Today we’d like to introduce you to Ran Brady.
Hi Ran, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story starts with failure. Or at least, that’s what I thought at the time.
In January 2023, I began losing weight without realizing it. I lost 17lbs in 20 days, and I felt like my body was deteriorating. I couldn’t keep food down, I was fatigued and dizzy to the point of passing out, my blood pressure and heart rate were like a rollercoaster. I began getting migraines and would get visual “snow” that felt like hallucinations.
It took months of doctors, tests, and even a weekend in an inpatient facility to determine I was stressed.
Yep, all of that fuss because of stress. Stress was something I joked about being since I was born—how I wouldn’t know how to function if I wasn’t under constant stress. This was normal—my mother was also the poster child for pushing through stress, her mother even more so. It seemed the world we live in was fueled off stressed-out people and caffeine, and for some reason I just couldn’t keep up.
It wasn’t until fall of 2023 that I was finally diagnosed as autistic, and it was recognized I’d been surviving in burnout for longer than my body could handle. It was a long road of therapy, medication, and rediscovering myself before I found the Knox Pride Community and Resource Center.
As part of my healing journey, I began gardening. It had always been something I was interested in, but I joked about inheriting my mother’s “black thumb” as I would kill any plant that came into my possession. One of the biggest lessons I had to learn was regarding the notion of rest, and gardening seemed like the most active way I could do this radical “rest.” In May of 2024, Knox Pride put out a call for various volunteers, including for the garden. I answered the call expecting to maybe do some weeding, plant some crops in the community garden bed at the center, maybe sign up to help water regularly. When I arrived, I realized the garden needed someone to steward it—so I decided to be that person.
We went from one four-foot by fourteen-foot raised bed to adding nearly 40 container plants in the 2024 growing season. This year, we added three new four-foot by eight-foot raised beds, courtesy of the Knox County Community Gardens and Growers Alliance, and we have already grown over 400lbs of produce for the Knox Pride food pantry this growing season. We offered beginner gardening classes in the spring of 2025, and we were able to give out over 1,500 seedlings to the community in order to encourage growing your own food.
Along the way, I stumbled into the passionate agriculture community we have in Knoxville. I now sit on the board of the Knox County Community Gardens and Growers Alliance, and I became a certified Master Gardener through the UT extension program this past spring. I now volunteer at multiple other community gardens each week, such as Burwell Gardens, Pastor Brown Memorial Garden, and the Beardsley school education program. On behalf of Knox Pride, I am also in current talks about leasing a portion of a local farm to expand our growing potential in 2026.
The garden at Knox Pride has lead me into something bigger than I ever could have imagined. I started my small, backyard garden as a way to connect with myself—but the gardens I have found home in have given me so many heartfelt connections to my community that I was finally able to find myself and where I belong.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We have a community full of hardworking, empathetic people who want to help others. From home gardeners dropping off home-grown produce to the food pantry to the Alliance of community gardens sharing bumper crops to keep food deserts fed, there is a wealth of compassion—but a stark lack of funding. It is more likely to meet a volunteer out in one of these gardens than it is to find a paid employee, including myself.
There is also the issue of being a representative for a queer organization within the South. I try to meet a lot of people where they’re at, especially within the agricultural spheres. For some, I am the first queer person they’re dealing with; for others, they never even realize I am. Most of the time, however, I’ve been lucky enough that we all speak the same language: dirt under our nails and hard work.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in gardening and garden education as a way to combat food insecurity and build mental health. I volunteer anywhere between 30-40 hours a week on behalf of the Knox Pride Community and Resource Center, maintaining the community garden there or performing outreach at other gardens. I am most proud of the relationships that I have built within this community; getting to know folk putting in the work to keep Knoxville fed has been one of the most rewarding aspects of this entire journey.
While I am known for my community work, I am an artist and published poet as well. I incorporate the natural elements I grow or find from the different gardens I volunteer at, as well as animal bones that either I or a friend have processed from roadkill. I also host a free, collaborative group that highlights queer-safe publishing spaces for artists of all kinds to make publishing more accessible. Both of these endeavors have given me even more opportunities to get to know folk in the community and connecting with them through art.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Community.
When I first began gardening as a way to improve my own mental health, it helped—but only to a point. It felt hollow, without substance. Like I was hiding from the world with my hands in the dirt. Once I began using my knowledge to help others, I finally felt whole.
Not just in queer but also Appalachian history, community has been the answer to how we make it. We take care of each other, we meet each other where we’re at, we love one another the best we can.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ranb.gay
