he then began to teach us about, as well as about the problems with it.
 
Ernest: Yes, you're right. That and his work throughout the Far East - Java, India, etc. - so he's got an extensive background and he's always had a love for "feeding the people". And that's what's always inspired him - to do something for the people.
 
Heather: Now Ernest, I think you were one of the first he actually talked with about wanting to start the urban farm here in Atlanta.
 
Ernest: He was actually given the opportunity to do this when he was working on another operation in Ghana. Three ladies from Atlanta were on vacation in Ghana and they were speaking about their interest in agriculture and he spoke up and they became a quartet...and that's the powerhouse that brought him into Atlanta.
 
Heather: It's an interesting story.
 
Ernest: Oh, it's very interesting. That evening that it all happened, was all very miraculous. These people coming together at a very strange time, at a very strange place, and locking together and coming back to America and really making a dream come true.
 
Heather: Kwanza (Hall) I remember some time after Rashid had started Truly Living Well and, ultimately, when he was moving TLW to the "Wheat Street" site and, when you were a city council member, I have pictures of you at that wonderful ceremony.
 
Tell us your thinking at that time.
 
Kwanza Hall at Wheat Street TLW Garden Opening Ceremony

Kwanza Hall: Boy, you're making me have some fond memories when I think about it. When I met Rashid I was riding on the west side of town where I grew up and - I think it was Harban Road - and I happened to see a farm over here and I pulled over. It was just a small little lot - and Rashid was there and also my first grade teacher was there.
 
I walked up and said "I'm a city councilman and I would like some urban agriculture on my side of town. Would you consider it?"
 
And he said, "I don't really fool with politicians." You know, Rashid, right? He said, " I've had a lot of experience over the years."
 
Heather: That's true.
 
Kwanza: But then my first grade teacher said, " You know, Kwanza was a good student and good guy now. So you should at least take him up on the offer." So a couple of days later Rashid and I got in the truck and we rode the Old Fourth Ward and we drove around the neighborhood right immediately within my council district.,,,and we stumbled on a couple of small sites. And he said, "No, that's too small...too small."
 
So then we drove around and we saw the Wheat Street site and he said "Kwanza, that site will work."
 
And I said, "I agree. If we could do it. It would be phenomenal." So after that we started collaborating. We took it a step further - figured out all the necessary pieces, just to make it work. And got him connected with the Wheat Street Charitable Foundation and really we're really thankful that they were partners in that, and the Borders family.
 
And, ultimately, we were able to create a facility and it was Truly Living Well (on that site), but really it was in the heart of Rashid that got us to this point. He planted the seeds and we saw them grow and to actually bear fruit in the Old Fourth Ward. All of the citizens and adults were excited.
 
MSNBC event at Truly Living Well
But I think the real change was when we saw young people at Hope Hill Elementary, at C.W. Hill and the various charter schools, that were there, get engaged and come to summer programs at the farm. And, then to see their parents come and follow behind them. And, then to see people adopting different ways of eating different types of food, and then job opportunities being created.
 
So, we saw the full life cycle of what was possible there. And I know my council district and the Old Fourth Ward were made better, but I think our city itself was made better because of his commitment and because of his passion. And all the people that he touched over the years.
 
And, I'm really glad that we're celebrating him as he steps down, but I'm sure he'll be stepping up into yet again a better role, if you know Rashid the way I know him.
 
Heather: You were talking about some of his background. But this is one of the interesting comments he made to me. Rashid never wanted to tell anyone that he went to Harvard. He got his political science degree at Harvard because he wanted to study African revolutionary theory and then he ended up getting his master's degree in soil science at the University of Massachusetts and Rashid said he had to unlearn everything he was taught at the University of Massachusetts. But he never wanted to tell anyone that he went to Harvard, and then when he came to the South and realized that farmers were put down, he told everybody that "I went to Harvard and I'm a farmer!"
 
I've been interviewing Rashid for some 7 years once a month and the show with him has been so popular and he's been so instructive.
 
So, I've also thought about the change and the impact he's had on the Wheat Street community.

Kwanza:
Yes, it was very positive. We saw empty buildings and apartments on Auburn Avenue end up housing young employees who were working on the farm. We began to look at buildings as potential grocery stores or farmers markets that could teach people as well as cooking classes. A lot of that ended up happening on the TLW campus, but the idea was for it to occur outside of there but the energy became catalytic...for sure!

Rashid Nuri
 
A lot of time we're very ambitious with our development plans in Atlanta and for non-profits to actually go through the process and to build vertical (infratructures) and it takes a lot more energy than it looks.
 
And, Rashid really wanted to have a permanent site. So there was a little bit of a challenge in the length of the contract for the lease at Wheat Street. And then when the non-profit wanted to become vertical he ended up finding a permanent home for the farm (at Atlanta's Collegetown area) that ended up being better.
 
But, I never wanted to see us lose Rashid's farm in our location. We saw the impact on our neighborhood. With the streetcar on one end, and the farm right there we started seeing different energy between Fort Street and Jackson Street. It became much more positive as opposed to just negative and a place that people don't want to go, even though Dr. King's (original) office was just around the corner.
 
Rashid was a catalyst (in our neighborhood) for sure, to put it modestly.
 
Heather: So Mario Cambardella, tell us about your role. This is so interesting that the City of Atlanta now has this office of Urban Agriculture. It's remarkable.

Mario Cambardello

Mario Cambardello: It's a real pleasure to be here tonight. Atlanta may be the first city in the country to have an urban agriculture director.
 
I am part of a larger team in the Office of Resilience. And in 2016 Atlanta became the 100 th city officially launching the Atlanta Resilient Strategy and, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, that focuses on a strategy to combat the physical, the social, the economic challenges that all cities face. And access to food - food resiliency - is part of that larger resilient Atlanta strategy.
 
Heather: So when was this urban agriculture office created?
 
Mario: The office was really born out of the office of sustainability. And the Office of Sustainability was converted to the Office of Resiliency in 2017.
 
We still maintain the activities of sustainability as an important piece of a larger resiliency umbrella.
 
Heather: Could you explain some of the actual work you are doing?
 
Mario: We are a place the folks can come to if they need assistance, as through the city permit process. So this includes, what are the policies around urban agriculture?
What are some of the comprehensive master plans? Or how can we fold urban agriculture into a comprehensive master plans or maybe specific districts or communities?
 
Also, looking at physical plans when Rashid moved to the College Town garden we worked with his physical plan to understand how water was going to move through the site, the functions of the site. And work through specific issues relating to compost, or water meter. Or just being a point of access to city resources for Rashid for urban agriculture. So they can get to doing what he does best, and that's growing communities, growing food and growing people.
 
Ernest: So he's leaving some kind of footprint, a template, that will be some sort of template that he'll be leaving of his work?
 
Ribbon Cutting at the TLW Collegetown opening
 
Mario: I think that what Rashid's done at the Collegetown garden has really created a lighthouse for nutrition. His work really reverberates outward through the community but also through the people that interact with that experience, as in being on the farm that they can take back to their communities.
 
So he started this chain reaction where people really care about local food and what they're putting in their bodies and what's really in the soil. It's not food waste anymore. It's really access to fresh soil.
 
So, I think he's changing the way people are living and their values and how they're being part of a local food system and understanding what that is. It's hugely impactful not only in the community that he's in but the larger Atlanta city.
 
Heather: So, this is Ras Kofi. Tell us about yourself Ras. You've been working with Rashid for a long time.
 
Ras Kofi at Collegetown TLW site
 Ras Kofi: Yes, this is 2018. Actually, our relationship starts from when I was a little boy through his mother. I was teaching at Douglas High School until 2007 and moved up to Philadelphia. And I would come back (to Atlanta) often. I would commute maybe twice a month. And so I don't know how I found out about farm over in East Point but I remember going there and I would go get compost from Rashid and take to my father-in-law's house where my children were living as well as to my partners house.
 
But, long story short, I went to his home one day and I looked up on the wall and I said "That's Barbara Brown". And he said, "That's my, Mama." I said "I grew up in your Mama's book store." His Mom had the Black book store in San Diego, California, which is where I spent the last of my middle school years and high school years. So, that place was like an oasis in the desert. It's where we could save our life from the street life.
 
So, that's where our relationship starts. But I came to Truly Living Well in 2010 as a teacher and then a little bit later he asked me to come and do the management of the farm.
 
Heather: So, what kind of impact has Rashid had on you?
 
Ras: In order to properly contextualize his social impact, it would be remiss to leave out his history in the Nation of Islam.
 
Heather: Yes, he was asked by the Nation of Islam to run its farm in South Georgia.
 
Ras: In Islam, what's important is community service and, beyond that, the spirit of doing for oneself.
 
As we had this whole thing about 'Black Lives Matter', and then people started talking about 'All Lives Matter'...I think there was a Chinese comedian who hit it on the head most poignantly, "Yes, all lives matter but when the house is burning across the street you're not going to talk about all; houses matter, right?"
 
So put that in the context of his work. For me he's someone that, as you know, is a very loving person. Open. I've never seen him just push somebody aside based on any kind of outward appearance or artificial barrier, even though he's a very no nonsense person.
 
However, he definitely is someone who has a special love for the African race and in the context of what we've been through. And that is something I've witnessed first hand.
 
So, in a way, there's no need to apologize or to qualify that but it's good to clarify that to people who are listening to in such a tender time. He does it in a way that is 'just,' that doesn't discriminate against other people. It's just focusing on what's the priority at the time - the social priority. So that's a big part of influence.
 
Ras Kofi on top of structure made by Atlanta sculptor George Beasley as in "who is watching our food production?" It is obviously Ras Kofi!
And really another part is just his insistence on excellence and that's where the 'bump your head' comes in because we've got a lot of different interpretations of what excellence is.
 
Heather: What do you mean by excellence?
 
Ras: Oh well - anything. My Mama - may God be pleased with her - she passed about a year ago - she would always say that 'anything worth doing is worth doing well'.
 
So as the farm manager he (Rashid) was my supervisor. And he has, first of all, by experience, done things that have proven to be fruitful. And, I must say in the same breath that he's always open to new ideas as well.
 
However, if the new ideas are not producing results, he's going to insist on the way that he knows. And that is, again, the way that produces results.
 
A funny thing about Rashid is even if you don't have an agreement of a template...let's just say I'm doing a lesson plan and he doesn't give me a template and I produce an excellent lesson plan. He's always got three thousand steps above that in his head. So, even though I produce a good lesson plan, this time around he's got 4.0 and I just did 1.0.
 
And we didn't agree to that, but he just keeps raising the bar.
 
So excellence...you never know what you can achieve until you reach beyond what you think you're capable of.
 
Heather: Mario, you have said Rashid has been a mentor. What do you mean by that?

Check awarded to TLW - Rashid on right
 
Mario: So, when we talk, I ask questions and listen, because he has carried the flag for the 'Urban Ag Movement' in Atlanta.
 
Coming into this role I thought of myself as being the "urban agriculture directed". Which means I needed to take direction from those who really wanted to see this position flourish.
 
For me to understand what the community really needed, I needed to take direction from the community.
 
That being said, the many experiences Rashid has had in his career offers a unique perspective as he's worked for large institutions, large corporations, but then also grassroots level. And that sort of wide experience enables him to see multiple perspectives and he can break them down for me. And that's just invaluable.
 
I get the opportunity to have a quarterly luncheon with him and really get to break bread and it really gets to a relationship level that I really get to sponge his knowledge.
 
And what I really come away with from those experiences is just his love and passion for the people of his community. And his community expands from the adjacent neighbors to people across town that he's never met.
 
Heather: Now, one of the things I want to mention is that Rashid used to work for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). My work has been with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives working with Black farmers across the South. And between 1999 and 2013 what I was doing mostly was working on the Black farmer lawsuit against the USDA. I have made the point that Rashid, and also Mike Espy, who was the first Black Secretary of Agriculture, at the USDA, were an historic team. This is because they made sure - and this was mostly Rashid - that a study was done, known as the 'Miller Report' that looked at the discrimination Black farmers had experienced. That helped lay the groundwork for the lawsuit against the USDA by Black farmers. The largest class action lawsuit ever filed against the US government. Rashid was instrumental in that! It was historic!
 
Now Ras, in your agriculture work you've seen a lot of changes in the City of Atlanta, as well, as far as urban agriculture is concerned and everybody using compost, compost, compost, as Rashid says?
 
Youth class at TLW
One of the things I've enjoyed is Rashid when he's watching the young children learning about agriculture. You see the gleam in his eyes when he gets so thrilled watching the children learning and enjoying it.
 
Ras: One of the things he talks about often, in terms of the standard of measurement of progress, is the 'gross national domestic happiness' and that's profound as in comparison to 'gross national product.' When we start looking at progress or looking at our work with those sorts of goals in mind - especially in the business world - because Truly Living Well is a nonprofit business where we are attempting to sustain ourselves and to sustain other people economically.
 
So, in a capitalist world when you have that bottom line to reach, all you are driven by is money.
 
Our goal, is a paradigm shift, where we are growing so much food that we don't have a market. To grow so much food that you no longer have a market and you don't have anybody to sell to because everybody is growing their own food.
 
Again, if you're looking at it in a selfish standpoint 'well you're trying to work yourself out of some money.' But think about the reality of the community. We've got so many bigger fish to fry.
 
Heather: I want to ask Kwanza again about the changes you saw around the Wheat Street area. I remember when Rashid first moved there. There were a lot of homeless folks around and they got involved, as well, which was wonderful
 
Rashid says, " I'll make the soil and God will grow the food".
 
But another thing that Rashid said to me years ago is that "when most people go to work they are having to deal with their boss, who they might have some conflict with", but, he said that, "when I go to work I'm communing with God". And that had to do with the spiritual essence of growing the food.
 
Mario: Well, I was thinking of Frederick Olmstead who said "I believe in God and I spell it "n a t u r e." And I think all of us dedicated to this work really find peace.

TLW beautiful produce
 
Kwanza: Just sitting here listening has created a calm over me... just hearing Ras and Mario and everyone talk about (their experiences)...it makes me reflect and I remember with me and Ras out there and having a conversation. Even hearing the deeper, richer set of circumstances that brought him (Ras) to be in there (at TLW). I didn't quite know all of that. But I know he comes from some place. And it's a place that I really appreciate.
 
And that root is undeniable in all of us and that's how we connect to one another and that's what Rashid helped to facilitate. Kind of a re-connection of people who didn't know they should be connected to each other.
 
And it really is in the dirt. When you get there, you touch it and you take that moment - morning, night, whatever time of day - you just look around at the farm whether you're there at Collegetown (or other sites) we're really doing God's work here.
 
You can see that change happening in the community, whether it was a homeless person who happens to take a little chicken that needed a home.
 
That was the purpose. The purpose was to put yourself out of this so the people who are without could have. Because we have land in abundance, that is fallow, that we're either cleaning up because it's been contaminated or its clean and it just needs someone loving it - to make the soil rich and to cultivate it so that families and children don't go without.
 
So, I was thinking about the smile you describe when he leans back and just sort of grins sometimes for a whole minute and you wonder what he's thinking.
 
It just feels really good to be in the company of you gentlemen and lady and I am just thankful that Rashid touched my life. And I'm going to touch some dirt today and get my hands dirty today because that's what it's all about really.

TLW beautiful produce

Ernest: It's very much about that. Rashid and I connected in Africa. My interest is spiritual anthropology. And, in Africa I realized is that the first church - House of the Spirit - is the garden or the grove. And in the African tradition when you think about being baptized and being lifted up spiritually you go to the grove - the Holy Grove - and that is the natural result of being in nature and that's why they are recommending it for PTSD sufferers that are stressed out and people having other mental problems because as you step into it you become calm.
 
Children in the dirt
Heather: And Rashid talks a lot of about that in reference to being grounded. Which means getting your hand in the ground, in the dirt.
 
Ernest: And your feet in the ground.
 
Ras: I was listening to Kwanza talking and I think, in tribute to Rashid and the work that he's done, that this is truly the first politician that I know that genuinely gets his hands in the soil. He would come to Wheat Street and just pick his own food. That's something to say about the environment that welcomes such activity, as well as the man himself.
 
And I think that's what everyone is saying in terms of the effect that Rashid has on people. He is like a watering hole. Like the Baba Tree. You've got the human Baba Tree.
 
Mario: I think along the line of the things that Truly Living Well does - and it's truly Rashid's legacy - and that speaks to the point that all of you made, is that it's really about developing 'rooted' citizenry.
 
So, the people that get to plant a tree, plant a seed, they're more apt to defend it and protect the earth, and protect their community, and really understand that that tree is their path to abundance.
 
And the people that have had that experience - the transformative authentic experience - are apt to tell somebody else about it. Show somebody else how to. And then share those (things/acts) that they've done.
 
So to me there could be no better legacy, then to show people and communities and families how to grow food and and grow as individual families and communities.
 
Heather: Thank you so much for that.

I do want to read something I received from David Sweeney, Rashid's first chef, who was not able to come here today. Here is his note:
 
Dear Heather,
 
David Sweeney 
I visited one of Rashid's first farming plots on Washington Rd in the Spring of 2007. This is where we met. He felt ethically and spiritually aboveboard to me and I was immediately comfortable being around him. After a brief exchange about our lives, he allowed me to walk through the rows of vegetables he was growing and try anything I wanted. I then bent down and pinched off a leaf of arugula, chewed it, and felt the energy in body shift upwards. It was the most peppery arugula I'd ever tried in the USA (and this is the flavor you want out of arugula). My body then responded to the nutrient density. It's almost a dizzy feeling. Rashid noticed me enjoying this experience as I stood in his field, and this is when said to me, "I make the soil, and God grows the food". Those words enhanced my spiritual growth and energized my moral approach to food, making me so grateful to have met him. 
 
There are so many wonderful things I could say about Rashid, but here are some of the things that come to my mind when I think of him:
 
    • Baba Rashid
    • a customer once said, "I can feel the vibrations in his produce"
    • still the best Mustard Greens & Squash
    • he creates a form of nutrition that is good for body, mind & spirit
 
Faithfully,
 
David Sweeney
Chef/Independent Consultant
 
Rashid speaking to crowd at TLW Wheat Street site 
 
Heather: Now Mario, I would appreciate hearing more of what your goals are as far as urban agriculture is concerned. And the other thing is that Rashid also served as chair of the board of Georgia Organics for a while (and other organization affiliations). I know also that he has had such an important impact on urban organic agriculture growth in the city (as we've noted). That impact I think comes into the picture in terms of what you are doing at your office.
 
Mario : Absolutely. All the courses Ras has at TLW have been a part of that work. Teaching the youth and teaching the older adults how to grow. We want to make sure there is opportunity for land access for all these people and getting great ecological education at Truly Living Well.
 
So the city has a program called 'The Grows A Lot Program'. In which with vacant and abandoned properties community groups can enter into a 5-year licensure program to take those properties on and build community gardens as they see fit.
 
And this is also great opportunities for graduates of Truly Living Well and other programs across the city to exercise their ability to grow.
 
Heather: We are so blessed to have this office. I know you'll agree with me because you're the director...but again it's such a blessing.
 
Rashid Nuri 
 
 
 
Mario: I feel extremely grateful. I feel extremely blessed to be in this situation but it's on the backs of so many people who have done so much work such as: Alice Rolls with Georgia Organics, Bill Boling (formerly head of the Atlanta Food Bank), Truly Living Well. There are so many in Atlanta who have rallied behind urban agriculture as a vehicle to provide ecological literacy and cultural relevancy and to showcase the cultural relevancy of the food that urban agriculture grows. So really it's the work of so many in this movement - the collaborative nature. And it's just a thrill to be associated with so many great people in this movement because 'people' make movements happen. It's not one person.
 
But it's thrilling to be in the Mayor's office - Keisha Lance Bottoms - and our new Resilience officer - Amol Naik. It's just a real thrill to be a part of a larger team at the City that care about urban agriculture.
 
Rashid overlooking the new Collegetown garden 
   
Heather: Let me ask Kwanza, with your experience and being involved with Rashid and your involvement with his garden at Wheat Street, what are your expectations for the City of Atlanta?
 
Kwanza: For the City of Atlanta or Rashid?
 
Heather: Yes for the City of Atlanta and Rashid!
 
Kwanza: Mario and I have kind of been corroborating at a distance since I stepped into a new role as managing director of the development of a Watershed project. It's a 10,000-acre area that has the potential to be the breadbasket for our City. And maybe Rashid will spend a little time in his retirement helping us think through at least a framework for how we can build out the right types of plots that really give us accessibility throughout, and maybe we can do a large scale farmers market (as well).
 
So, I think keeping his wisdom and his thought leadership at the table...he doesn't have to be working every day - but I know that he'll keep thinking and sharing and connecting and so we want to keep lifting him up and encourage him to be active and to participate because the City needs him.
 
Heather: Before we end our program about Rashid please give some kind of final message to Rashid, who I know is listening to this program. Mario, do you want to go first?
 
Mario: Well, thanks for teaching me to grow as a person that is an indelible mark on my path. And I so appreciate your service to the City. I appreciate your service to your communities and teaching us how to grow.
 
Ras: You know the name 'Rashid' is one of the attributes for the most high in Islam. It means 'righteous guide'. And I think he exemplifies that to its fullness. And on a side note, but very much related, I don't think it's any coincidence that we are actually reflecting on him on today, which is Fidel Castro's birthday who is someone else who was a paradigm changer. I know when the story is written up in the great book of life, as they say, that the contributions he has made thus far will definitely have a significant place.
 
Kwanza: Thank you for sharing and inspiring us with an international outlook, which often times is overlooked. But keeping it so rooted in the local - almost the extreme - hyper-local - the place-making that you've given to our city. So again, thank you, Rashid, for everything that you've done for Atlanta.
 
Ernest: I don't know even where to begin because it would take too long to tell Rashid how much Rashid has meant to me in my life; in my goals; and in the satisfaction that I've found in life has been through the people that I've been associated with and Rashid has played a great role and will continue to play a great role because his work is not yet finished.
 
Heather: Thank you so much to all of you. I need to thank Rashid as well. He's been so instrumental in so many ways in my life. Every time we get into a discussion I know I will have a concrete very interesting answer from Rashid. So thank you, Rashid. Thank you for your service to Atlanta, to the United States, to the world and for offering so much inspiration for all of us.
 
So thank you Kwanza Hall. Thank you Ras Kofi. Thank you Mario Cambardella. And thank you Ernest.
   
(Photos by: Heather Gray, Jim Alexander and TLW staff)
 
Rashid's email is: rashid@trulylivingwell.com

(About Heather Gray:  In the late 1960s and early 1970s while living in Australia, she engaged in sociological research at the Australian National University and later at Emory University and Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her focus concentrated on immigration issues, civil/human rights, advocacy of sustainable agriculture initiatives, and health care in the Georgia prison system. In 1994, she observed the first democratic elections in South Africa under the auspices of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She also lived in Singapore and the Philippines with her Australian husband who was in the Australian diplomatic corps. In the 1980s, she directed the non-violent program for Coretta Scott King at the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of her career has been as the Director of Communications for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (1992-2013). She holds an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and a graduate degree in Sociology. She now lives in Atlanta, Georgia where she is a writer and radio producer.)
   
 

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