Rooted in Praxis - amaha sellasie
amaha sellassie is a public-sociologist working to transform communities through a love ethic. In this episode, amaha shares the story of how Gem City Market, a worker owned cooperative, came into existence. Gem City Market is the first full service grocery store in West Dayton, Oh. amaha shares his insight and perspective on the socio-political and economic dynamics that sparked the necessary change in his community. West Dayton is becoming a place that provides for one another with a deep sense of care and commitment to being a thriving community and Gem City Market is one of the first steps in this transformation. As listeners, we are asked think about what unlimited resources are already abundant with us and our communities that will fuel our fights in justice.
This episode of In Praxis is a part of Season 3: Food Justice.
The information, opinions, views, and conclusions proposed in this episode are those of our podcast guests.
You can also tune into this episode on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. You can also watch this episode on YouTube with subtitles for accessibility.
amaha sellasie
Podcast Transcription
amaha sellassie 00:00
I love when bell hooks, she said, "to know, but verify in practice", right? So the more we have a belief that change is possible that we're not stuck where we are. The more consciously or unconsciously, we're pressing deeper into a state of praxis. Where we're trying out ideas, you know, I mean, we're willing to press for something different. And when one person does it powerful, but when a community that collectively Oh, that's where you see multiple little cracks and breakthroughs, and learning.
Podcast Intro 00:30
You're now listening to In Praxis, a podcast fromThe Praxis Project created to support, hear from, and uplift the stories coming out of the ecosystem of base building, organizing. An ecosystem that includes frontline groups building community power, and the folks who help support their important work. In season three, our host Blair Franklin is exploring community driven strategies for food justice. Our guest are incredible community organizers working to advance fair farming practices, community led urban farming, and equitable food procurement and retail. These are their stories about how we feed our communities with healthy, culturally appropriate, fair and affordable food, and build community power to advance health equity through food justice.
Blair Franklin 01:49
So welcome, amaha. Thank you so much for being present for this conversation today. I'm really excited to get into it and get to know more about both of you and your connection to and work with Gem City Market. Just to get us started. Can you give us a little bit of detail intro around just who you are, and the work that you do in the world?
amaha sellassie 02:11
Cool. Good. Thanks. Yeah, I'm thankful to be here and opportunity to learn and share. Like I said, my name is amaha selassie. I'm a public sociologists basic focus on community work, how to walk with the community towards health equity and food justice. Any kind of way to help community realize the power that it has. Because I actually believe in our communities that we are the ones we've been waiting for. And so like, how do we leverage to get some talents in our community towards future we want to co-create together. I got into this work, really, just through a desire of believing that we were more than we were realizing at the time. I just felt that our communities were better. I just felt that it was no our lack of relationships and the different things that was hindering us from realizing what we already had in our midst. Not even, you know, what we could bring into our community, but just what we could leverage amongst us. I got into food justice work, in particular, around emerging a food Coop called Gem City Market with we're a worker owned and community owned Coop, that just actually opened about three months ago. Now, you know, took about...
Blair Franklin 03:23
Congratulations!
amaha sellassie 03:24
Oh, thank you very much.
Blair Franklin 03:25
Yeah
amaha sellassie 03:26
It's amazing. We are organizing it for four or five years. You know, it's interesting transition, shifting from having the thing that you're organizing from it just being an idea state,you know. So we're thankful for that! So through that work we're able to mobilize the community. Food is one of the best ways to organize a community, actually, you know, because it's a basic need. And it's a way that we can build power and help people realize their sense of agency to be actors in the narratives that we're creating.
Blair Franklin 03:58
Yeah, that's beautiful! Thank you so much. You talked a little bit about, you know, we're the ones who've been waiting for talking about food justice as critical to building power and agency. And that, you know, it's been about—it took four or five years of organizing to even get the Gem City Market to be open. So I would like for you to take us further back and just think about what's your origin story? What's your food justice story? How did you come to the work? What experiences made you know, that like, this is where you needed to be?
amaha sellassie 04:29
Okay. Sure. Yeah. It's a great question. I think my food justice origin story actually begins with being in the community driving for reconciliation and forgiveness. I just truly believe that we were more and I didn't have language for it, but I knew we needed to just like forgive each other and heal our wounds. So that we can truly move forward as a community. I was in a community talking a lot about agape love. Right, unconditional love and like the need to have this heart amongst each other that we could truly be better than we were separate. While I was doing that, about like 2012-2013, I was working at my aunts gas station and I was reading a book by Martin Luther King's "A Stride Towards Freedom". And in that book, he said agape love was community. I was just— I just stopped in my tracks, wait a minute, what agape love is community? What does this mean? You know, and I start pondering more, and I thought, okay, he's coming from a Christian perspective.
amaha sellassie 05:32
So you know, many people in one body, that sense of community. And then I started realizing, so you made this whole time that I've been in the community talking about agape love, I actually was working towards community. That was just a revelation for me. And then it was like, anything I get my hands on to, you know, what is community; community organizing; I switched my major to sociology. Anything I could do to learn more of like, what this thing of community is, I learned about that. That's what got me doing more organizing work in the community. Then in 2015, coming off of working for justice for John Crawford III who was killed and 0.2 seconds at our local Walmart. These maps came out that metric opportunity due to Cronus to and Montgomery County Public Health. What was clear was opportunity in Dayton, was divided by race. What I mean opportunity, I mean conditioned, favorable for the attainment of the goal.
amaha sellassie 06:39
So Dayton is a hyper segregated city, meaning that 98% of African Americans live on the west side of the river, and 94% of our white community lives on the east side of the river with the rest being Latino community, African refugees and Turkish community. What was clear from these maps was that all of West Dayton was designated as low and very low opportunity that really stuck out to me because redlining created concentrated disinvestment on West Dayton and concentrated African-American community. And now we had evidence that like that concentrated disinvestment has now turned to an opportunity line where we have, you know, low and very little opportunity. So we had a meeting to talk about it. And then through that meeting, in conjunction with some other workouts happening by some other organizers in the community, we kind of settled on food being a major issue.
amaha sellassie 07:37
In part because there was 40,000 residents in West Dayton and no full service grocery store. The one that we had a Kroger's had shut down about 10 years prior. And so we had to literally leave Dayton or cross the river in order to have a decent grocery store. So that's kind of how I got into the food justice was just out of the need that like, you know, the multitude of our community east and west side had to take one or two buses to get to a grocery store in three hours time. They had to think about if they wanted to get access to fresh fruits and vegetables, if not, they went to the dollar store, or $1 General, which at that time had no fresh food, or eating canned foods on a daily basis. It was that struggle, and that sense of context, I think that like got me concentrated on providing food.
Blair Franklin 08:30
Yeah, wow. 40,000 residents and no full service grocery store that's deep right? The process of you both like really understanding this feeling this like purpose around agape love and unconditional love and community and how that connected you to this work. I think is profound. So thank you for for both bringing that term into this space; so we can all like do some of our own research understanding of agave love. And how we can also be in practice around that moving forward. Yeah, really appreciate that.
amaha sellassie 09:04
You know, something interesting, right? That 40,000 residents and no full service grocery store, but the thing was, at that time, including myself, we kind of accepted that as a norm. When we go to other parts of the community like probably 10 miles from us there's this one corner, where they had two full service grocery stores on the same corner. We have a great swath of land, I don't know how many miles it is, and no full service gocery store, we accepted it. And I think that's the key thing, like part of the community transformation and transforming power and relationships, is not accepting the unacceptable. Really having the audacity to say, "Yo, you know what, we deserve access to fresh fruits and vegetables, like every other community" and not waiting for others to give us the answers but realizing our own agency to make it happen. Right to create and transform our physical environment to meet our own needs. And it blows my mind now that we accepted it for so long, including myself, you know, I'm squarely in that boat with everybody else.
Blair Franklin 10:07
Yeah. So that transformation, I mean, you— kind of named right that this process to even go from coming up with the thought that we have to do something about this to moving to the Gem City Market being a real tangible thing that's present in community that was built by community. That was some time and so I'm curious, like, what was the community's relationship to food? How did that change over time? Through this process? How were the relationship to each other transformed through this process? I was relationship to power transformed?
amaha sellassie 10:41
Oh, yes. Well, that's a great question. I think our relationship to food at the time was, we either had to drive, if you had access to a car, you know, you had that privilege. You had to drive outside the city to go to a grocery store, or you had to take a bus and take about at least three hours, you know, with the drive there and back to get groceries and how to navigate your time to do that. If you have a big family, do you bring multiple people with you? Are you making multiple trips? This whole next level of thought, to navigate and negotiate living in a space that the food apartheid, or you went to the corner store. You know, and it was not uncommon to see people walking out of Dollar General with a grocery cart full of food and that was just where we shopped. So I think that was our relationship and it's transforming. Like, when the market open, one of the biggest blessings, what I kept hearing people say, I love seeing people walk down the street with bags of groceries. Everybody kept talking about that, at first. I'm just like, "Wow! we're literally seeing people walking down the street with groceries now".
amaha sellassie 11:56
I'm a mango fanatic. You know, I have a mango bias, which I want to be transparent about, right? But I started thinking about it and I was like, I don't think a mango ever been sold in this community before. Because when we had to grocery stores before, mangoes weren't a thing like it was now. You know, I mean, like—because you can't grow them in Ohio. I think like, this is the first time for a large part of West Dayton that we've ever had mangoes sold before and something so simplistic as that just really hit me. It's like, dang, it blew my mind just thinking about that. So I think our relationship to food is shifting. So actually, in our grocery store, we're not to the grocery store, we also have a health clinic, teaching kitchen, and a community room all inside the market. And so we're focusing on this notion that, you know, our food is our medicine and having language and scientists inside the store that connects like this products good for heart disease or diabetes, you know, so we tried to connect food with medicine inside the store. While not food shaming anybody, either, I mean, sell Oreos, different type of food, you know, I mean, it could be like meet people where they're at, but we want them to have the healthier options available.
amaha sellassie 13:15
As far as how the community has shifted. I think we've been developing, our "we". What I mean, by developing our "we" are expanding are we is that we're developing this sense of a shared identity through the process of building the market, in part because we've been highly participatory. So from the name of the market, from our initial survey that asked, you know, would people be interested in a grocery store? And would you stop at a grocery store? Our initial survey, I think we did it for about a month and a half, we got over 1000 responses. But we went to a laundry mat, gas station, public transportation hubs, you know, I mean, we went deep into the community to see if there's a project that people would even be interested in. Our mission statement, even the architecture, we had architects, they were out in the community for about two or three months getting feedback, and then kept modifying their responses. And so through this process, we built a sense of community. We built this ecosystem of people working together, I think we'll be open we had about 4000 members and now we're up to we're about to hit 5000 and we might even hit it by now because I was couple days ago. So this sense of community and working together for a shared purpose and keeping the power with the community. We're highly decentralized and you know, if people wanted to have a meeting, we—they had a meeting in the name of Gem City Market or if they wanted to open up a cornhole team and call it Gem City Market Ay go for it.
amaha sellassie 14:42
So this way that we've built a sense of leadership. Because we want to be a leaderful organization, leaderful community. So I think our relationship to power, it's been transforming. Because to me, power is connected to hope and hope is the belief that we can change something you know, we can change our lived environment and that sense of agency that we can do that I think has changed. Now, like the hope is increased in our community, whereas before, the area has been highly disinvested. For a long time, so many people promised to do things in our communities and they over promised and under delivered that it increased our level of despair. And to a certain sense, or lack of agency, right. Through this process of like, building something that is our biggest project, but in the scheme of community transformation is very small. But we did it, you know, I mean, and now we believe that we can do it. And when you see people, we have hope our eyes now that yeah, we can do more than this. It's just the beginning. Right? And so, you know, all kinds of projects have been spawning off of this and new entrepreneurs and this different thing. So like, our hope is increasing. And to me, that's a direct relationship with power because the more hope you have, the more power we're realizing towards transforming our lived environment.
Blair Franklin 16:00
Yeah, hope that's so central! Like essential, right, I think, to the work to building power to being able to—activate and organize and change environments and systems. So yes, yes. You mentioned kind of talking a little bit one, the market itself, you mentioned, it's got a health clinic, there's a teaching room, there's like, so many different ways, you're also talking about healing and wellness, beyond just food inside of the market. Then you also mentioned before earlier in the conversation, something around like kind of forgiveness and healing wounds to be able to move forward. If you can just expand that any of that and talk about the ways that healing has happened through this process.
amaha sellassie 16:47
I think, you know, healing has happened in a lot of ways, right? So probably one of the largest ways is that in Dayton, we've had this east west divide, right, like, communities been Black and white, you know, and there hasn't always been the best relationship between East and West Dayton. People from West Dayton didn't go east. The people from East Dayton didn't go west, and people from the rest of the region didn't go on the West Dayton, right? If you look at our regional map, 90 some percent if not more, of African American for the whole region, or castration West Dayton, right? Like redlining with a real real real situation here. We're like, you know, and top 10 in the nation as far as segregation, so east and west came together to help with this project. So there's been this healing, and to me, it's part of this larger conversation of a shared future, because I think there's a misnomer, that we don't automatically have a shared future, right. And so, this notion of interdependence, and Ubuntu, you know, that I am because you are. We have a shared future regardless, but like, it's our acknowledging our shared future, that enables us to co-create it together. And that, to me, is part of the healing process that's been taking place. And it's human relationships in general, that people have been coming together.
amaha sellassie 18:01
There's groups that have, you know— walking groups. Like, people are merging different kinds of health and wellness things out of it. We have on Tuesdays we have a program called "Moms at the Market" which is focused on new moms and moms to be. So we have doula services, lactation services, and different things like that to provide extra support to moms. Because our infant mortality rate was, you know—Ohio at one point was second in the nation, and we were pretty high up there. There was a huge disparity between Black and white infant mortality in our region. I think it's like three or four times different something like that. So that's another form of healing. I think we're beginning process of really connecting food as medicine. I still think there's work to be done on that but, there's been conversation before from different healthcare providers and different health food stores in the region. But I think we're starting to hit that more and I think the groundwork from before is beginning to actually bear fruit. You see a lot of people transforming their diets now so I think that's a blessing as well. The real key is the healing of relationships, even within West Dayton. Also, even if the relationships weren't frayed, they weren't that strong connection. We are firm believer in being relational and not transactional. Also, building quality connections versus having mass. You know, we talk about how movements move at the speed of trust, right? So we're very, very relational. You see that shift in our community now that like, people want a slower process because we realize it's deep work that actually is sustainable work. If we're gonna have sustainable transformation, it's gonna be the strength of our connections.
Blair Franklin 19:51
Yeah, what were the greatest barriers you experienced to your work and how you overcome them to move get to this point?
amaha sellassie 20:01
I would say, two barriers. One was building trust in the beginning. It took some time for people to believe, like "What y'all are building what?" You know what I mean? Like, "Oh, they're gonna steal the money" and "oh, people done something before!" So we had to get over all of those hurdles. Part of how we did that by— we just kept our eye on the prize and kept building and creating concrete structures and processes. We continually showed improvement towards that thing. Then, people started to believe and join and went and volunteer. So that was our hurdle. And I think one of our biggest hurdles right now, is a grocery store doesn't have the same buying power as like a Kroger's or a Walmart or something like that, right. And so we're in a struggle right now to really deliver the food that our community deserves, at a price that they can afford. And also sustained us, we average close to $15 an hour, you know, I mean, so I like we have a lot of standards that we've set for the market. And so to do that, and still have that a price point where it's accessible, is a challenge that we're still navigating to figure out.
Blair Franklin 21:19
Yeah, standards are so critically important to hold and yeah—100%. You're still operating within within a market. But to navigate that, yeah, that's real. What does success look like? How do you measure it?
amaha sellassie 21:33
I think success for me is participation. How many people participating and growing the market, we like to say that it's not just a market, but a movement, right. How the market is catalyzing and being a support for the broader movement towards community transformation, and increasing human dignity, and increasing a sense of belonging. To kind of building alternative space when that kind of we are building an alternative space. And I mean, for those that like, truly would acknowledge the dignity and worth of all human beings. How do we create a space that does that in an economy that does that. And so the market is a way to shop our values and to live our values, and to connect with others that have that same value. So we make those that are striving for this. We make it more visible to each other, to increase our level of cooperation and collaboration towards a co-created vision. I think increasing the number of members that are either have joined the market or are shopping there. For me, probably also, realizing more of a level of agency, and realizing more of how to utilize our gifts and talents. Like asset based community development, when I see more people putting more of their gifts into the center of the circle. To me that's success. Ultimately, the more we believe that change is possible that another world is possible, the more we have the courage to put our full gifts into the center. So, first thing to acknowledge everybody has gifts, so that I can value your gifts, and not try to compete against it. But also, that I'm willing to put my gifts to the center for the benefit of the community. To me those are success and being rooted in love, the more that like, we see our actions and our community moving in a way that is striving to go deeper and deeper into being rooted in love. Which I think it's like the foundation for any healthy, striving, community. Abundant, abundant—that's the word.
Blair Franklin 23:46
There is so much richness you shared, I mean, throughout this entire interview, but especially in that last response, I'm like, let me sign up for the movement. Yeah, just really, really appreciate. I mean, yeah, talking about building an economy that centers community and belonging. A space where folks can put their gifts in the center of the circle being rooted in love. Yeah, just, I mean, it sounds very much like movement toward liberation, right? Towards the world and we are all actively dreaming and an act we deserve.
amaha sellassie 24:23
That's the goal. And that's what I think praxis comes in. Right? Like, I'm a firm believer in praxis. I teach sociology;I teach it in my class. I strive to live it because I think the more we have hope and realize our power, the more that we have the courage to try out our ideas. To see what works, what doesn't work to reflect upon it, and then, you know, that informs our next action. I love when bell hooks, she said, "To know, but verify in praxis." So the more we have a belief that change is possible, that we're not stuck where we are, the more consciously or unconsciously, we're pressing deeper into a state of praxis. Where we're trying out ideas; we're willing to press for something different. When one person does it is powerful. But when a community does it collectively, oh, that's where you see multiple little cracks and breakthroughs and learning. So it's like, how do we develop our collective intelligence, and our ways of sharing our wins and sharing what worked and what didn't work and having the nuanced conversations to, to truly, get continually moving forward together.
Blair Franklin 25:35
And so, you talked about the goal, you talked about being in praxis, being in community moving toward liberation, mentioned abundance earlier. If you had unlimited resources, right, what would you do to access and continue to live that vision and live that dream and increase your impact?
amaha sellassie 25:52
If I had unlimited resources? Wow, I don't know this is the resource answer. Right. But I wouldn't want to make visible the authentic aspirations and heart of the community. Because I believe—even though that like some people have different ideas of how to move a community forward, I think underneath all of that there's this sense of desire that what where are we at right now is not sustainable, not acceptable, not a place where we can rest at. I think the more that people saw how many other people actually believe that change is possible. The more we would move in a more like solid firmer steps towards it. Because it's how we get more of the community's gifts into play towards co-creating our future. I truly believe that we had the power, self-determination, and it's our lack of putting our gifts to the center. You know, and I don't know if that's a resource thing or not? I mean, it could be— as far as like, giving people the jobs; developing a co-op economy where we're producer. We're building our own economy by the things that we're producing and consuming. To me, I just wanna make visible the hear without. I don't know if that's the resource answer, per se.
Blair Franklin 27:19
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think what I love about it is it's a reframe from resources being financial to resources being like time. Right, or unlimited energy, or, you know, like, those other resources that are key to get to deeper impact and to get to that goal, right. And so yeah, I think, yeah, those were like resources to me, I think that's legit.
amaha sellassie 27:47
But you know, what I'm thinking about this more now. You know, like, I think if I had the wand to change anything. I would change the underlying assumption. Hands down, hands down, right? And what I mean, by underlying assumption. So, we know that ideology, or ideas are what builds structures, right? So we have an idea and then we leverage our resources towards making that idea reality. Even like the example of the notion that one group human beings are superior than the other. That is not true. But if I leverage my resources towards making a system like that, then it starts to appear like it's a real thing, even though it's not. And so, to me, it's an underlying assumption that needs to be challenged in this hour. Is love ultimate reality? Right? Are we truly interdependent? Independence is a social construct because the current Coronavirus has shown us this. The environment is showing us this that we're interdependent. Ubuntu, it's not just great ideas, but actually the ultimate reality or the construction of the universe. But we're operating on a false assumption and we built all these things off of it. So, if I had a magic wand I would utilize the resources to make claim, what is the nature of reality? You know— it interdepent or independent. And I think everything else comes from that. Because if we know we're interdependent, then we know love, we know cooperation, forgiveness, grace. All of these things come from knowing our interdependence instead of dependence—independence.
Blair Franklin 29:34
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Here for all of it. And I guess we, as we get close to close. Is there a piece of advice that you feel like you would give to someone thinking about starting an initiative like this going on a similar journey of like being rooted in community, working alongside community to build this vision and beyond?
amaha sellassie 30:00
Sure, sure, yeah. For anybody that is thinking about, you know, starting a co op or starting any kind of endeavor for the community, I think I would start by not only thanking you but also let you know that you're not alone. I think knowing what other work is happening in your community, what is the state of your ecosystem, and seeing how to partner and walk with those other initiatives is great. And for a food co-op, in particular, you have this container where you know, you have anti racism work, or you have all these work happening, whatever it is towards moving humanity forward. But then like, how to start creating spaces of geography, where those places can meet, right? So like, the market serves at a third space. So you have your home, you have your work, but where do you have any community where you're actually building community where, you know, mourn and cheer for those you know. Where everybody knows your name, so we're trying to situate the the co- op, inside of an already existing movement.
amaha sellassie 31:05
So here's geography where we can be gathered, strategize, build deeper relationships, heal the wounds, etc, etc. Regardless of whatever work someone's trying to do I think increasing participation is important but also building collaboration. We call collaboration, our superpower. Even our health clinic came from collaboration with a local hospital system. Our teaching kitchen, came from collaboration with a different hospital system. And the community room came about through collaborative efforts as well. So we're really big on like, how to build bridges, how to build trust in the community, and things like that. Doing like the deep work that may seem like it doesn't matter, but like, it's some of the foundational pieces that allow whatever to go forward. I would just encourage everybody to be relational and see how to collaborate with projects that are already happening, and how the piece that you're adding fits into the larger piece that's already emerging in your community.
Blair Franklin 32:10
Which brings us back to that interdependence and that love you mentioned before. That's beautiful. Is there, before we close, close? Is there anything that you haven't spoken you just want to add any, like final statements you want to acknowledge?
amaha sellassie 32:28
I'm reading the book, by Dr. Nembhard "Collective Courage" and there's a quote in there that really stood out to me. And it said that part of cooperation is being someone that you can cooperate with, that puts the emphasis on me. Am I somebody that other people feel that they can cooperate with? That other people feel that they can trust to work with? In this, that, and the other. It's really like, how am I showing up in the world? How am I showing up in spaces? Am I walking in love? Right? The work is external, right? But it's also internal, to really be the person that others can work with, towards achieving long term broader systemic change, right, that takes all of us. And I think, probably already said it 1000 times, but living into the notion that like the Bible says, the foot can't tell the hand, I don't need it and the hand can't tell the eye don't need it. So really knowing that like, when we say we are the ones we've been waiting for, is that we already have the gifts and talents in our community to be what we need. And that's our lack of relationship or lack of cooperation and collaboration that is hindering us. And so it's not like waiting for people outside. But it's like, how do we build what we have right now. And if we need some more the energy we create by coming together draws in the extra resources.
Blair Franklin 33:52
Wow! Statements to live by and thank you amaha so so so much for the time. The gems of wisdom that you've provided to us in this conversation, I'm really getting us to giving a little window into both your work and the communities work.
amaha sellassie 34:13
Well, thank you! Thank you for your great questions and for your time and for all the work in The Praxis Project does.
Podcast Outro 34:32
Thank you for listening to this episode of In Praxis. We hope you all enjoyed it. Make sure to visit our website, www.thepracxisproject.org where you can check out additional episodes with other guests, as well as learn more about our work.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
community, people, food, praxis, building, Dayton, market, create, grocery store, power, relationship, resources, shared, increasing, interdependent, realizing, striving