Taja Sevelle
By the time Taja Sevelle was 15, she had lived in the city, on a farm and in a remote forest near the Canadian boarder with no running water, electricity or access by car. She had studied in her own science lab complete with microscopes, slides, protozoa and data storage, she had plowed fields, tapped maple trees, learned the Morse code, managed a health food store and become a radio DJ before her fellow classmates had graduated from high school. Her life took a twist when in the same week she was accepted into the Berklee College of Music, she was offered a record deal from Prince.
From Minneapolis to Hollywood, the first song Taja Sevelle had ever written, “Love is Contagious,” became a charted Billboard hit in America and Europe. Suddenly she was promoting her debut CD and rapidly becoming a well mentored songwriter for Warner/Chappell Music, writing with legends Prince, Burt Bacharach, Thom Bell and Nile Rodgers among others. She shot 6 music videos which aired on MTV, BET, VHI and several video channels overseas and has over 300 songs in her catalog. Additionally, Sevelle invented a kitchen appliance and is partnered on the invention with Larry King of CNN and his wife Shawn King. Taja Sevelle is also the author of a 236 page novel titled “Rain on a River” and is working on her second novel, “The Joke” with the screenplay adaptation titled “Cracking Up.”
Taja Sevelle recorded a CD in Detroit for Sony and she began to see the amount of poverty due to job loss in the city as well as the excess amount of unused land and in 2005, she founded Urban Farming, an international 501c3 headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The Organization plants food on unused land and space and gives it to people suffering from hunger and food insecurity. The charity began with 3 gardens in Detroit and in that year gave away 1 ton of food, partnered with the City of Detroit, Starbucks, Marygrove College and the Dorfman Family Foundation among others, and received national attention on The Montel Williams Show. Since then, the Urban Farming story has been covered and mentioned by Good Morning America, CNN, NPR National, The BBC, Fox National, USA Today, The Los Angeles, Times, The New York Times, The New York Observer and numerous other print and media outlets to date.
In 2006, Urban Farming became the adopted 501c3 of Atlantic Records and expanded into New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Montego Bay, Jamaica. By 2008, Urban Farming was also in Newark, Chicago, Hawaii, England, Canada, and Haiti with plans to expand in Atlanta among others. In that year Urban Farming planted the equivalent of 600 gardens across the country and abroad and to date the organization has fed over an estimated 130,000 people in just 4 growing seasons.
Urban Farming has been able to do a tremendous amount on a small budget which began with $5,000.00 out of Sevelle’s pocket. Taja Sevelle has managed to garner support from the music and film industry: Comedian/actor Richard Lewis and his wife, Joyce Lapinsky/Lewis, a longtime friend of Taja’s, as well as Gary Lemel and Doug Frank of Warner Pictures are on the Board with Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records. Prince selected Urban Farming as one of the charities to benefit from partial proceed from the sales of his new perfume, 3121 and continue to support Urban Farming. Many of the artists on Atlantic Records such as TI, Yung Joc, P Diddy’s groups continually support Urban Farming as do other celebrities such as actress Keke Palmer, Incubus and Ed Begagley Jr. Additional supporters include: CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM PRODUCTIONS, LAW AND ORDER PRODUCTIONS, THE ELLEN SHOW, E! CHANNEL THE SOUP, TWO AND A HALF MEN, THE BIG BANG THEORY, THE VIEW AND SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS among others.
Taja Sevelle has studied at the University of Judaism, Santa Monica College, Minneaoplis Technical and the University of Duluth. She speaks all over the world and has been a featured speaker on the Yale Sustainable Agriculture Panel, Kellogg’s Panel at Marygrove College in Michigan, The Race, Place and The Environment after Katrina National Symposium in New Orleans, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Songwriters Panel, Wayne State College, The MACT Conference of Michigan Treasurers, Michigan Environmental Health Association’s 20th Annual Food Protection Conference, Henry Ford College and Michigan Governor Granholm’s Food Policy Symposium, among others. Taja was appointed by Mayor Bing to sit on the Detroit Food Policy Board. She has received the Champion for your Service Award from the Brayland Edwards Foundation, The Essence Green Award; The Garden Crusader Award from Gardener’s Supply, certificates of appreciation from the Southfield Public Schools and Marygrove College Staff Development Day among others and holds 3 United States Patents for her invention.