Clay altering workshop for LGBTQ+ people of colour

For the first phase of the afternoon we will take each other on a walk to observe how the trees are entering winter. Throughout the walk, we will be taking a few stops where Yaya will share some specific facts on the trails left by the humus and fallen leaves, and how trees shift into dormancy and ways they may proceed in dialogue with their surroundings about matters of wintering. And participants will be welcomed to share facts & personal stories, create poetry, and reflect together during the one-hour walk. 

We will then enter the second phase of the afternoon where we will find a still spot to make art with clay, altars, offerings, experimentation: post-harvest season might be a good time to choose what we’re keeping as sustenance for winter, and what we’re choosing to let return to the soil as compost for this year's cycle. This will be around another hour.

Both phases have been timed to be around an-hour so there is a bit of looseness if we do run over, taking in account that people’s walking pace and resting needs may vary.

This session is facilitated by Yaya. Yaya-海 is a London-based artist and community facilitator in outdoor spaces. They nurture a strong interest in tracing back archives of queer and underrepresented cosmologies, learning about traditional medicines and herbalism, especially from their Southern Chinese heritage, that is deeply resonant to their current ecological in the outdoors.

Their practice centers creation in outdoor community-spaces, inviting conversations around relationship to the Land, queer futurities and recentering mutual aids found in ecosystems.

This workshop and several others are being hosted to celebrate the launch of our first exhibition, Earth to Us. An archive of queer folk of colour in nature. You can find out more about the exhibition here.