Ripple Effect: Positive Change Around the Sound podcast episode 9
WHAT:
Episode #9: Cultivating Community with Raymond Williams, Co-Founder of The Black Farmers Collective
Presented by Mirror Stage, Ripple Effect: Positive Change Around the Sound amplifies the stories of local change-makers whose positive impact ripples across Puget Sound. Released monthly, each episode features a local change-maker working to build a better, more inclusive community—telling their story in their own words. Ripple Effect explores how the actions of a single individual ripple outward, shaping collective understanding. Every episode invites listeners to find out what brings our guests to this moment today, what drives and inspires them, and how to get involved.
WHO:
Raymond Williams (he/him) was born and raised in Seattle, the son of two well-educated professionals. He is biracial and identifies as African American. These identities have allowed him the privilege of moving in the world of the educated (AB Biology, Harvard ’79 and M.Ed Education, University of Washington, ’91) and given him the calling to serve his community. A community that continues to have disparities in both educational and health outcomes. A community that continues to show its brilliance through five-hundred years of enslavement, Jim Crow, redlining and police brutality.
Ray spent the summers of his youth running through the Northwest’s forests and exploring tide pools or visiting a family friend’s farm. His family had a garden in Seattle, and he planted one at most of the places he lived. For almost 30 years he shared his fascination and love of nature as a science teacher, teaching in Seattle, Atlanta, and International School of Curacao. His position at The Art Institute of Seattle, teaching both biology and nutrition, formed a vision of how he might serve. Not on a committee making recommendations, but working on the ground, building community. Most of our health problems are related to diet and stress, this is especially true for the Black community. Growing a little of your own food is one of the best things you can do for your health.
For 15 years, he worked in and built community gardens and shared with youth and adults how to grow food. When the opportunity to farm the freeway right of way in central Seattle presented itself, the Black Farmers Collective and Yes Farm was born. As Co-Founder and Special Projects Director, Ray is passing the work of community healing on to a growing staff of farm managers and emerging farmers.
WHEN:
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Episodes drop monthly on the fourth Wednesday
WHERE:
Episodes are available on the Mirror Stage web site, Spotify, and all other major podcast platforms
ABOUT MIRROR STAGE
Originally founded in 1991, Mirror Stage is a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts company that believes the power of story and art holds the key to bringing people together in imagining and embodying a better future. We challenge assumptions, bias and prejudice, increasing equity and inclusion while encouraging more thoughtful reflection on today’s issues. Mirror Stage nurtures unique artistic voices, centering those who have been most oppressed by society’s inequitable systems and structures. Mirror Stage gets people talking, as well as thinking. Learn more about the history of Mirror Stage.
Mirror Stage gratefully acknowledges the support of 4Culture, Allen Family Philanthropies, ArtsWA, the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, the EPS Fund, Humanities Washington, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Posner-Wallace Foundation.
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