Donasia Gray, B.A.

Year: 
2023

Major and Concentration:
African American Studies

Current Position:
Summer Intern, 2021

Meet Donasia Gray ’23
Donasia (they/she) is a senior born and raised in the Newhallville community of New Haven. As an African American Studies major in the Education Studies Program, Donasia became a 2021 Yale Farm Summer Intern to move beyond harmful misconceptions that limit Black experience with land to enslavement, and to instead learn more about legacies of Black land stewardship and culinary traditions as a means of healing and community-building. Donasia is deeply appreciative for the opportunity to form a sustained relationship with their local ecology on the Old Acre and all of the care and knowledge exchanging they found among the YSFP team. For Donasia, the internship marked a beginning, and they have since continued to focus on food justice as a pathway to liberation as a member of New Haven's Urban Agriculture Community Advisory Board and a fellow with the Sweet Water Foundation, a regenerative neighborhood development nonprofit in Chicago.