Artist: Moira Smiley
Hometown: New Haven, Vermont
Song: “Now Is The Cool Of The Day”
Album: The Rhizome Project
Release Date: September 6, 2024
In Their Words: “August 6th is Farmworker Appreciation Day, and I didn’t know that until this year. I am writing this as I sit on a hill above the rolling Vermont farmland where I grew up being a young farmworker and musician. In honor of this day, I’m releasing one of my favorite songs of all time – and the best one I know for reminding us to slow down and remember our roles as carers and tenders of this beautiful planet and the people around us. This week, I’m showering appreciation on the people that grow and tend food in my area; buying from small farmers, donating to the Open Door clinic that serves the medical needs of immigrant agricultural laborers. This gentle video hopes to slow your pace, and bring you along with me in acknowledging that farmworkers make our nourishment possible. Let us thank them.
“Ever since I learned Jean Ritchie’s song, ‘Now Is The Cool Of The Day,’ as an 11 year-old, it has played in my head while traveling through fields and pastures, working in my own garden, or worrying about the climate crisis. The words throughout her beautifully crafted song form and melody call on us to steward the earth (and take care of each other). Although she had that call coming from ‘my lord,’ I always felt that call coming straight from the earth itself. I love that these words urgently and gently remind us that we are tenders, not just extractors, consumers, and producers.
“American icons Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association in the early 1960s and it became the powerful United Farm Workers union, UFW. Huerta coined the phrase, ‘Si, se puede’ (‘Yes, we can’) and has been a lifelong advocate for labor rights, women’s rights, and civil rights with her efforts resulting in legislative victories for farm workers. Chavez’s leadership brought national attention to the plight of farm workers and helped secure better wages and working conditions through strikes, boycotts and other measures.
“The official Farmworker Appreciation Day got moved to August 6th by Bill Clinton’s administration, and I’m glad that we get to percolate and act on our appreciation while in this most fruitful of seasons, August. I hope you’ll join me by giving extra love to the farmers and farmworkers whose work nourishes you!” – Moira Smiley
Photo Credit: Fiona Small
Video Credit: Fiona Small
