Land in Black Hands Fund

Dedicated Fund for 

Land in Black Hands

Support Black land access, ownership, stewardship and land sovereignty initiatives in and around Kingston, NY.

We are pleased to announce that we have exceeded our original $5,000 and $10,000 goals for this fund, thanks to $3,073.67 raised by BardEATS and an additional 10k pledged by an anonymous donor!

In 2019 we launched our first annual Land in Black Hands event (in collaboration with the Hudson Valley Farm Hub and Scenic Hudson) and, after a second event this year during Black History Month Kingston, we asked what ideas community members of color have for local land access and ownership. 

These events inspired the creation of a dedicated fund in 2020 for a LiBH working group to turn ideas into reality through use of the funds raised. 

Watch a video of the 2019 Land in Black Hands panel discussion here.

Learn more at https://kingstonlandtrust.org/initiatives/land-black-hands

Join the Land in Black Hands Fund Steering Committee:

This committee, made up of Black members of the Kingston community and surrounding region, will determine how to spend the Kingston Land Trust’s Land in Black Hands Fund (currently $18,000)  

If you identify as Black and believe in cooperative ownership and ecological stewardship of land, attend an informational zoom meetings on June 30th or July 9th. Express your interest and sign up for a zoom invitation by filling out a survey at kingstonlandtrust.org/land-in-black-hands.

The Kingston Land Trust is forming this committee to further center the voices and needs of Black people that have been violently dispossessed of land and sovereignty, for generations, across what is known as the USA. The fund provides the opportunity to translate ideas generated over the past three years of Land in Black Hands community discussions into a tangible land-based project in the Kingston area.

The Kingston Land Trust (KLT)’s Land in Black Hands Fund has raised $8,000, and $10,000 has been pledged by an anonymous donor. The Fund was created by the KLT to facilitate cooperative ownership,  access, and stewardship of land by Black community members for land-based livelihood projects with an ecological and community-sourced focus. Such projects are intended to be in right relationship with the land, and with other people of color experiencing systemic oppression.

This includes descendant Nations  of Lenapehoking (lands of the Lenape), and other Indigenous peoples whose lands are nearby. Native, Indigenous, and First Nations peoples are the original inhabitants of what is now known as the USA, and we support their right to sovereignty of and with their ancestral homelands. The Steering Committee will determine how the fund will be used, in coordination with the KLT.

Contact KLT’s LIBH lead, Shaniqua Bowden, at [email protected] or send a text to 845-303-6183