Zel Taylor (they/ she) is a Black queer nonbinary farmer in the deep South. Their people are from Atlanta, Waynesboro, Calhoun, and Augusta Georgia area. As the descendant of sharecroppers, enslaved land workers, farmers, and herbalists, they are deeply committed to a relationship with the land through growing food, foraging, and spending time with community on the land. Zel has spent time as a farm and nutrition educator, operated a small plant-based business, built two tiny living spaces to sustain needs around farming, and worked on and co-managed small production farms across the country. Their land practice includes growing vegetables, flowers, and herbs at their farm Down by the River Farm and Art Collective. They are an artist of many sorts, builder, crochet/ basket weaving enthusiast, painter, seamstress in training, and enjoy cooking all the wonderful produce grown. Zel is inspired by the work and words of Fannie Lou Hammer and by their ancestors that tended to this land. They deeply believe that liberation is rooted in the ability to access land to feed oneself and community and with a relationship that honors the land as kin. As a dreamer these seeds are deeply woven into their vision.
The fund now welcomes funding from a broad array of donors to continue to support rural Black community self determination throughout the Black Belt region.