NuLegacy
NuLegacy connects New Yorkers of color whose lives have been devastated by incarceration to the regenerative power of nature and land.
“I think there’s a lot of healing to be done for Black and Indigenous people around land in New York and what has happened. Reconnecting to the land helps us heal from the trauma and atrocities of genocide and slavery.” -Chino Hardin
We are excited to announce that we purchased 20 acres of land in Enfield, New York, 15 minutes west of downtown Ithaca. We are forever grateful for the partnership with Chad and Tenah Dyer of Future Allies for making this purchase possible.
We are calling the land, “The People’s Land,” and it will be the site for the NuLegacy Center for Earth and Human Wellness.
NuLegacy will include cooperatively owned transitional and long-term housing, farmland, and education space. We will build from the ground up, as a community, training everyone through the process on a variety of skills including construction, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, land stewardship, farming, food justice, environmental justice, political education, and land and community sovereignty.
We will nurture the skills and provides the experiences necessary for people to live, heal, and thrive in nature and to steward land in healthy and harmonious ways.
We will foster reconnection to the land to open pathways for land reparations and land reclamation. Connection to land disrupts the cycles of violence, fear, and trauma caused by the prison industrial complex. The ability to work and live off the land are important skills for building community autonomy.
We will provide both healing and training to repair the negative impacts of generational trauma related to forced labor on the land and modern-day mass incarceration.
Impact
Introduced over 100 system-impacted family to camping, farming and land-based healing.
Supported the short-term housing needs of families with people in prison and people newly released from prison.
Awarded a 2-year residency at WILDSEED to connect violence interrupters, gang-involved individuals and NYCHA resident leaders to land-based healing.
Selected by NYC’s Hester Street Collaborative as a candidate to apply for City capital funds to purchase land in Brooklyn and Federal Black Farmer grants to purchase and build a cooperatively owned farm and retreat center in upstate NY.