Sawdayah Brownlee

About this Speaker

Sawdayah Brownlee is a Gullah woman who hails from Detroit, MI, by way of South Carolina, and currently lives in Weeksville (Crown Heights), Brooklyn, NY. She is a farmer, educator, cook, sister, daughter, friend. Sawdayah is an alum of Howard University where she received her BA in Africana Studies and studied briefly at NC A&T State University in the Agricultural Education Department. She is currently the Board President of the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust, an organization that preserves and conserves open space as community gardens in Brooklyn and Queens, NY. In her work as a farmer and agricultural/environmental student and educator, she has taught concepts in sustainable agriculture, botany, agricultural history in the African Diaspora, and food systems to intergenerational groups at D-Town Farm (Detroit, MI), The Youth Farm (E. Flatbush, Brooklyn), Farm School NYC, The DreamYard Project, and in less formal community spaces since 2011. She is also the Manager of Community Organizing and Special Initiatives at The DreamYard Project, a social justice centered community arts space serving the South Bronx.