Junteenth 2070
“The People’s Garden,” a new half-hour comedy series, has burst onto the scene and into our devices with stellar ratings and reception. Breathing new life and levity into the ways we consider how our communities are nourished, the freshman series follows the antics and shenanigans of a group of Black teens in Bed-Stuy, in the self sustaining community of Brooklyn, who inherit their housing cooperative’s decades-old community rooftop garden. As the audience, we find ourselves rooting for Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim, the show’s protagonists, as they navigate adolescence and emerging adulthood; their ever-changing relationships to one another; and their newfound role as the community’s lead gardeners. They are determined to put their own twist on how the garden is run in order to cement their own legacies in their neighborhood.
The cultivating crew’s hijinks always stem from concocting new ways to get their neighbors excited and involved in growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and more to feed one another and sustain the gardening practices of those before them. In the show’s pilot episode, “Pot It,” the green gang officially names their garden “Herbland” to attract both young kids, who might mistake it for a new amusement park, as well as elder marijana users, who might be interested in reserving their own personal plots to grow cannabis.
While initially both groups of prospective gardeners quickly and hilariously catch on to Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim’s scheme to get more hands on deck, the episode culminates with a beautifully touching display of intergenerational learning. In “Ivy Intrigue,” Jaja gets a call from her grandmother, who lives on the top floor, that ivy vines from Herbland have begun covering her windows and blocking her skyline view. Following a comical trial and error montage of the trio trying to come up with solutions that don’t require cutting the vines, they get landscapers to install shelving in between the building’s windows and muralists to paint a tribute to the garden, demonstrating the relationship between community and land.
The strength of “The People’s Garden” lies in its creative plot development, world building, and, above all, dynamic characterization of our favorite trio. The show’s environment feels incredibly lived in—so much so that viewers can’t help but see themselves in Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim. Without feeling like a stagnant tutorial on how to develop and maintain a garden in an urban environment, every week, viewers are indeed getting an engaging crash course on how to replicate a gardening model in their own homes and neighborhood, which is the ultimate goal of the show’s writers and producers.
This show resonates so strongly because like Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim’s garden, it’s by its people. Behind the camera, the show’s writers have firsthand experience creating and maintaining their own gardens in Bed-Stuy. Producers consider how those with many talents (i.e. craft service, costume design, hair and makeup, local sponsors, etc.) in Bed-Stuy can bring the show’s stories to light. A rotating bench of local directors lean on their own experiences to collaboratively build the show’s expansive universe.
The show is housed within Wonder Productions, a panmedia production cooperative that utilizes a worker-first profit-sharing model to ensure equitable compensation at all levels and departments. Its guiding mantra is that TV is a dynamic medium, one of many where all involved (writers, producers, actors, script supervisors, and directors) must automatically have all their material needs met, and have their talents, perspectives, and viewpoints welcomed and embraced. From story conception to broadcast, everyone involved in developing this visual art does so in an environment that is collaborative and fair.
Any profits garnered by “The People’s Garden” are evenly distributed between two primary pots, one for cast, crew, and staff, and the other directly back into Bed-Stuy via a community board and land trust. TV continues to be a partner in community expression and storytelling and therefore contributes materially to the people it puts on display. While this is now considered a standard practice in TV production and distribution, we wouldn’t be in this place without widespread cultural shifts, labor actions, and strikes led by Black and other marginalized people before us who challenged and ultimately defeated the corporate greed, exploitation, monopolies, and capitalism that once mired our industry. Thankfully, “The People’s Garden” is part of our current golden era of TV by joining a vast lineage of shows that utilize an economic model that puts community at the center.
As viewers get ready for the second half of the breakout show’s first season, Ade, Jaja, and Ibrahim would urge us all to consider how we can delve more deeply into their universe while considering how we can do so in our own communities.