undercurrents (issue #6)
Dreams of other worlds and more, by guest curator A Growing Culture
I am honored to welcome my dear friends at A Growing Culture as guest curators for this issue of undercurrents.
A Growing Culture is a nonprofit organization “on a mission to achieve food sovereignty for everyone, everywhere.” They use storytelling that centers the root causes of injustice in our food systems and invites wider audiences to recognize our shared struggle for liberation.
Support and learn more about A Growing Culture here; learn more about “Cotton at the Source,” their latest collaboration with Cotton Diaries, here; and subscribe to their Substack newsletter here.
1. Something inspiring ~ on Indigenous sovereignty in the Wild Coast of Africa
In the Wild Coast region of South Africa, oil and gas company Shell was aiming to run seismic blasting tests to look for fossil fuels, but Sinegugu Zukulu and Nonhle Mbuthuma, two local environmental leaders, successfully put a stop to their plans.
With air guns louder than a jet plane taking off, Shell’s tests would blast the sea every ten seconds for five months. These blasts can be heard underwater more than 100 kilometres away, and would severely damage ecosystems along the region.
For their organising work and asserting their community’s rights, Sinegugu and Nonhle were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize earlier this year.
“The people and the environment are connected. There is no way they can work without each other, so development and ecology must meet halfway.” —Nonhle Mbuthuma
Learn more about this inspiring story here.
2. Something creative ~ on dreams of other worlds
We are inspired by the following vision shared by Subcomandante Marcos, the leader and spokesperson of the Zapatistas.
“In our dreams, we have seen another world, an honest world, a world decidedly more fair than the one in which we now live. We saw that in this world there was no need for armies — peace, justice and liberty were so common that no one talked about them as far-off concepts but as things were named in this world. And in this world, there was reason and goodwill in the government, and the leaders were clear-thinking people; they ruled by obeying.
This world was not a dream from the past; it was not something that came to us from our ancestors. It came from ahead, from the next step we were going to take.
And so we started to move forward to attain the dream, make it come down and sit at our tables, light our homes, grow in our cornfields, fill the hearts of our children, wipe our sweat, heal our history. And it was for all. This is what we want. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now we follow our path toward our true heart to ask it what we must do. We will return to our mountains to speak in our own tongue and in our own time.
Thank you to the brothers and sisters who looked after us all these days. May your footsteps follow our path.” –Subcomandante Marcos.
3. Something mind-shifting ~ on accountability
“Being accountable is how we can come to truly love ourselves, and give and receive love from others. Being accountable in our most intimate relationships creates the pattern of societal accountability.” –Adrienne Maree Brown.
This piece by Adrienne Maree Brown invites us to practice accountability for ourselves and others to weave a new social fabric that moves us away from the harm and isolation that comes with the transactional foundation of capitalism.
From leaning on curiosity, to setting boundaries to listening deeply, Adrienne proposes grounding steps towards a culture of shared responsibility that strengthens our bonds and, ultimately, our collective healing.
4. Something moving ~ on conflict, food systems, cultural identity in Colombia
Para el Alma is an editorial project that compiles the memories and recipes of eleven women who lost their loved ones to state crimes, commonly known as “false positives,” in Colombia.
The book, written by A Growing Culture staff member Ale Bautista, will explore the connections between conflict, food systems and cultural identity in her country. By centering their stories around the land, food, family, love and hopes for justice, the project aims to contribute to peace-building and historical memory from an angle that enables reclamation, rather than re-victimisation.
In this interview, Ale shares more about the project and how you can support it.
5. Something open-ended ~ on technology
“Every day, powerful actors design, develop and pitch new tools, which they claim can fix the problems created by their predecessors. In our rapidly changing technological landscape, it’s vital that we develop our own frames and strategies to understand the implications of technologies in food systems. In 2023, A Growing Culture and ETC Group collaborated to unpack the role of technology and explore how to engage with it through a more politically informed lens — when to uplift, when to challenge and resist. One result of that collaboration is a publication, Politics of Technology.”
To break down the main findings of the booklet, we put together a three-part series in our newsletter. In part one, we open up the conversation by defining what technology is and lay out the key ways in which we understand it.
To start the practice of viewing technology through a political lens, we encourage you to ask more questions:
Who decided we needed the technology?
Who designed it, and who is it designed for?
Who has access to the technology, and who doesn’t?
Who profits from it?
What practices did it alter or displace?
Find more questions in part one and read through parts two and three to learn more.
This issue was curated by my friends at A Growing Culture. Learn more about their work here. Also check out my past interview with their strategy coordinator Loren Cardeli here.
I am working to grow paid subscriptions to this 100% reader-funded newsletter so that I can write, curate, and publish more consistently. If you’ve been following my work for a while, I would greatly appreciate having your support! (And thank you so much if you are already a supporting member! It means a lot to me.)
To help boost this membership drive, for a limited time til the end of May 2024, get 50% off an annual paid subscription ~
Other updates…
“Cotton at the Source” is a collaborative project led by A Growing Culture and Cotton Diaries. “While cotton farmers and workers are indispensable to the global fashion industry, they are largely excluded from conversations and stories around sustainability. To understand and transform the fashion and textile industry, we need their perspectives and stories, and we need to grapple with the social and ecological issues around cotton.” Learn more here.
I interviewed Sinegugu Zukulu (mentioned in this issue) on “Resisting imposed development on the Wild Coast” for a past podcast episode, which you can check out here.
I had the honor of hosting six incredible interviews over the last two weeks. I can’t wait to share these conversations and my deeper inquiries arising from them with you ~ They include discussions with Dr. Shay-Akil McLean of Decolonize All the Things; Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet; Blake Lavia & Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo of Talking Rivers; Laura Marris of The Age of Loneliness on the “Eremocene” and the relationship between loneliness and our socio-ecological crises; and more.
My next essay for Substack is about “grounding diversity.” Coming soon!
Recent episodes from Green Dreamer…
“The entangled histories of plant and human migration,” ft. Jessica J. Lee
“Returning to the longing in our hearts and intuition,” ft. Niharika Sanyal
“Sitting with the wisdoms of darkness, death, and decay,” ft. Perdita Finn
What I’m engaging with…
I have been caring for this clutch of orphaned chicks and grieving the loss of their mother. Tending to them has reminded me to appreciate all the small moments of joy and presence that I get to share with dear ones.
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