Faces of Antyx: Syma
It’s a perfect snowy day to bundle up and read this week’s Faces of Antyx feature, Syma!
Q: What was your experience like working with Antyx? What have you collaborated on with them?
A: Some of the most meaningful work I've ever done in my entire life was my collaboration with Antyx creating the What Feeds Us program, a welcoming space for youth to grow, cook, share and advocate for good food using art and creativity. We created a place full of radical inclusion and kindness, shared amazing meals around a big harvest table, and taught everyone the power that food and art have to create community. It was such a pleasure to work with every single person at Antyx and I still consider the staff there to be dear friends. I'm constantly looking for other opportunities to collaborate.
Q: How did you find your passions and how have you incorporated them into your career?
A: I became passionate about food because I grew up in a home where there was a lot of instability, but food was one of the few things that really brought a big sense of joy and community into our lives. We always grew our own food and cooked everything from scratch. Later on, when I was living on my own and without a community, I became very sick. Food was a big part of my healing journey and I feel very strongly that every single person deserves to have access to good, nourishing and culturally appropriate food. No matter where I go or what I do, I've always brought my knowledge around nourishing people in healthy ways with me. It's how I express love, care and solidarity with people and I've done that for many different groups of people over the last decade, from youth who were formerly homeless to adults with developmental disabilities to the community of greater Forest Lawn!
Q: What is the purpose of your work?
A: To share joy using the power of a good meal, and to transform food into a healing force for people and the planet.
Q: What was the biggest opposing force that you encountered on your journey?
A: I would say that for a long time, I felt like I didn't belong in the
world of food justice here in Alberta. It felt very much like you had to be a middle-class/wealthy white person to belong, especially when it comes to the urban agriculture community. I would look around and see no one like me, a nerdy brown girl who grew up in a low-income home. I saw my story as a limitation, not as a strength. It hasn't been easy, and systemic racism is still a real thing but I feel really comfortable in my skin now and I see how my narrative is needed in this world of food justice here in Alberta. Monocultures don't work with farming and they don't work with communities either!
Q: If you could give your younger self some words of advice, what would they be?
A: To not change a dang thing about the path you're going down - just move with the frequency of love, care and compassion and you will end up with so much more than you ever thought was possible.
Q: What are you currently working on?
Lots! Along with my amazing day job at Momentum, I am getting a youth urban farming project going in collaboration with my friend Josh, I am running workshops on embodied inclusion, I'm just about a yoga teacher, and have plans for more education around functional medicine and Ayurveda next!