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A gathering was held Thursday night at the garden to organize and plan for how to save it (Image: Alex Garland/CHS)
As they did in August for a stewarding event where they gathered medicinal herbs from Cal Anderson Park, the Black Star Farmers group is inviting a gathering at the park’s Black Lives Memorial Garden hoped to span all of Friday. It’s the same day the Seattle Parks Department said it was planning to begin its “turf restoration” process that will remove the garden first created during the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest that filled the area with camps and demonstrators.
“Gather in the garden tomorrow – FRIDAY OCTOBER 13 👻 Community members are planning a full day of activities in support of the garden,” the group’s invitation reads. “We will start the morning with Communi-Tea & Yoga from 7-10AM and have an all-ages Garden Party from 12PM-10PM where we will have potluck food, garden stewarding, music, speakers, art making and an art gallery! Please bring plates, utensils, & grillables to share if you can!!”
Black Star Farmers hosted a Stewarding Event at the garden in August and “foraged in the garden and harvested medicinal herbs to make oxymels – a powerful and delicious infusion of herbs in apple cider vinegar & honey,” the group says. (Image: Black Star Farmers)
CHS reported here on the call to save the garden as the city said it was moving ahead with a restoration of the “sun bowl” area of the park that officials say is needed “to host gatherings and large events” as part of its “intentional design as a natural amphitheater and proximity to electrical and water hook-ups.” Seattle Parks says it has offered to work with the group that helped shape the initial garden and that has stewarded the space over the years to relocate the garden in the park or move it to another Seattle Parks location including a space behind the Rainier Community Center.
Black Star Farmers says the garden should remain where it was created in June 2020. “Forceful displacement of community projects like BLMG is consistent with violent state projects like imperialism, colonization, and gentrification,” the group said in its “call to action” asking for public support against moving the garden.
Community representative groups involved in reshaping Cal Anderson’s community uses in the wake of CHOP have spoken out against the city’s decision and the Cal Anderson Park Alliance community group says it did not ask for the city to restore the amphitheater bowl grass.
How Friday the 13th shapes up in Cal Anderson remains to be seen. Garden and Black Star Farmers supporters are expected to be at the space on the south end of Cal Anderson starting early in the morning with plans for a growing crowd by midday. The “garden party” is scheduled to last until 10 PM.
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