Compost Mentis is a soil and alternative sanitation co-op working for ecological and social justice in everyday urban spaces, with Hari Byles, Shumaisa Khan, and Olly Edmonds. As part of the co-op, I run nature connection and arts activities which support hands-on projects such as building composting systems.
Soil Ecologies
In summer 2018, exploring our relationships with soil at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve along with ecologist Olly Edmonds. We developed a full day workshop: DIY soil science, including testing the soil at the Nature Reserve, was followed by an afternoon of writing exploring soil further through imagination and words. A month later, we held a performance and discussion which brought together creative, philosophical, ethical, poetic and political concerns in relation to soil. Academics Maria Puig de la Bellacasa and Dimitris Papadopoulos shared their research, and some of the workshop participants performed their work alongside Ama Josephine Budge, Helena Hunter and myself. We brought the work from the project together in a zine, Earthlings.
Compost Mentis #1
A quarantine zine about looking after the soil, including:
– DIY soil tests to find out what your soil needs
– fiction about mud
– poetry
– an essay about life and death in the soil
– prompts to think about your own connection to soil
A Date with Nature
A mini zine commissioned by Forest Farm Peace Garden to support their community during the first lockdown, with nature connection activities activities that can be done close to home.
