Sankofa Power:
Mapping Routes
to
Community
Juneteenth, Everyday.
Sankofa Power is a counter-mapping initiative.
We reclaim the narrative of place, memory, and resilience—mapping not just what’s visible, but what was stolen, erased, or hidden.
Through a powerful blend of ritual, tech, and community design, we activate:
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🍽 Food Security Networks: Community-led gardens, cooking rituals, and land access mapped by need and ancestry.
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🗺 GIS Ritual Maps: Digital maps that locate sacred sites, forgotten farms, resource deserts, and cultural restoration zones.
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🧱 Mutual Aid Tradeposts: Nodes for bartering goods, skills, and healing—honoring the legacy of freedom economies.
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🌾 Cultural + Historical Sovereignty: Grounded in Black ecologies and Afro-Indigenous knowledge systems, each ritual reclaims memory as a resource.
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💼 Enterprise Ecosystems: We connect micro-businesses, artists, healers, and food practitioners with mutual value creation systems.
This isn’t charity. It’s sovereignty infrastructure.
It helps you grow food, generate value, heal land, and restore ancestral alignment—while building the regenerative economy we need.
“I traded collard seeds for cough syrup. My grandma would’ve been proud.”
— Rashida, Tradepost Host
Ready to reclaim what's ours?
Sign up to join the Sankofa Power community—where land, legacy, and liberation grow together.
✅ You’ll get access to upcoming garden events, healing rituals, and mutual aid updates.
✅ We never sell your data. We plant it—with care.
Ancestral Mapping For The Future
Our sacred map doesn’t just show where—we show why.
Rooted in memory. Grown with intention.
“Help Us Expand the Map”
Got a story, memory, or healing site to add?
🔍 What It Is:
An interactive GIS-based map that connects community needs, forgotten histories, and healing opportunities across Minneapolis.
🌱 What It Tracks:
- Land access zones (vacant lots, garden hubs, remediated sites)
- Former Black farms and cultural corridors
- Areas with high asthma, food insecurity, pollution
- Sites of healing (community centers, murals, sacred groves)
- Tradepost nodes for bartering and mutual aid
🌐 Symbol Key:
- 🌀 Sacred Site
- 🌾 Garden / Grow Zone
- 🧱 Mutual Aid Node
- 🔥 Ritual Activation Site
- 💧 Healing Hub
🌀 Sacred Sites
Memory nodes and ancestral ritual grounds
🔥 Ritual Activation Sites
Locations with past ceremonies or energy centers
🧱 Mutual Aid Nodes
Tradeposts, barter stations, skill exchanges
💧 Healing Hubs
Clinics, community centers, art altars
🌾 Garden Zones
Vacant lots, food forests, soil remediated plots
Features including:
Audio Pins- when you hover over a site hear the story
Permission Layering- you control your date and who sees it
Heatmaps for: asthma, food deserts, and healing density zones
Geo-Cache style historical scavenger hunts
Where Needs Meet Gifts. Where We Build, Together.
In the old days, people traded what they had for what they needed.
They helped each other—no money needed.
We bring that spirit back.
Sankofa Tradeposts are sacred spaces where:
🍞 You can share extra food or seeds
🛠 Fix broken tools or get help with repairs
💬 Trade skills like braiding, coding, or storytelling
💫 Offer your gifts and ask for what you need
We believe helping each other is holy work.
These are not just markets.
They are rituals of care, built from love—not greed.
| GIS Map | Tradeposts are pinned + ritual marked (e.g., “Ancestor Altar 2023”) |
| Zines & Archive | Tradepost host zines: Seed Exchange Guide, Grief Trade Ritual |
| Enterprise Ecosystem | Makers can offer goods for barter (candles, teas, zines) |
| Events Calendar | Trade events appear in ritual gathering listings |
🥬 What is a Farmstand (in Minnesota)?
A farmstand is a small setup (like a table, shed, cart, or booth) where people can sell or give away food and plants directly to the community — usually grown on-site.
✅ In Minnesota:
You don’t need a permit to run a basic farmstand on your own property
You can sell:
Fresh produce
Plants
Honey
Eggs (with proper handling)
The stand must be:
On your land (or with permission)
Not blocking sidewalks/streets
Non-permanent (portable or seasonal)
You can’t sell prepared foods (like cooked meals) without a separate license
📘 Source: MN Cottage Food Law & Local Zoning (Minneapolis generally supports seasonal neighborhood stands)
🔄 How to Turn a Farmstand into a Sankofa Tradepost
Simple: Add ritual + reciprocity to the farmstand.
Instead of only selling, a tradepost lets people:
🌱 Leave or take seeds, food, herbs, goods
🤝 Offer or request skills or help (like mending clothes, teaching tech, storytelling)
🔥 Leave notes, prayers, or zines as offerings
Think of it as a barter altar rooted in community care — not just commerce.
Memory Is a Seed. Sovereignty Is the Harvest.
Our stories were stolen.
Our land was taken.
But our memory lives on—in song, in soil, in ritual.
Cultural and historical sovereignty means:
🎭 Telling our own stories, in our own ways
🌾 Growing food the way our ancestors did
📖 Learning the true history they tried to erase
🌀 Building power from roots, not permission
Through gardens, zines, maps, altars, and ceremonies,
we remember forward.
We don’t just want justice—we want wholeness.
This is how we heal the break in the story.
“My great-grandmother’s sweet potatoes are still feeding us.”
— Asha, Garden Storyteller
🔄 Integration with Other Systems:
Integration | Connection Pathway |
GIS Ritual Map | Tags historic sites, family land, or cultural events in the area |
Tradeposts | Drops of history-based items (e.g. heirloom seeds, ritual guides) |
Food Sovereignty | Connects agricultural practices to ancestral lineages (e.g. seed songs) |
Enterprise Ecosystem | Brands rooted in culture and intergenerational storytelling |
Economies of Care. Enterprises of Liberation.
Grow value from the roots. Sow healing into the economy.
🛍️
🧪
🎨
🪴
“I traded collard seeds for a website. That’s how we build.”
— Darnell, Web & Soil Exchange
Some people call it side hustle.
We call it sacred work.
Planting herbs. Braiding hair. Making healing teas.
These are businesses—but also blessings.
Sankofa Power helps build an economy
where what you do for your people
also feeds your future.
Here’s how we support enterprise ecosystems:
🌱 Help you grow and sell what you make
💸 Connect you to tradeposts and barter circles
🎨 Feature your work in zines, rituals, and events
🤝 Build shared value—without gatekeeping
We believe the economy should help us heal,
not harm.
Your gifts are worth more than money.
We just help them shine.
| Integration Area | Connection |
|---|---|
| GIS Ritual Map | Pins each participating vendor; layers tied to garden events or altar kits |
| Tradeposts | Vendors can host pop-ups or leave barter cards at trade stations |
| Cultural Sovereignty | Products featured in zines, oral storytelling, cultural ceremonies |
| Data Commons | Optional community earnings tracker (anonymized dashboard for resilience) |
Our Stories are Spells
Each zine is a seed. Each ritual is a map. This is our growing archive of liberation.
We don’t just share info.
We share stories, spells, and blueprints.
Zines that teach you how to plant freedom.
Videos that show how healing looks in real life.
Podcasts with voices from the garden, the kitchen, the street.
This archive is our medicine cabinet—
filled with guides, games, and growing wisdom.
Made by us. Shared with love.
Take what you need. Add what you know.
“I found the compost ritual in the zine—and buried my grief next to the collards.”
— Darius, North Mpls
Where We Grow We Gather, Where We Gather We Grow
Juneteenth. Solstice. Sunday dinners.
Workdays that turn into healing circles.
Puppet shows in the garden.
Planting onions with your aunties.
Our events aren’t just events.
They’re rituals.
They’re how we practice sovereignty—with our hands in the soil.
Each garden is a node:
📍 A place of memory.
🌿 A place of food.
✨ A place of joy.
Come through.
Bring your story, your seeds, your spirit.
“The day my son planted collards with his grandma—he called it a family spell.”
— Tysha, Parent & Educator
