In this Issue:
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Adam Dickson – Dandelion a Deity/Blessed Bramble
Two short poems challenging the vilification of these plants as weeds.
Claudia Manchanda – From the River to the Trees
Cultivating hope with Olive, Ginkgo, and other beloved medicinal trees.
eleni ‘officinalis’ bourou – Bloom a Little Bloom
Poem: reflections of spring_reflecting on myths_connecting with plants
Katie Hastings, Sinéad Fortune, Palestinian Heirloom Seed Project – Project Focus: Saving Seeds
Three projects working to save seed as a form of social, cultural and ecological resistance. Katie Hastings on Llafur Ni‘s revival of rare varieties of Welsh black oats, Sinéad Fortune onthe Seed Sovereignty Programme UK and Ireland and its revolutionary work supporting growers and an article written at the invitation of the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library on the connections between people, seeds and stories.
Louisa Chase – In Collaboration with Woad: An Artist’s Year of Listening
Working closely with woad in my eco-somatic art practice over the space of a year; historical, sociocultural and ecological researches and embodied explorations with/ in the liminal terrain of the Fens.
Matilde Wyrdlea and Libby Bove – Plant Medicine and the Tarot: Magician-Calamus
The second in a series looking at Tarot and Plant Medicine as allies to psycho-emotional health and exploring tarot through a traumatised lens.
Natalie Gubenko – Slavic Oak
The symbolic significance of oaks in Eastern European folklore and rituals.
Randa Toko – Foraging as Resistance
The cultural importance of foraging as a timeless practice in the context of the recent resurgence of interest. Drawing from my own practice, I speak of foraging as a research lens to explore historical and contemporary struggles for land sovereignty and cultural preservation against erasure and disconnection from lineage. With illustrations from Maia Magoga.
Salamis Aysegul Sentug Tugyan – Crafting a 19th century Herbalist as a Character in a Novel
Reimagining and reclaiming Cypriot histories, identities and possibilities through metafictional storytelling and the research and creation of a herbalist character.