The Official Website for:
Kindred
Creative Residence + Agro-ForesT
Cultivating Future Farmers
As we face the challenges ahead of us, our goal as a BIPOC led, LGBTQIA+ welcoming, organization, is to create a fully inclusive and safe space for community to come together to share skills, exchange knowledge and build resilient communities. We seek to transform our current relationship to our natural world by learning about the sustainable practices of our ancestors, and incorporating a more balanced approach to our daily lives. Together we can learn to live in harmony with each other and our natural surroundings while cultivating abundance for ourselves and all the life on our planet. By teaching our youth to love and appreciate the natural world around them, they will learn to thrive and continue to generate abundance for themselves and the generations that come after them.
Nina I. Buxenbaum
Nina Buxenbaum (she/her) was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY to a politically active, multi-racial household. She received her MFA degree in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in drawing and printmaking.
Ms. Buxenbaum has participated in residencies at the Cité Interational des Artes in Paris, France, the Skowhegan School of Painting (Skowhegan, MN), The Artists Alliance (NY, NY), and The Byrdcliff Artist in Residence, (Woodstock, NY), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and The Hambidge Artist Residency (Rabun Gap, GA). Her work has been included in several exhibitions including the Studio Museum of Harlem (NYC, NY), The Slater Museum (Norwich, CT), The Painting Center (NYC, NY), the Kentler International Drawing Space (Brooklyn, NY), the Ingalls Gallery (Miami, FL), Rush Arts (NYC, NY), The Sampson Projects (Boston, MA), including a solo show at The Stella Jones Gallery (New Orleans, LA).
Ms. Buxenbaum has been an exhibiting artist and educator for her entire career. First certified as a K-12 Art teacher in New York, she has been teaching at the college level since 2001. She is a Tenured Professor of Painting at York College, CUNY as well as a member of The Silvermine Artist Guild in New Canaan, CT, Co-Founder of KINDRED Creative Residence & Agro-ForesT, and Director of Apprentice Earth Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
Kindred Siblings
In Loving Memory
Alva Jones Buxenbaum
Born Alva L'nez Jones in New Orleans, LA during the Jim Crow Era, Alva was raised with a family legacy of educators, activists, and civic leaders. Alva was taught how to push against injustice and demand civil rights by the example her family set.
She began her activism as a teenager protesting segregation in the south. She participated in The Women's Movement as a part of Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE). and later she became an influential voice in the local public school district.
She taught elementary school for 35 years before becoming Assistant Principal for 5 years and School Principal for 4 years at PS 368 The Hamilton Heights School (K-5) in Washington Heights.
Alva was an educator, activist, and civic leader her entire life and passed on what she learned to those around her. She was an example of a leader whose purpose was service to her community. She inspired many and continues to inspire her daughter Nina's work at Kindred CRAFT; to cultivate "servant leaders" and pass on knowledge and skills to generations of youth yet to come.
Roberto C. Zapata
Born in Norwalk CT, Roberto Zapata (they/them) is a first generation child of parents from Costa Rica and Colombia. At a very young age Roberto learned how to work with their hands. They have had a long history of wood working and construction. Roberto is a passionate builder, designer, and creator. They apprenticed with an arborist for three years, learning rigging, SRT climbing, and proper tree pruning. They have independently pursued the study of tree, plant, and mushroom medicines.
In 2015 Roberto started a community garden project, Meadows Garden Pride in the Norwalk public housing complex where they lived. Through the use of Hürgelkelur they created garden beds that required no tilling, fertilizing, or irrigation, thus eliminating many outputs. From 2017-2018, Roberto led campers ages 8-18, and adults of all ages, in foraging, plant identification, and medicinal plant harvesting classes at Holmes Camp & Retreat Center. In 2018 they earned their permaculture certification. They are currently on the Board of Directors of The Unadilla Community Farm, in Unadilla, NY, Co-Founder of the KINDRED Creative Residence & Agro-ForesT, and serves as an advisor on the Board of Directors of Apprentice Earth Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit. They are a recipient of the 2023-2024 Braiding Seeds Fellowship from Soul Fire Farm.
Become a WWOOFer
Would you like to help us on the farm? You can visit and work on the land as we build this food system. Find out more about the WWOOF program here.
Farm a Yard
Of native fruits and vegetables
Grow food and medicine in your existing yard and experience the health benefits of eating what you produce at home. iThrough interdisciplinary, hands on (and, in the dirt) lessons, children and adults learn about the importance of seed saving, promoting native plants, and observing what is already growing around you.
Take a Class
To tap into your creativity
We offer outdoor painting and drawing classes that focus on developing observational skills and practice in expressive mark making.
With a focus on the use of sustainable, non-toxic materials and practices to reduce and eliminate our use of harmful chemicals, that negatively impact our health and the health of our planet.
Follow Us @Kindred-CRAFT.bsky.social
