Photographer Brandon Dill visited Mike Minnis as part of our series on Environmental Justice. Minnis, projects coordinator of Landmark Training Development Company, is using urban farming and gardening to help tackle blight in Orange Mound. The nonprofit also runs a paid apprenticeship program for Memphis youth.

Read community correspondent Alexandria Moore’s latest for the series, “Environmental Justice: Tackling blight in Orange Mound” — and more about Mike Minnis — on High Ground News.



Minnis sees blight as a two-sided coin: “On the one side of the coin, there’s opportunity. On the other side, you have what I like to call misrepresentation.”





“I really am ashamed of our political leaders for not doing more to help our young people from getting involved in the underground economy,” Minnis says.







“I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Minnis says. “But I recommend people to hold on to their property and find ways to elevate and increase the amount of money they can get from their land, to increase the value of their property so no eminent domain will happen.”