Resistance Garden: Cultivating Abundance

Arising from the desire to critically examine and redefine our relationships with nature, farming, food politics, and the historical use of plants and herbs across different cultures, the Painted Bride is developing a Resistance Gardenproject with the arts and humanities functioning as the intersection of all these issues. The Bride is launching this project as a part of our commitment to creating and working in non-traditional collaborations across different disciplines with the goal of transforming the way we function in community. Our initial outreach and meetings with organizations and individuals across the city has led us to believe by bringing them all together to collaborate, we can raise awareness to the work that each organization is already doing, show similarities and cultural differences to their approaches, and have a large impact across the city by strengthening the bonds of these communities through sharing abundance.

For us, resistance in this project refers to pushback against dependence on mainstream food and medicinal markets in favor of self-sustainability, challenging the narrative that we are separate from nature, and celebrating the work of urban farms, community gardens, and foraging communities. Land sovereignty has also become a major theme of this project, as many of our partners are engaged in ongoing struggles to secure their land for their own community. Additionally, a large goal of this project is to change perceptions by expanding the knowledge of what's growing in our backyards and making it accessible via zines and educational workshops, as well as visual and performance art activations at various urban farms and community gardens throughout the city.

Stay tuned for our Resistance Garden partner announcements and upcoming events for this program!