The Coalition (“FAB-G”)

 

Meet The Descendant Leadership Board

  • Samantha Bernardine

    President of FABGC

  • Shantell Jones

    4 The People Graphic Design Founder

    Co-Leader, FABGC Board Secretary

  • Shanna Sabio

    GrowhouseNYC Co-founder-Director

    FABGC Co-trustee

  • Allyson Martinez

    BKLVLUP Co-Founder

    FABGC Co-Trustee

We are a Black-led, multiracial coalition who are fighting to preserve the Flatbush African Burial Ground from further desecration.

We are:

  • residents

  • organizations

  • activists

  • artists

  • urban farmers

  • urban planners

  • architects

  • students

  • teachers…

Origins of the FABG Coalition

The FABG Coalition arose in late June 2021 from the conviction that the campaign to protect the Flatbush African Burial Ground must be explicitly under Black leadership and must center Black and Indigenous Stewardship of the site.

Building on the previous work of the Bedford Church Lot organizing group and on the networks and connections engaged by GrowHouse NYC, the FABG Coalition brought together other early organizers opposing the City’s development plans on the site, such as Equality 4 Flatbush and African Graves Matter.


About the Bedford Church Lot Group

A multiracial alliance of community gardeners, community-based organizations, and community residents that started mobilizing in late April 2021 against the building of a housing tower on the site and in favor of a meaningful, democratic community-led process to determine the use of that public land.

The BCL organizing group formed in opposition to overdevelopment in the Flatbush area and to the lack of green public community space affecting CB14 and CB17 neighborhoods and organized to raise 1000 signatures on the original petition to stop development on the Flatbush African Burial Ground.

Their weekly lot stops kept the burial ground clean and added much needed greenery to adjacent tree pits.

About GrowHouse NYC

GrowHouse NYC first learned of the burial ground while researching city-owned land for the creation of its youth-led community land trust. After reading the RFQ (request for qualifications) on the HPD site and finding out about the organizing efforts of the Bedford Church Lot group, GrowHouse became more deeply involved with the work to preserve the site.

Seeing the connection between its mission to create spaces and experiences where Black people across the diaspora can learn and grow together, GrowHouse created the first walking tour which debuted on Juneteenth (June 19th, 2021) and as part of the Global Fence Weaving project of A Blade of Grass and Brooklyn Hi Art Machine created the fence weavings at the site.

To cultivate intentional Black leadership in the work to preserve the burial ground, GrowHouse produced the June Town Hall, deepened the Walking Tours, and produced Teach-ins to raise awareness among Black Brooklynites.