{{Short description|American urban farmer (born 1968)}} {{Infobox person | name = Yonnette Fleming | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age |1968}} | birth_place = Guyana | education = | occupation = Urban farmer | known_for = Food justice | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Yonnette Fleming''' (born 1968) is an American urban farmer and community earth steward based in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Fleming is part of the environmental movement, her work focusing on urban community gardens and black farmers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbnomics.com/top-five-black-farmers-black-farming-back-rise/|title=Top Five Black Farmers, Black Farming is back on the rise!|date=6 May 2016|website=Bbnomics.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826010419/https://www.bbnomics.com/top-five-black-farmers-black-farming-back-rise/|archive-date=2016-08-26|url-status=usurped|access-date=2016-08-01}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|url=https://thenaturalfarmer.org/article/bed-stuys-hattie-carthan-community-garden/|title=Bed-Stuy's Hattie Carthan Community Garden · The Natural Farmer|magazine=The Natural Farmer|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427013850/https://thenaturalfarmer.org/article/bed-stuys-hattie-carthan-community-garden/|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 April 2019}}</ref>
==Early life== Yonnette Fleming was born in Guyana. Her family worked with indigenous communities, growing coconuts, sugar, rice, and other crops.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://civileats.com/2015/05/14/how-a-former-wall-street-exec-invested-in-fresh-food-for-her-community/|title=How a Former Wall Street Worker Invested in Fresh Food for Her Community|last=Chrisman|first=Siena|date=14 May 2015|website=Civil Eats|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160728145034/http://civileats.com/2015/05/14/how-a-former-wall-street-exec-invested-in-fresh-food-for-her-community/|archive-date=2016-07-28|url-status=live|access-date=2016-07-29}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> She immigrated to New York in 1983 from Georgetown, Guyana.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/not-building-coming-article-1.302391|title='We're not just building for us, but for those who are coming after'|last=Silver|first=Laura|website=New York Daily News|date=28 October 2008 |access-date=2019-04-27}}</ref>
==Career== Yonnette Fleming joined Hattie Carthan Community Garden, located at Marcy and Lafayette in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, in 2003 while working on Wall Street.<ref name=":1" /> In 2008, she left her Wall Street job in order to commit to herself to community resilience and food.<ref name=":1" /> In 2009, after an "uphill battle" with the city, she established the ''Hattie Carthan Community Farmer’s Market'' in a reclaimed lot next to the main garden.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.brooklynpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/pdf/wod/cng_women-of-distinction_2012.pdf|title=Yonnette Fleming: Green-thumbed foodie makes the human garden grow|last=Abruzzo|first=Shavana|newspaper=The Brooklyn Paper|page=12|date=2012|access-date=2024-06-01}}</ref> In 2010, along with Karen Washington, Fleming cofounded Farm School NYC as an educational hub to "teach community members how to create their own localized food systems".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://grist.org/equity/ny-urban-gardening-food-justice-unexpected-climate-solution/|title=Food justice advocates didn't set out to save the climate. Their solutions are doing it anyway.|last=Oglesby|first=Cameron|website=grist.org|date=2023-10-23|access-date=2024-06-02}}</ref>
Fleming is currently the vice president of the Hattie Carthan Community Garden and her work addresses food security and food justice concerns.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2016/4/all-britview-community-gardens-2016-01-22-bd_.html|title=Hey, Mr. Mayor, Brooklyn's community gardens don't deserve a date with the wrecking ball|website=BrooklynDaily.com|access-date=2016-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924073308/http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2016/4/all-britview-community-gardens-2016-01-22-bd_.html|archive-date=2016-09-24|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.caes.uga.edu/alumni/news/southscapes/spring11/extension.html|title=Extension - Southscapes Spring 2011 - News - Alumni & Friends at CAES - UGA|author=Cindy Tucker|website=University of Georgia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908121821/http://www.caes.uga.edu/alumni/news/southscapes/spring11/extension.html|archive-date=2015-09-08|url-status=dead|access-date=2016-08-03}}</ref> She teaches inter-generational workshops including cooking, urban farming, herbalism, and plant medicine while focusing on the needs of the community. Within her workshops, she calls on participants to think on how structures of oppression have impacted their own lives and how to confront them.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.farmschoolnyc.org/yonnette-fleming|title=Yonnette Fleming|website=Farm School NYC|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-27|archive-date=2019-04-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427013854/http://www.farmschoolnyc.org/yonnette-fleming|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S8w_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|title=Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in New York City|last1=Reynolds|first1=Kristin|last2=Cohen|first2=Nevin|date=2016|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=9780820349503|language=en}}</ref>
Fleming is also a member of the Farm School's advisory board where she teaches a food justice course.<ref name="topi.com">{{cite web|url=https://jfc2016.topi.com/speaker/yonnette-fleming-QjmUF|title=Yonnette Fleming|website=Jfc2016.topi.com|access-date=2016-07-29|archive-date=2018-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024154830/https://jfc2016.topi.com/speaker/yonnette-fleming-QjmUF|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> In addition to her work as a food advocate, Fleming is an ordained minister, plant and sound medicine practitioner, reiki master, and herbalist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.urbanbusheducator.com/About-Us.html|title=The Urban Bush Educator Project - About Us|website=Urbanbusheducator.com|access-date=2016-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507225343/http://www.urbanbusheducator.com/About-Us.html|archive-date=2016-05-07|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> Fleming sees farm work "an essential part of healing from the trauma of racism". She cites several students she has taught going on to create action groups in their local schools to discuss food sovereignty.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2016/05/05/after-a-century-in-decline-black-farmers-are-back-and-on-the-rise|title=After a Century In Decline, Black Farmers Are Back And On the Rise|last=Penniman|first=Leah|magazine=Yes!|date=2016-05-16|access-date=2024-06-02}}</ref>
==See also== *Food Justice Movement
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.hattiecarthancommunitymarket.com/ Hattie Carthan Community Garden Website]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Yonnette}} Category:20th-century American farmers Category:21st-century American farmers Category:20th-century American women farmers Category:21st-century American women farmers Category:African-American farmers Category:Organic farmers Category:Urban farmers Category:American women environmentalists Category:African-American environmentalists Category:African-American community activists Category:Community activists from New York City Category:Sustainability advocates Category:American anti-poverty advocates Category:American education activists Category:American anti-racism activists Category:American human rights activists Category:American women civil rights activists Category:American women's rights activists Category:Activists for African-American civil rights Category:Activists from Brooklyn Category:Reiki practitioners Category:People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Category:Guyanese emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American women Category:1968 births Category:Living people