Tune into the GreenThumb's Facebook page to hear their Earth Day keynote speakers, Toshi Reagon and Leah Penniman, address community gardeners during these uncertain and tumultuous times, when community gardens are more important than ever before.

Toshi Reagon
Toshi Reagon (Singer, Composer, Musician, Curator, Producer) is a talented and versatile singer, composer, musician, with a profound ear for sonic Americana—from folk to funk, from blues to rock. While her expansive career has landed her at Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House and Madison Square Garden, you can just as easily find Toshi turning out at a music festival, intimate venue or local club. 
 
Toshi Reagon is a one-woman celebration of all that’s dynamic, progressive and uplifting in American music. Since first taking to the stage at age 17, this versatile singer-songwriter-guitarist has moved audiences of all kinds with her big-hearted, hold-nothing-back approach to rock, blues, R&B, country, folk, spirituals, and funk. Her musical adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower brings together 30 powerful songs drawn from 200 years of Black music to give musical life to Butler’s acclaimed science fiction novel of the same name. Written by Toshi Reagon, who Vibe Magazine called “one helluva rock ’n’ roller-coaster ride,” in collaboration with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon, the iconic singer, scholar and activist, Parable of the Sower becomes a mesmerizing theatrical work of rare power and beauty that reveals deep insights on gender, race, and the future of human civilization. 
 
Leah Penniman
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2010 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. As co-Executive Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs - including farmer training for Black & Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. Leah has been farming since 1996, holds an MA in Science Education and a BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a Manye (Queen Mother) in Vodun. The work of Leah and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Grist 50, and the James Beard Award, among others. Her book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land is a love song for the land and her people.