Difficult conversations about land and cultures

Indigo Arts Alliance founders Marcia Minter and Daniel Minter in indigo print garments (center) with Jordia Benjamin, executive director (seated left) and other IAA staff.

An arts organization and a botanical garden form partnership to have open and honest exchanges

Two beliefs are coming under increasing scrutiny and the 2023 Deconstructing the Boundaries: A Future of Land and Food symposium has advanced the investigation. The beliefs are that many Black Americans are adverse to “being in nature”; for example, don’t expect to find representative numbers of us trekking in Yellowstone Park, and that we tend not to support BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) coalitions. 

While questionable, the first belief is substantial enough to be the basis of research by scholars such as Kangjae Lee and Carolyn Finney. In an interview, Finney, a University of Kentucky professor, provided this concise explanation: “The idea that as African Americans—being held captive, being made to work the land and engage with non-human nature under the threat of the lash or death, being someone else’s property (like the property that they worked)—that’s gonna have some impact” on our relation to the land. 

The BIPOC term and equivalent multi-ethnic coalitions began to form during the summer 2020 uprisings in the wake of George Floyd’s murder but the coalitions have not significantly grown. Some black people believe that the term BIPOC is too broad and diminishes black people’s collective power or, conversely, that such coalition building is not effective in addressing our specific issues. 

Such beliefs are being interrogated by the Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA) based in Portland, ME and the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

"(bringing together) “community members of all backgrounds to ground ourselves in difficult conversations, creative expression and the power of being together.” 

They have formed a multi-year partnership to bring together “community members of all backgrounds to ground ourselves in difficult conversations, creative expression and the power of being together.” 

A view of Maine Botanical Gardens

On July 22, 2023, the partners held Deconstructing the Boundaries: A Future of Land and Food Resilience, launched a multi-year partnership that opened with a free admission symposium at  the Gardens.  And Carolyn Finney (noted above) was one of the moderators at the symposium.

The symposium examined following questions:

1. How do we evolve our personal, communal, and institutional relationships with land ownership and stewardship?

2. How do we address and heal the deep distrust that has taken root in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities?

3. How do we acknowledge and appreciate the ways in which African, Brown, and Indigenous cultural and social systems, as well as spirituality exist outside of settler colonial paradigms?

The  symposium began with a panel composed of scholars, artists, activists, and educators to explore the relationships between land stewardship, ethical resource usage and sharing nourishment. 

Attendees unpacked the themes of the day in a creative writing class with Mikhu Anderson and a printmaking class with Jordan Parks. They learned about water privatization with Nickie Sekera, dove into indigo dying with Jordan Carey, and enjoyed two film screenings  “Bowing to No One” by artist and scholar  Sarah K. Khan and “This River is our Relative” by Dawn Neptune of Sunlight Media Collective. 

(L-r) Carolyn Finneym Mkhu Andersonm Nicole Paul, Scott Alves, Lokotah Sanborn and Alivia Moore. Photo: Sofia Aldino

Jordia Benjamin, executive director of Indigo Arts Alliance. Photo credit: Sofia Aldino

Nickie Sekera, facilitator of the Saving our Waters: Taking Actions workshop with attendees, (Photo: Sofia Aldino)

“Water is no one’s property. It “belongs” to no one but to the earth and life itself. It is our responsibility to protect the quality and availability of water for all living things and for future generations.” (Quote from slide on photo above. Photo: Sofia Aldino)

(Photo: Sofia Aldino)

(Photo: Sofia Aldino)

(Photo: Sofia Aldino)

Chef Louis of Black Betty's Bistro created a lunch and snack menu that fused Black and Indigenous foodways. On a yummy scale of 10, the menu’s main dishes were 11: warm cabbage salad with lemon vinaigrette, glazed rooted vegetables, corn cakes topped with wild mushrooms, smoked hake and braised bison short ribs.   

Southern cookout (Ecollective graphic)

“The conversations are difficult but Indigo (Arts Alliance) always makes it feel like a loving family cookout." 

The alchemy of grappling with sensitive issues mixed with general environmentalism, various arts and fabulous cuisine evoked an enthusiastic response from symposium participants.  VIVA said, "These events are essential for building trust and familiarity within Black and Indigenous communities. The conversations are difficult but Indigo (Arts Alliance) always makes it feel like a loving family cookout."  That’s the above-mentioned joy.

The Indigo Arts Alliance’s focus on the land and the “loving family cookout” have southern roots. IAA founders Marcia Minter and Daniel Minter are respectively from Richmond VA and rural Georgia. Daniel grew up on his family’s farm.  The Minters moved to Maine when Marcia Marcia was recruited as vice president and creative director at L.L. Bean.

The “indigo” in the alliance’s name also has southern roots. The plant was grown on South Carolina plantations by enslaved Black people and became a profitable cash crop until blue dye was synthetically produced. And long before that, in West Africa, indigo cultivation and dying were highly skilled practices passed down from generation to generation and imbued with cultural significance.  Daniel Minter is a painter,  assemblagist and printmaker whose  figuration reflects the patterns and textures of the natural world.  His work extends into book collaborations, including one in which the indigo plant prominently figures: Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky with Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond was nominated for the 54th NAACP Image Awards for outstanding literary work- children.

With a small staff and large heart, Indigo Arts Alliance is becoming a preeminent, nonprofit arts organization in the nation and world. It supports professional and emerging Black and Brown artists through a residency program, presents local and regional programs that strengthen community relations, advances thinking in environmentalism, social justice and the humanities; and functions on an national and international scale. 

For example, IAA partnered with the Center for the Study of Global Slavery  at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and Atlantic Black Box in May this year to present the two day, symposium, Art in the Wake: Reckoning and Re-membering, that engaged with global artists and scholars who provided pathways for people and communities to better understand and grapple with the history and legacies of slavery and forced migration in their lives today. Moreover, by sponsoring residencies for, and presentations by, creators from various parts of the world, the Indigo Arts Alliance is literally a global one. 

Marcia and Daniel Minter’s  mentor and Indigo Arts Alliance inaugural advisor was the esteemed artist, art historian and curator David Driskell (June 7, 1931 – April 1, 2020) who owned a summer home in Maine. The Deconstructing Boundaries symposium evolved from the same spirit that conceived the Driskell's Legacy and the Land: Re-Contextualizing Environmental Justice program held on July 28, 2021 at the Portland Museum of Art presented by Indigo Arts Alliance. David Driskell was a master gardener who cultivated plots at both his Maryland and Maine homes.

Marcia Minter stepped down from the executive director position in July 2023 to concentrate on institutional development and has nurtured a staff of exceptional young women to continue her outstanding leadership.  Minter’s successor, Jordia Benjamin, is an experienced museum professional with a masters degree in nonprofit organizational management.In describing IAA’s multi-year partnership with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Jordia Benjamin said, “We are honored to conceive this project with a partner like CMBG as we center Black and Brown histories and relations to the land; it is transformative work.” 

The second symposium of the partnership – Deconstructing the Boundaries: The Land Fights Back – will be held in 2024.

The partnership is supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation. Sign up for the Indigo Arts Alliance newsletter to stay in touch with the Alliance and learn more about how you can participate in next year's event. To learn more about Indigo Arts Alliance, visit their website: indigoartsalliance.me and follow on instagram @indgioartsalliance.

Organizations Overview

Founded in 2018, Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA) is a Portland, ME-based, Black-led organization dedicated to professional development and amplification of Black and Brown thought-leadership, vision, and creative practice. As an organization of social practice artists, scholars, and activists, it seeks to strengthen multiracial democracy by cultivating and celebrating art as a key resource for healthy communities, connecting global and local Black and Brown artists, providing an affirming environment for the creation of artwork across disciplines, and promoting engagement through participatory events that bring artists' and activists' work into public conversation on social justice, culture, and community. IAA is the only Black-led, established arts incubator in northern New England. That being the case, they fill a critically important gap in representation lacking in other regional arts and cultural institutions.

At nearly 325 acres, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is the largest public garden in New England. The nationally recognized public garden features two miles of hiking trails, 19 acres of ornamental and themed gardens, a children’s garden, a sensory garden, and so much more. The mission of the Gardens is to inspire meaningful connections among people, plants, and nature through horticulture, education, and research. 

Jordia Benjamin, Executive Director of Indigo Arts Alliance. Photo credit: Sofia Aldino