Julius Kolawole
Director & Cofounder, African Alliance of Rhode Island
Julius Kolawole is the Director and Cofounder of the African Alliance of Rhode Island (AARI). He is responsible for the operation of AARI’s core programs: Food, Art, Culture, and Health. He established an urban community garden for AARI in 2009 and currently runs six urban gardens in South Providence. For the past eight years, Julius has led the AARI Urban gardening program, specializing in growing, selling and making value-added products from African vegetables grown in South Providence. Since 2012, he has led eight of the growers to selling their produce at Armory Farmers Market in West-End of Providence and Winter Farmers Market in Pawtucket. In 2015, he implemented a very successful “grow your own food” initiative for community residents and value-added products such as carrot/apple jam and relish made from garden eggs. He advocates and promotes community vitality by engaging different cultures at the farmer’s market, cooking demonstration, Food as Medicine, in addition to African oral food stories and proverbs.