le jardin roerich | the roerich garden project

Yonnette Fleming is a visionary, musician and food and environmental justice activist who currently lives in Brooklyn. Fleming was born in Guyana, South America and migrated to the U.S at age sixteen. Her community service work in New York began in 1996 as a volunteer at domestic violence shelters and food pantries in Brooklyn and has expanded exponentially since. Her service work range from conducting feminine empowerment, social and economic justice, fundraising, health & nutrition, food security and advocacy workshops, community councils to building community through rhythmic entrainment in communities across the U.S. Fleming’s leadership style is highly transformational and democratic. As a community leader and advocate she spends her time helping community members to gain an understanding of big picture of agriculture and ecology issues. Her goal is to utilize the strengths of the gardens’ membership to create a thriving urban agriculture project which offers solutions to social and economic issues of the surrounding neighborhood. This approach is sustainable and inclusive. Over the last year, Fleming has worked with neighborhood schools to cultivate health and sustainability from the impressionable years by creating a garden based curriculum which promotes science, social studies, art and music and using the garden as an outdoor learning center for elementary school children in the Brooklyn community. This sustainable partnership will help the garden to not just grow food and adults but to also create a new network of little people who are passionate and committed to the environment, sustainable living and community activism.