quercus

Bonnetta Adeeb, founder & President of STEAM ONWARD, Inc, a Non-profit 501(c3) organization in Southern Maryland, as well as the projects: Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) and Ujamaa Seeds. UCFA is a collective of emergent and seasoned growers who cultivate heirloom seeds and grow culturally relevant plants for food, healing, and textiles. Ujamaa recognizes the need for increased diversity in farming and the seed industry, and the need to provide more opportunities and support for growers from historically oppressed and marginalized communities. To this end the UCFA is working to bridge the gap between prospective growers and seed companies. In addition, she works with the Cooperative Gardens Commission to distribute free heirloom seeds to communities in need serving 300 seed hubs nationally. January 12 [2023], saw the launch of a new Black Indigenous led project. Ujamaa Seeds is and online store cultivating and distributing culturally important seeds to increase diversity in the seed industry. Learn more about Bonnetta and her work at https://ujamaafarms.com and https://ujamaaseeds.com.

Original on New Politics, Winter 2022

Although the UN released a special report two years ago stressing that one of the most effective ways to mitigate warming is a plant-based diet,^[4]^ not one day of COP26 was devoted to the issue, in stark contrast to the time dedicated to energy, transport, and finance. Even as protests outside the conference called attention to this issue, the delegates inside ignored it.

One reason cited for the omission was that addressing animal agriculture would unfairly target historically oppressed communities, continuing the Global North’s legacy of dominating and controlling those they’ve colonized.^[5]^ While this may seem motivated by the noble impulse to be “sensitive” to colonial dynamics, the knowledge that these same imperialist nations’ delegates also removed from the conference’s concluding agreement the so-called Loss and Damages Finance Facility,^[6]^ which mandated compensation be paid to poorer countries for climate damages, should put any uncertainty about their true motives to rest. This is just one manifestation of how the call for sensitivity toward oppressed groups is exploited by those most responsible for current crises in order to avoid making transformative changes within their own societies.^[7]^

Unfortunately, the Western left bears some responsibility for this manipulative usage of political correctness, due both to its collective failure to reject the neoliberal exploitation of identity politics, and to its constant smearing of veganism and animal liberation as “middle class and white.”^[8]^ While it’s certainly true that vegan and animal advocacy are often conducted in colonial, Eurocentric ways, that does not mean there are no liberatory ways of advancing these goals, or that no marginalized individuals do this type of work themselves. Around the world, Indigenous, colonized, and working-class people engage in praxis that recognizes how the fates of other species enmesh with our own, and that our collective survival depends upon the liberation of humans and other species alike.

In this patch, I'm working towards a mix of violets (Viola sororia), nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi), white avens (Geum canadense), and yellow woodsorrel (Oxalis stricta). There's also clover, chickweed, mock strawberry and others I'm weeding out. The shrub is an elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) which should get 10 feet wide. The top right corner is a mix of Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) and orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida).

This is an urban area in the North American Eastern Temperate Forests. My yard is the lowest point of the street next to the storm drain, a "rain garden" for the block. Here, the violets thrive from deep shade to full sun. They are the host plant for fritillary butterflies.

Another good reason for killing your lawn is that once you've done so, you can turn your yard into a literal classroom in order to study things like plant identification and the ecology of the native habitat that once stood where your house is.

In some ways, planting native plant gardens (which can sometimes include non-native, non-invasive species of plants) are small acts habitat restoration in miniature, sure.

Equally (if not more) rewarding however is the ability to learn about the plants that together compose your native ecosystem by growing them right in front of you. Grow them throughout their entire life cycle - observe what pollinates them, what disperses the fruits and seeds, what eats them. The rewards from this kind of sh*t can't be overstated.

Gardeners often don’t realize gardens make for great firefly habitat, helping to replace lost natural habitat. The common firefly — the Big Dipper firefly (Photinus pyralis) — readily takes to an organic habitat. The trick is to make your garden as inviting as possible for fireflies to take up residence.

Fireflies spend up to 95% of their lives in larval stages. They live in soil/mud/leaf litter and spend from 1-2 years growing until finally pupating to become adults. This entire time they eat anything they can find. As adults, they only live 2-4 weeks. Females that have mated successfully need a place to lay eggs. They will lay eggs in many spots, but gardens offer an oasis with a source of soil moisture good for larval development.

This is a Texas based organization, but many of the plants (or their close cousins) are found across the continent.

Institution: UCLA

Lecturer: Professor Courtenay Raia

University Course Code: HIST 2D

Subject: #history #science #religion #magic #antiquity #modernity

Year: 2009

Description: Professor Courtenay Raia lectures on science and religion as historical phenomena that have evolved over time. Examines the earlier mind-set before 1700 when into science fitted elements that came eventually to be seen as magical. The course also question how Western cosmologies became "disenchanted." Magical tradition transformed into modern mysticisms is also examined as well as the political implications of these movements. Includes discussion concerning science in totalitarian settings as well as "big science" during the Cold War.

Image description:

In the background, a rusty blade sign affixed to a brick building juts out against the blue sky. In the foreground, a wire sculputre of a smiling sloth clings to an empty sign frame with three paws, the fourth paw holds a wire flag depicting the artist's name in cursive, "Reed."

Reed Bmore

I live in the US where aging is shameful, grieving is rude, and death is commodified. I don't think this perspective should be carried over. So, how could solarpunks do things differently?

My current vision involves a lunarpunk monastery. Gone are sterile funeral homes, silent graveyards, dogma and taboo. Instead, an eclectic community of death doulas serving others through the finality. The bodies of the dead become part of an ever expanding ancestral forest. A living cemetery for the living.

Housed would be thanatologists of every flavor: bookworms, artists, health practitioners, naturalists, mystics, and more. Maintaining libraries, gardens, and temples for public use. Facilitating psychedelic rituals for those with terminal illness and the bereaved. Providing funeral rites and hospice care. Hosting moonlit festivals, discussions, and support groups.

Wearing mothlike robes. Playing chimes at sundown corresponding to the phase of the moon. But I digress...

How do you imagine death and dying in a solarpunk society? Is the great unknown in the realm of lunarpunk?

How Star Wars can help today’s young rebels bring down empire, defeat the dark side, and save the future - Welcome to the Rebellion explores the radical political roots of Star Wars and shows how the saga continues to inspire a new generation of activists and campaigners today.

What does it mean that our most popular modern myth is a radical left story about fighting corporate authoritarianism? From its roots in the 1960s new left, Star Wars still speaks to millions of people today. By design, the saga mirrors our own time and politics. A real empire of corporate domination has arisen within weakened and corrupted republics. Now it threatens our existence on a planetary scale.

But, the popularity of Star Wars also suggests that if we tell the right stories, we can welcome many more people to fight for a better world...

There’s also a slideshow summary of the book here, and you can read a series of blog posts based on the main arguments in the book starting here.

Interview with the author Michael Harris on THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast, featuring Chris Cutrone: "Why The Left Needs Grand Narratives" (SoundCloud) (YouTube)