Truelove Seeds Tour: Seeds of Diaspora

On October 18th, the Seeds of Diaspora working group visited Truelove seeds, a seed farm and consolidator of heirloom seeds in Glen Mills, PA. Owen Taylor, pictured at center, described their efforts to package and distribute diaspora seeds provided by culturally diverse community gardens across the US. Unlike other commercial seed catalogues, Truelove focuses on helping these groups to sustain  the cultural practices and food traditions that exist in mutuality with the seeds they preserve. In gorgeous fall weather, we toured Truelove's heritage gardens of plants from Palestine, Mexico, and Southern Africa, amongst other places, which are being propagated and harvested in direct collaboration with the diasporic communities that maintain long standing relationships with them.  While there, we also met seed farmers, seed-savers and permaculture practitioners visiting from New York and New Jersey, and were able to lend a hand with processing Mexican marigolds for Day of the Dead festivities (see picture below). We are planning collaborations with Truelove seeds into the future, including organizing a public symposium/workshop on seed-saving at Columbia in the spring.

Working group members at Truelove Seeds Farm, Glen Mills, PA.

Seeds of Diaspora Hosts Prof. Eric Verdeil for a Talk Titled "From Earth to Art: Seeing, Acquiescing, and Contesting the Anthropocene" on 4/24/24

On April 24, the Seeds of Diaspora Working Group co-sponsored a talk by Professor Eric Verdeil of Sciences Po, Paris. In his talk, entitled 'From Earth to Art: Seeing,  Acquiescing and Contesting the Anthropocene' Verdeil presented his work-in-progress based in Paris and Lebanon, which deals with the metabolism and circulation of soils and excavation materials.

He began by discussing the soil depots that ring Paris, as documented by his PhD student Agnes Bastin who followed the flow of soil through the city. He then moved on to the sites and routes of hauling in Beirut, both for the excavation of sand and gravel for aggregate in concrete construction of new buildings and infrastructure; and for the removal of buildings and infrastructure destroyed in attacks. Verdeil's talk also covered the work of some land artists who've been commissioned by the city of Paris to deal with the soil depots outside the city, especially one near the Charles de Gaulle airport, and referenced the collaborative work of Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige , whose 'Unconformities' project was an installation of core sample-like elements that reveal the periodicity of violence and destruction in the city. The setting-in-motion of soils, plants and people was also the subject of work-in-progress talks by working group members Anelise Chen and Lynnette Widder earlier in 2024.

Seeds of Diaspora WG Director Lynnette Widder to Co-Sponsor April 10 Event, Titled "The Great Padma: The Epic River that Made the Bengal Delta"

Seeds of Diaspora WG Director Lynnette Widder will be co-sponsor an April 10 Event along with the Columbia Climate School, titled "The Great Padma: The Epic River that Made the Bengal Delta.”

Among others sponsoring and contributing to the event are CSSD fellows Anelise Chen and Ana Paulina Lee.

We hope you are able to participate in this phenomenal event.

Seeds of Diaspora WG to Host Film Screening of Naeem Mohaiemen's "Jole Dobe Na" in February

The Seeds of Diaspora Working Group is excited to announce that their February meeting, a screening of Working Group member Naeem Mohaiemen's film Jole Dobe Na, is open to attendance by all CSSD affiliates!

The screening is scheduled to take place on Friday 2/23, from 3.30 - 6 pm, in the Lifetime Screening Room (5th floor, Dodge Hall). Naeem will be in attendance for a discussion of the film after the screening, which will focus on its portrayal of plant life and feeling.

A description of the film is below:

Jole Dobe Na (Those Who Do Not Drown), 64 min, 2020
In an empty hospital in Kolkata, a man confronts protocols of blood samples, a subtly discriminatory office, regulations against bribery, and an abandoned operating theater. There are no doctors, signs of life, or residue of death. His mind is on a loop of the last weeks of his wife’s life, when a quiet argument developed between them. When is the end of medical care, whose life is it anyway? If what use is a science that can detect plant emotions, invent fingerprint technology, but fail to give dignity to the end of life.

Seeds of Diaspora Co-Director Lynnette Widder Awarded a 2023 Architecture + Design Independent Projects Grant

CSSD wishes to congratulate Seeds of Diaspora co-director Lynnette Widder for being awarded a 2023 Architecture + Design Independent Projects grant for her project, "Rogue Plants, Native Soils: Histories of Destruction and its Opposites."

For more information on both the project and the grant itself, follow this link.