Ron Finley: Nourishment & Resilience

Affectionately known as the “Gangsta Gardener”, Ron Finley is maybe best known as the man who taught many in South Central Los Angeles that they could grow fresh produce in their own backyards. Today, Finley is an advocate for the eradication of food deserts worldwide, heading The Ron Finley Project, an organisation aiming to “turn food prisons into food forests and transform culture and communities, one garden at a time”. For the Nourishment & Resilience phase of Apple’s Black History Month celebration, Finley created a playlist featuring soul music from a number of eras, featuring acts like The Miracles, Common, James Brown, Lupe Fiasco and The Stylistics. The songs are all of a message, with Finley telling Apple Music that Keni Burke’s “Risin’ to the Top” is “telling us to be resilient, wake up, get up, stand up, and don’t get caught the fuck up, just keep rising to the top.” He speaks even more glowingly of Kenny Dope and Raheem DeVaughn’s “Final Call”: “As far as I’m concerned, this should be a Black national anthem,” Finley says. “This track is about Black pride and honouring where we came from, and showing us the direction of how we can get back to the pride and positivity of being Black. I love the shout-outs to the luminaries, the icons and the activists.” If you hear something you like, be sure to save it to your library.