This week on Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez welcomes Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm to discuss African spirituality and Black land stewardship. Leah’s work in farming is sacred and ceremonial. It’s rooted in ancestral practice. A devoted student of Ifa and Vodun, Leah shares how tending the land is a spiritual responsibility—and a revolutionary act. Leah is the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, a working farm and activist-training center in Grafton, NY, committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. As Co-ED and Farm Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs - including farmer training for Black & Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities surviving food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. Leah has been farming since 1996, holds an MA in Science Education and a BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a member of clergy in West African Indigenous Orisa tradition. Leah trained at Many Hands Organic Farm, Farm School MA, and internationally with farmers in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. The work of Leah and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Heinz Award, Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Pritzker Environmental Genius Award, Grist 50, and James Beard Leadership Award, among others. Leah is also the author of two books, Farming While Black and Black Earth Wisdom. In this episode: We talk about the intersection of land, liberation, and ceremony. We revisit the Haitian Revolution as a blueprint for spiritual struggle and collective liberation, And, we reflect on what it means to activate ancestral technologies alongside our strategic assessments of material conditions. Spirit & Liberation is a limited series podcast, brought to you by the Latinx Therapists Action Network, exploring the intersection of political struggle and sacred traditions. Each episode brings you into conversation with organizers, spiritual practitioners, and healers committed to weaving ancestral wisdom into the fight for our collective liberation. This series explores how spirit moves through our movements—offering tools, stories, and truths for these times.