Seeds and Hope at the Smithsonian Folklife X Earth Optimism Festival
During the second half of the Smithsonian Folklife X Earth Optimism Festival on the National Mall in Washington D.C., SeedBroadaster’s, Jeanette Hart-Mann and Kaitlin Bryson, partnered up with Reana Kovalcik of the D.C-based Share A Seed to inspire seedy action, story sharing, art, and mutual aid focused on seeds and community empowerment in the face of environmental crisis. We were invited to this event by the Festival organizers to mobilize the work of SeedBroadcast as socially engaged art focused on the way food and seed sovereignty can catalyze climate action and social justice. We also contributed to the EO Story Stage and public discussions about seeds, art, and traditional ecological knowledge. For our project we decided that the most significant impact we could make was to be in service to local organizations already doing this work and give them a platform to present and connect with people, while sustainably doing what we do best, encouraging people to spend time with seeds wondering, dreaming, and connecting their stories to a nourishing and hopeful future.
The Smithsonian Folklife x Earth Optimism event brings local environmental organizations together with global crafts-people to demonstrate and share sustainable practices, which enable cultural and environmental resiliency. It’s a moment when we can get together to share and celebrate cultural diversity and love for the earth. As Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch says, the focus on “Earth Optimism shows us how to find hope in the face of odds that might seem overwhelming. It reminds us that change happens when we focus on what works—when we collaborate to find solutions and celebrate our successes.” In this, seeds do so much. They give us food, shelter, materials to create with, air, habitat, beauty, life, wonder, and a future filled with more seeds. There is no end to what a seed planted will make in our world. They are simply magic.
This was also the weekend of July 4, so the National mall was packed full of people visiting the Smithsonian Institute, National Monuments, and keen to see the massive fireworks. There was also tension in the air with the ongoing war in Ukraine, global floods, droughts, and heatwaves and the recent Supreme Court decisions overturning of Roe vs Wade and the EPA’s ability to regulate global warming pollution. All of this feels like a heavy burden for each of us to carry. This weight seemed to be wandering through the crowds, giving us pause to wonder how optimism might be part of our futures threatened by yet more chaos and crisis. Many of the people we met seemed to be carrying hope, but woven with threads of grief.
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During the first two days of the festival, we asked visitors to share and record Seed Stories with us. Stacy Karmen and Amanda Lee were both excited to talk about garden projects, seeds saved, and seeds found. You can listen to all the Seed Stories we recorded at the festival, along with Stacy and Amanda's here. Sharing seeds is about sharing stories and what better way to cultivate optimism then mobilizing these together to grow and perform it in action. Here is Reana Kolvacik sharing her Seed Story about Share A Seed and what inspired her to start this project.
We also met Elijah Goodwin and Jack Algiere from Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture who were participating in the festival. We discussed agriculture, food, and making sure to always make space for ecological communities who enable farms and gardens to be resilient and bountiful. Both gladly agreed to share a Seed Story with us.
Over the weekend when the crowds surged we discovered that recording one-on-one Seed Stories was going to be impossible, the noise level and pace of the crowds were not conducive to quietly sitting with people and recording their stories. But, on the other hand problems are always solutions in ecological thinking and this prompted us to take a different approach. We began asking folks for quick sound bites about the relationship between seeds and optimism/seeds and hope with the intention to combine these into a Seed Story about what seeds teach us when we deeply listen to what they share. We combined several of the recordings into a creative remix composition you can listen to below and you can listen to the entire Seeds of Hope recordings here. All of our Seed Story recordings from the festival will be archived at the Smithsonian Institute. Please reach out and let us know what you think the relationship is between Seeds and Hope.
Good wishes to everyone we met. We hope your Seeds and Stories continue to grow. Very special thanks to Reana Kovalcik of Share A Seed. We also want to give a shout out to True Love Seeds, whose African Diaspora Seeds we were sharing at the festival. Check out this incredible farm-based seed company, who are not only growing important seeds, but are also reconnecting us to their stories. And check out their podcast, Seeds and Their People!
Thanks to everyone who recorded their Seed Stories and thoughts on Seeds and Hope with us - Amanda L., Stacey, Berenice, John, Casey, Sarah, Min, Omowale, Carolyn, Thomas, Edward, William, Amanda B, Chris, Allison, Matt, Adrianna, Tomisin, Ahsal, Ada, Connor, Ethan, Carly, Reana, Jack, and Elijah.
Thanks again to the Smithsonian Folklife x Earth Optimism Festival and all the organizers and staff who made this possible.
Let's keep it Seedy!
