Community Partner Spotlight: Milkweed Cultivates ‘Community and City’ with The Obodo Collective’s 2nd Book Festival

On April 13, 2025, Milkweed Editions delighted in collaborating with The Obodo Collective, a Las Vegas-based urban farm, to break ground on their second annual Our Mothers’ Garden Book Festival. To join in the festivities, Milkweed Editions donated a bundle of books to distribute to the community.

Collaborating with The Obodo Collective to break ground on a successful festival, for Milkweed, means more than just extending this act of mutual flourishing—it is the chance to delight in a gift economy over tilled earth. Per their website, their namesake embodies their mission in its entirety: “Obodo comes from the Igbo word for both city and community. We believe that it takes active and ongoing involvement in our neighborhoods to turn a region into a community.”

For them, transforming a region into a true community proved to lay in the heart of the historic westside of Las Vegas—where they’ve since broken ground on cultivating their site into an urban farm. “We noticed the resources that the community lacked: access to fresh produce and fresh grocery stores,” Executive Director Tameka Henry has said on their choice to sow their seeds by the city’s edge.

Tameka Henry and Cheyenne Kyle, Photo by Christopher DeVargas

“Our name comes from the Igbo word for both city and community—we believe that it takes active and ongoing involvement in our neighborhoods to turn a region into community.” — The Obodo Collective

Of the core mission driving their spirit to the soil, they have focus on three main pillars: food security, housing, and employment. For this trio founders, Tameka Henry, Cheyenne Kyle, and Erica Vital-Lazare, their cultivation isn’t only aimed at uplifting the multigenerational families around them—it is their way of honoring the lineage of mothers-turned-activists that have come before them. Painted at the entrance of their building, a mural of Obodo’s vision is manifested onto the adobe. Two women book-end each side of the building, their gazes heavy across an expanse of land, their eyes fixed on a blazing sun in the center. Between them, a kaleidoscope of color stretches over a feast of vegetables and fruit—it is both a promise and an invitation.

Photo courtesy of City of Las Vegas Public Art and Galleries

So far, they’ve honored their namesake by creating solutions for community-wide issues; whether it’s helping families navigate eviction court, facilitating grocery donations, or sharing resources that connect families with childcare services. In the near future, they hope to expand from these vital services with the addition of farm-to-table dining events for the community. In a recorded tour of their farm, Cheyenne Kyle guides a group of guests to the green stalks that tower along their property. “I’m told I grow the best arugula around,” she says, tugging pieces of the vegetable free and passing it between them. In their shared laughter and nods of approval, they have instantaneously shifted into the very act of Obodo that the Collective has nur since their founding.  

Now, with the help of co-founder Erica Vital-Lazare, the Collective has turned toward the importance of reading by establishing the Our Mothers’ Garden Book Festival. “Numbers reflect that 25.3% are reading below national literacy rates,” she posed to us in the afterglow of the festival’s success. “With our mission to close gaps in access to equitable housing and garden-fresh nutritional foods, it came to no surprise that literacy and poverty are inextricably linked. Our Mothers’ Garden Book Festival gave us an opportunity to operate in the spirit of our core mission, while celebrating and continuing the story-making traditions that have long-sustained us all.”

Erica Vital-Lazare

“Our Mothers’ Garden Book Festival gave us an opportunity to operate in the spirit of our core mission, while celebrating and continuing the story-making traditions that have long-sustained us all.” — Erica Vital-Lazare

For Milkweed, this connection between community and literary nourishment was a common thread powerful enough to braid together our two organizations together for this cause. “For many of our neighbors, these books are the start to their own library,” adds one avid Obodo Collective supporter. “Which is something they have never had. We couldn’t have done this without Milkweed.” Of the book-sends we curated, Erica re-affirms that our donated book bundles were in perfect accompaniment with their event: “They are the stories, connections, and voices that resound with our reading family.”

“For many of our neighbors, these books are the start to their own library, which is something they have never had. We couldn’t have done this without Milkweed.” — Affiliated Supporter of the Obodo Collective

Between their harvest and our bookshelves, Milkweed Editions is honored to help nurture new seeds until they take root one act of Obodo–-and one book-–at a time. To help nurture these seeds of community flourishing, please read more about The Obodo Collective here.