Beginning in chapter 1 of Growing Gardens, Building Power, sociologist Justin Sean Myers makes clear that “gardens in East New York are not just about growing food: they are about growing dreams. . . . They are for growing community” (4–5). These words offer a key sound bite for Myers's well-researched, in-depth analysis of how gardens in the working-class Black, Latinx, and Caribbean neighborhood of East New York in Brooklyn clarify the social history and contemporary work of the urban food justice movement. Methodologically, Myers blends ethnography, interviews, and secondary sources to explore how the efforts of East New York Farms!, a food justice organization, reconfigures its local food system as a way to address racial, ethnic, and class inequities. This story transports the reader across time, space, and place, showing how historical and contemporary social, political, economic, and environmental forces collide in garden spaces. This collision brings into...
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