News Releases

Community gardener to share vision as part of Experience UWF Downtown Lecture Series

The University of West Florida College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities will continue its 2016-17 Experience Downtown Lecture Series on March 29, 2017 at the Museum of Commerce in Historic Pensacola, where community gardener Ron Finley will share his vision in “Changing Culture From the Ground Up – Transforming Food Prisons Into Food Forests.”

The event is free and open to the public, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and the lecture from 6-7 p.m.

Finley, known as “Gangsta Gardener” and “Renegade Gardener,” planted organic vegetables in the parkway in front of his South Los Angeles home, and a revolution was started. His belief that gardens build communities led to the founding of the Ron Finley Project, an organization dedicated to changing culture and growing people.

This lecture concludes the 2016-17 Experience UWF Downtown Lecture Series. The series promotes the value of liberal arts in contemporary life by showcasing outstanding UWF faculty and scholars of national prominence, who illustrate the essential role of the liberal arts in building and sustaining contemporary culture.

In addition to speaking at the Downtown Lecture Series, Finley will join the UWF Community Garden executive board on Monday, March 27 to discuss plans for expanding the UWF garden.

The UWF Community Garden is sponsoring a public film screening of his award-winning documentary “Can You Dig This” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 3 at Carmike Cinemas Bayou 15 in Pensacola. Tickets cost $11 and should be reserved by Thursday, March 23 at gathr.us/screening/19545.

Finley partnered with singer, songwriter, musician and actor John Legend to produce the documentary which follows the inspirational journeys of four unlikely gardeners who discover what happens when they put their hands in the soil.

For the full series schedule and more information, visit uwf.edu/downtownlectures.