In Seattle’s CHAZ, a community garden takes root
Marcus Henderson’s edible act of resistance began with a single basil sprout. Now he wants to feed a revolution and redefine public space.
By Hannah Weinberger
Crosscut
June 15, 2020
Excerpt:
Marcus Henderson hadn’t intended for anyone to see him place a single basil start in the ground at Cal Anderson Park, newly part of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). But his work inevitably caught others’ eyes.
“A couple of people saw me and asked me what I was doing,” he says. “They got really excited about it and asked how they could help. And it just kept evolving from there.”
After years spent working as an urban sustainability professional and traveling the world while farming, Henderson developed a passion for guerrilla gardening as a means to explore how land can best serve people, and questioning whether existing public spaces meet those needs. These ideas are especially important to Henderson as a Black man. Marginalized communities have historically been denied land ownership, and urban farming is a vehicle for self-sufficiency.
As Seattle’s Black Lives Matter protests evolved into the CHAZ, the community garden Henderson created has attracted dozens of volunteers and holds more than 50 plants after two days of work. People have donated another hundred starts. The goal is to eventually feed anyone who needs food and remind people how the world around them can change after one small basil plant goes into the ground.
