NABS on the Road: Jim Embry - Richmond, KY

Documenting 2024 Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellows

A Ten-Post Series by Ilene Evans

Editor: Karen Abdul-Malik

The Jim Embry and Family Homestead

We got off the big highway, and turned onto the busy city streets of Richmond, Kentucky, then down back road, a slow and winding lane, leading to the Embry family land. They still own about thirty acres, some tilled, some orchard, and some residences. We pulled up onto the grass where other cars had parked for the Birthday and Butterfly Celebration being held later that day. It has become an annual event to recognize Jim’s latest turn around the sun.

When we arrived, Jim was already busy in the living room, entertaining guests, educating and sharing stories to help them in their studies.

Jennifer Bailey, Queen Nur, Melan Bush, Nida Jade, Jim Embry and Ilene Evans in Jim’s living room sharing knowledge.

Jim’s library of Black History is a haven of the classics of black literature and activism. Jim does a lot of mentoring and guidance through telling stories that come back to the power of the land, soil, and seed saving. Melan Bush and Nida Jade were from the Black Appalachian Coalitionwho have long been working for climate and environmental justice in Black Appalachia. They were getting some books needed for research that Melan is conducting which Jim happened to have in his library. https://blackappalachiancoalition.org/climate-and-environmental-justice/#freedom-to-breath

Jim has stories from the long-ago times of Madison County Kentucky, from a family of agrarian, intellectual activists and their friendships with such icons as W.E.B. Dubois, Ida B. Wells and George Washington Carver, the marches on Washington, the protest marches and memories of Dr. Martin Luther King. He has a special love for George Washington Carver and has done extensive academic work on his journey in agriculture and Black History. Jim shares these stories of family and friends of the family with a personal twist because his people were so active in civil rights working to correct civil wrongs.

With his fellowship award, Jim been able to expand his Joy and Justice Journey throughout the year and with more than twenty diverse community organizations, universities, and conferences. Food and justice are not often linked together as a platform of Civil rights, but Jim evidences they should be there together. Everything from how and when we plant to what we plant, and forage are a part of our journey of freedom and survival in America. 

 These principles learned from nature make clear our legacy of land ownership and its wisdom. The earth has taught us how to survive in hard times. Nature’s abundance is an example to follow in our lives. 

Jim Embry at home

A lot of storytelling in Appalachia happens in kitchens, dining rooms, basements, garages, gardens, in the car on long trips, over a meal, around the fire, or on long walks. We were able to interview Jim in the living room of his family home. Then later, for Jim’s birthday celebration and dinner, we were gathered around a fire outside.

Around the warm and comforting flames, folks gathered and shared food from their lands and stories of how Jim has been a part of their journey. Then Jim got to tell the story of receiving the Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellowship Award.

Jim says as he grew up, storytelling was constant. He has passed that legacy on to his children, his neighbors and everyone else who will listen – even if they are not farmers. Literally coming full circle, his sons told stories of their passion for farming coming from their father.  They are twins with powerful names: Obiora and Ajani. Obiori means the mind of the people and Father’s heart form the Igbo people. Ajani means he who wins the struggle, a victor in a fight. from the Yoruba language. Because of their father, they both feel called to tend and rebuild the soil where it has been depleted. Again, the theme of the importance of family lineage, heritage and legacy were front and center in our storytellers.

Their stories continue to be a living narrative of Black Appalachian values, culture, and knowledge. Tales are not just tales, they are much more, they teach us that we are connected and that we rely on each other.

When Jim’s boys talk about restoring the living soil for farming, they say, “Everything is energy, everything is living as well….is spirit, even the air, by increasing that energy as love you can increase the physical changes.”