Our Team
SITV’s co-owners, Mecca Bey and Bweza Itaagi, have been learning how to grow food for years—they’ve grown on a range of scales, including in windowsill gardens, small containers, backyards, community garden plots, and now on their urban farm. Since they founded Sistas In The Village, they have been guest presenters for Gardeneers’ After School Matters, Urban Growers Collective’s Youth Corps, and several undergraduate and graduate classes at DePaul University. Their presentations have all focused on the importance of growing food, the ancestral and sacred connection we all have to land, and tips for getting started growing food on any scale.
Mecca Bey
Mecca Bey’s extensive background in the medical industry and her passion to help empower people led her to begin her journey of rebuilding communities through social and economic change. In 2016 she began urban farming to teach children and communities the importance of organically growing their food as part of a sustainable lifestyle.
Today, Mecca spends her time taking care of her family, writing, and enjoying life on her terms. She is living her purpose as a wellness coach, healing circle keeper, community outreach leader, and urban farmer. She is also a public speaker who promotes health and wellness as it relates to farming and the community. Mecca sees farming as our connection to our ancestors and a tool for healing from trauma in the communities she serves.
Marvin Yates
“Last year I saw Bweza and Mecca doing some farm work across the street from my home and introduced myself told them that I lived across the street. And I appreciate the work that they were doing and asked how I could go about participating or working for them one day. This year I begin working on the farm partnering with Bweza and Mecca. I’ve been learning about planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables and more.
It’s been very good learning experience for me, I had never harvested or planted before and I had never worked on a farm. I’ve learned a lot. Hopefully we’ll be working together for a very long time and I just wanna thank them for accepting me into their family I really appreciate it.”
Nyabweza (Bweza) Itaagi
Nyabweza “Bweza” Itaagi is an urban farmer, community cultivator and horticulturist. Bweza moved to Chicago from Denver in 2015 to pursue a master's degree in Sustainable Urban Development at DePaul University. In both Denver and Chicago, she has worked with a range of organizations focused on urban agriculture, community empowerment and Earth stewardship.
As a first-generation Ugandan American, she seeks to incorporate traditional East African farming practices in Chicago. She views farming as a spiritual practice with the ability to heal communities and build collective power. In her work, she seeks to bridge intercontinental Black communities to build solidarity and resilience.
Adam Laudat
Bio coming soon!
Sharmain Siddiqui
Sharmain Siddiqui is a Muslim, Pakistani-American organizer, farmer, and medical student. She is invested in practicing a people’s medicine. To this end, she is involved in street medicine, healthcare for the incarcerated, and in using plant and land-based healing to imagine new paradigms of liberation.
She is building out a “Free Little Library”-style apothecary with the mentorship, guidance, and care of Sistas in the Village. Our apothecary has free herbs, tinctures, and oils for giving and taking.