#THENATUREKIND
Louis VI isn't one to sit on the sidelines, he aims to help give BIPOC communities a voice on climate justice. On his second album EARTHLING, the London rapper and climate activist is directly challenging the colonial legacy of climate change. Travelling to the Amazon gathering field recordings, giving speeches at COP26 and making award-winning shorts, his album condenses these experiences around his own Dominican heritage. EARTHLING is packed with nature-fuelled field recordings from Amazon storms, to UK forests and tropical birds on Mexican coasts. It’s also stacked full of features from the friends and musicians that surround Louis - including Lex Amor, Oscar Jerome, Moses Boyd, Bluestaeb, Alex Cosmo Blake and Mick Jenkins.
Photo credits: Carlos Martí @carlosmart1 and Dylan James Moore
Describe the nature around you at the moment.
I can hear rose-ringed parakeets and other small birds as I look out my window in Lisbon down at the river. The sun is out, there's a beautiful Mediterranean pine just to the right of my view and I saw some common sandpipers and cormorants at the estuary on my run by the river this morning. I'm propa overdue escaping the city and getting into some propa nature though; I’m trying to plan something for this weekend.
Where do you feel most at ease?
In some loud nature; in the tropics. But specifically? Honestly back in Dominica where my dad's side is from. In the lush jungle surrounded by hummingbirds and parrots on one of the black sand beaches or deep in the Amazon at my Indigenous Kichwa friend’s house Leo Cerda; on an island between two rivers. I used to be a real “the ocean is my shit” but I was won over by the rivers there. So anywhere where there’s the sound of water, whether it’s the ocean or a river - and no sound of cars or modern society.
How has music deepened your connection to nature?
I read this question a few times and was like; my connection with nature was first, and probably deepened my connection to music, but I read something recently that made me think it goes both ways. Essentially everything in nature exists in a balance; there's deviation but everything always has a push to return towards that balance. It's harmony, and there's a harmonic resonance in nature that exists in good music too.
Nipsey Hussle said it once beautifully in an interview: you go somewhere mentally and you bring it back for people to resonate with. There was a truth that existed and you found it and brought it down to the human level to experience. Music is spiritual. I was lucky enough to finish my album EARTHLING in probably the most alive place on Earth, the Amazon rainforest, with really close friends that have called that place home ancestrally for thousands of years. There was music to the sound of the forest - undeniably. I need to listen to music every day to feel myself but there, I didn't need to. The forest was singing all day and all night.
What are you interested in at the moment?
I'm interested in helping the diaspora, like myself, in the west understand our deep, deep connection to nature. It was the first and most significant thing we were taken away from as people of colour, from slavery and colonialism. Our connection to the land was embodied in who we were and who we are. I'm interested in helping us understand we are unique in that we can be the bridge between the west - the problem that has caused climate change, and the global south, where we come from, who's on the front line of this climate crisis.
Really, it all stems from the fact my mind is blown by nature and all parts of it. I'm interested in sensory ecology right now, the study of the perception that different organisms have of the world. How we perceive the world as humans is very visual, but we only see a small part of visible light. So many animals, feel and see the world differently; and that's called their umwelt. A turtle or a migratory bird may be in the same room as us but will perceive it differently and even feel the magnetic lines of the Earth. I know they are using AI to try and communicate with animals like orcas and I think if we're to truly live in harmony with this planet, we need to start understanding the experience of the other living beings that inhabit it with us. I'm also interested in how sound can be used to monitor biodiversity and even raise alarm on illegal mining, logging or fishing in forest and marine habitats.
Which song, book or poem inspired your relationship with nature?
Aldous Huxley’s Island was a really interesting book in seeing what a utopian society that co-exists with nature and combines eastern and western philosophies could look like. And Braiding Sweetgrass is an interesting one, looking at the world both scientifically and through an Indigenous lens.
I think Black Jacobins by C.L.R James really is the most in-depth and real account (also written by a Black historian) of the true history and atrocities of colonialism and slavery in the Caribbean. From the initial destruction of the Indigenous cultures there to the enslavement of Africans and the continued theme of the destruction of the environment. I'd say this is a must-read for any diaspora in the west, especially to understand the Caribbean because so much media focuses on North America even though the majority of enslaved people were taken to the Caribbean and Brazil.
What do you want audiences to take away from your latest album EARTHLING?
I’m trying to save the world with this album in the only way I know how - with the most certi music you’ve ever heard. Nature is the coolest, waviest, trippiest thing out there. But as a diaspora, especially having grown up stuck in the inner city, we've been tricked to think that ain't for us. This album is me standing up and saying, “na, this beautiful world is for us because we ARE nature”. Through colonialism and slavery, we were taken from that connection. And now the places we draw ancestry from, the flags we're proud to wave at carnival and put on our hinge profiles, those places are on the front line of this climate crisis suffering, even though they've contributed little to nothing to it. What I've made here is completely and honestly myself, maybe even to a fault. I've tried to show what I love in a non-preachy, honest, vulnerable, funny, angry, real “me” way. This is a radical record.
I think it's our responsibility as artists; as storytellers, especially from a POC perspective to speak real shit and right now that's being loud on the environment, our home. It may take time but this album will build; this album is going to switch you on; switch you on to something deeper about yourself; to make you think about the meaning behind why you’re even on this planet as an earthling. The end result of this is not just surviving but sowing the seed of an idea where we can, as earthlings, create a future where we live in harmony with the planet.
I want us diaspora to wake up to the fact; we are nature; we were taken away from nature. Nature is part of us so we need to protect it - leaving its jungle, its rivers, its air and its seas unpolluted and able to grow and protect us back.
Throughout the album, my aunty from Dominica talks about the colonial stories that have affected so many of us, and between each track is different sounds of nature from around the world. I've recorded deserts to oceans, to rainforests, to London parks. I've tried to include as much of what I think being an earthling means to me in it. This album is music, but it can be much more than that if people get behind it. It can be a message for young people; be inspired to open your eyes & hearts a little wider to see we have a beautiful future ahead of us or greed and extinction; and it’s our choice how this moves forward. The core of everything is vibration (hence why the middle song in the album is called Vibrate!). Music and nature are the same - it's all about harmony. We have a fucking exciting future if we can change our role as humans to be propa EARTHLINGS and start living in harmony with this planet and its vibration. Let’s redefine our legacy as EARTHLINGS on this planet.
What kind of ancestor would you like to be?
One that my relatives from their house in the Caribbean or on the African continent, indistinguishable from the nature around it, in a world where human-caused extinctions are a thing of the past, reparations for colonialism and slavery were paid, and the world is a unified and fairer place, (because climate justice and environmental justice means gender equality, racial equality, economic equality, technology equality etc... all of it) where greed is a psychiatric illness... would lean over and say over a glass of cold rum and ice: "yo, you actually did some real shit back then. And you didn't shout about it, you didn't blame, you didn't spread fear, but you tried to build a bridge with what you love - and art when words failed".
If the soil beneath your feet could speak, what would it say? (Question from #TheNatureKind interview with Naomi Terry)
“You don't even know how connected we are”. And also, "what's going on up there; like fam - I've survived millions of years, been through dinosaurs, meteors, ice ages, molten lava, flooding, rains and droughts, but something weird is going on up there now”.
What question would you like to ask to the next person on #TNK?
100 years from now, what does your utopia look like?
And could you suggest someone else or other organisations you admire that we could approach for #TheNatureKind?
Eli Virkina - @eli.virkina. She's a good friend of mine and an incredible young Kichwa activist, writer and photographer from the Ecuadorian Amazon.
You can find out more about Louis VI on Instagram, and EARTHLING will be released on 31 March 2023 on Hiyaself Unlimited.
Born and raised in France, Alice is an artist and Modern Languages postgraduate student at the University of Oxford. Alice started sharing her drawings after being diagnosed with autism and ADHD, she aims to break stereotypes about gender, age, and race that surround autism and cause a lot of misunderstanding. She is the founder and president of the UCL autism society and has been involved in numerous talks and campaigns about neurodiversity, autistic women and mental health.
Josephine Marchandise is the Head of the Creative and No Waste Kitchen at Omved Gardens. Growing up in a farming family, passionate about cooking, gardening and regenerative food growing, Josephine has later rediscovered preservation and fermentation while trying to slow down and commit to a low waste lifestyle. From her favourite ingredient to experiment with at the moment, to what inspires her the most and her top three zero waste hacks in the kitchen, Josephine has shared it all with us.
Naomi researches how dynamic cultures interact with food and farming practices through migration. She is the author of the recently released report on racial justice in farming in the UK, Jumping Fences, a collaboration between Land In Our Names, Ecological Land Cooperative and Landworkers’ Alliance, funded by Farming the Future. The report presents the experiences of Black and POC farmers and growers in Britain.
She is also a gardener, ecologist, singer and educator.
The 'Jumping Fences' Report: Land, Food and Racial Justice in Britain
Rooting en route: how migration can fix a broken food system
Tej is the assistant food grower and The Seed Saving Network coordinator at OmVed Gardens, a gardener, scholar and interdisciplinary artist. His thinking weaves together various strands, including growing and being in 'nature' as an act of centring wellbeing; the power of social movements in our present time of several overlapping climate and social crises and ways of being and bearing witness to a world fundamentally changed by anthropogenic climate change. In the pre-pandemic world, Tej pursued formal training in Dramaturgy at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, while there were parts of that world he enjoyed, he never felt at peace. The pandemic, like for countless others, forced him to pause and rethink, leading him to refind gardening and growing.
Rosanna Morris' linocut and woodcut illustrations are traditional yet contemporary, delicately floral and yet full of the power and strength of revolution. She studied illustration in London and works from her studio in the southwest of England. When not drawing or creating prints you can find her working her allotment or tending to her three wild children. The illustrations below were created for the Landworker’s Alliance On Common Ground Calendar 2023.
Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer based in East Sussex. She has worked in a range of roles from growing produce for the Ottolenghi restaurant, Rovi to delivering growing workshops and talks to audiences including East London primary schools, community centres and educational institutions. Claire is passionate about the act of growing plants - especially edible ones - and the potential for it to be nourishing, connecting and healing. Her second book Unearthed: On Race and Roots, and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong was released in June 2022. Portraits by Christian Cassiel / @christiancassiel
Judith Alder is a British visual artist with a multi-faceted practice, working across a range of media and processes informed by science. Her work is directed by her premise on the process of evolution in the 21st century; that scientists can create and manipulate biological life, technologists are creating artificial life, inanimate objects often appear to take on a life of their own, and some things seem to be neither dead nor alive.
She has exhibited in The Freud Museum, London and Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne and was shortlisted for The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012. In 2015 she was nominated for The Drawing Room Bursary Award. Her solo Vital Signs, curated by Sanna Moore, will be held at The Royal Society of Birmingham Artists Gallery from 14 to 25 February 2023 and has been funded by Arts Council, England.
Sui Searle (she/her) is a gardener, writer and printmaker. She has worked in botanic, public, private and community gardens as well as having spent a short period writing for gardening magazines. She is the founder of @decolonisethegarden which focuses on bringing a decolonial lens and anti-racism perspective to horticulture and is editor of the online gardening newsletter, Radicle.
Talia Woodin is a youth activist, photographer and filmmaker based in the UK. She’s spent the past four years organising with various campaigns within the climate and environmental movement, including spending a year living on and documenting the frontline environmental defence campaign against HS2 (a destructive high-speed rail infrastructure project). She has recently re-released her debut short documentary COP-out, exploring the youth climate justice movement's participation with COP and is currently organising with The Resistance Exhibition.
Love Ssega is a musician and artist. He is currently Artist in Residence for Philharmonia Orchestra and his work as the original frontman and founding songwriter for Clean Bandit landed in the UK charts and has also been performed globally. The multi-arts 2021 commission ‘Airs of the South Circular’, highlights the impact of air on the Black community in South London, and reached 100,000 of his local London Borough of Lewisham’s 300,000 residents.
His Live + Breathe campaign in saw Love Ssega collaborate with local community groups in Southwark and Lambeth and record a new piece ‘Capes For Blue Skies’ with the Philharmonia Orchestra. As a result of his work and advocacy, he was invited to speak at United Nations COP26 in Glasgow. Love Ssega is currently a Trustee of Shadwell Opera, Brian Eno-led music climate initiative EarthPercent and was also awarded the Arts Foundation Music For Change Fellowship in 2022. (Photo credits: Ben Millar Cole and Sophie Harbinson)
Talia Chain founded Sadeh, the UK's Jewish farm and land-based community in 2017. As the director, Talia's role includes working on the land, teaching on Sadeh Farm's fellowship programme, running education and volunteer sessions and fundraising for Sadeh's environmental and educational projects. She is currently raising £100,000 for Sadeh Farm to increase access to nature for all.
David Reeve is the co-editor and co-founder of Where the Leaves Fall magazine and a filmmaker with various music videos and films, including Y/our Music and Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith, under his belt.
Ruth Andrade from Lush's Regenerative Impact team, has a masters in Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies. She is a trustee and co-founder of Re.Alliance, a collective of practitioners bringing regenerative design to the humanitarian and development sectors; and a co-creator of Regenerosity, an initiative with a mission to flow resources, enable learning and share stories to grow the regenerative movement in partnership with funders and grassroots initiatives. Originally from Brazil, Ruth grew up in a concrete jungle, witnessing first-hand the destruction of the natural environment which prompted an early interest in environmental issues and fuelled a great passion for driving change.
Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar is a biologist, design researcher and Senior Lecturer at the Royal College of Art. Her practice is concerned with ecological thinking, reflective practices, epistemological paradigms and alternative futures. Delfina has been a visiting lecturer in several institutions, including The Bartlett, Architectural Association, Manchester School of Art, University of Brighton and the University for the Creative Arts among others. As a part of the Design Museum and Future Observatory's Design Researchers in Residence Programme, Delfina is responding to environmental collapse from a systemic perspective with research examining dematerialisation. Portrait by Pierre Bailly and exhibition photographs by Felix Speller.
Samuel Iliffe is a design engineer focused on the use of innovative materials and processes to address everyday problems. As a part of the Future Observatory Design Researchers in Residence programme hosted by the Design Museum, Samuel is exploring the issue of water pollution and eutrophication in the UK, with a focus on the role that algae play. Photographs courtesy The Design Museum.
Niellah Arboine is a writer, editor and broadcaster born and raised in south London. She is an original member of gal-dem and the deputy editor at Where the Leaves Fall. Niellah has written for the likes of Vogue, Guardian, House & Garden, Vice and Time Out London. She has contributed to Daunt Books’ In the Garden: Essays on Nature and Growing, and was shortlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize 2021 for nature writing.
Will is a photographer, producer and director who works across several fields from music photography to commercial film production. He is a member of Forest Studio, a boutique creative studio based in east London. He enjoys long-distance running, improv comedy and owls.
Ellen is a public speaker, activist and guerrilla gardener who founded Nature is a Human Right, the campaign to make access to green space a universal right. She also edited the book Nature is a Human Right: Why We're Fighting For Green in a Grey World (DK 2022) and founded Dream Green, the social enterprise that empowers people to become guerrilla gardeners.
Susanna Grant is a planting designer who specialises in plants for shady spaces. She runs Linda, a dappled courtyard space in London’s Hackney that sells shade-loving plants for sills, balconies, courtyards and gardens. She has also written the Bloom Gardener's Guide - Shade - Work with the light, grow the right plants, bring dark corners to life. Portrait by Aloha Bonser Shaw.
Darren Appiagyei is a woodturner based in London, UK. He graduated from UAL Camberwell College of The Arts where he studied 3D design. His practice is about embracing the intrinsic beauty of wood, be it knot, bark or grain. Photos by Will Hearle and Thomas Broadhead.
Tijana Lukovic is a Belgium based illustrator whose artworks contain traces of folklore, mythology and a love for nature. Her images are rooted in the changing seasons and her inner world as she explores the forest of her childhood memories.
Jini Reddy is a writer and journalist, and is the author of Wanderland which was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Book of the Year, and for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing. She’s also contributed to the landmark anthology Women on Nature, and before that, Winter. As a journalist and travel writer, Jini has written for publications including The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, the Independent, TIME magazine, National Geographic Traveller, Resurgence and the Ecologist, and in 2019 was named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact.
Jini has also written several texts for Where the Leaves Fall - her writing occupying a cross-genre space where place, spirituality, nature and culture meet.
Alice Vincent started to share her journey into gardening in 2014 with Noughticulture and has since written the books How to Grow Stuff: Easy, No-Stress Gardening for Beginners (2017) and Rootbound: Rewilding a Life (2020), and written and read the audio guide Seeds from Scratch (2020).
Photographs by Camilla Jørvad, except the balcony and book cover images which are by Alice Vincent.
Zayaan Khan is an artist whose work finds a resting place through food as a means of understanding the world, particularly seed, land and our collective heritage. Her Instagram page notes that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and she also runs the Seed Biblioteek - reconnecting seed with story, towards resilience and sovereignty. As she notes: "Seed is our land, heritage and future".
Will Burns was named as one of the Faber and Faber New Poets for 2014. His first full collection, Country Music, was published in 2020, and his debut novel, The Paper Lantern, was published in July 2021. He was named as one of The Observer’s Top 10 Debut Novelists of 2021 and is the OmVed Gardens poet in residence.
Amelia Rouse is from Barbados. While she studied civil engineering, her first love is illustration and she produces beautiful work in pen and ink with an emphasis on nature. She’s been illustrating for Where the Leaves Fall since issue #3.
Vicky Chown is a medical herbalist, forager and gardener. She teaches permaculture and urban food growing in Queen’s Wood Community Garden and OmVed Gardens in London - where she also co-organises The Seed Saving Network - a biodiverse community of seed savers in London and across the United Kingdom.
Vicky also co-runs, alongside Kim Walker, The Handmade Apothecary, a foraging and herbal educational project. Together they have co-authored two books: The Handmade Apothecary and The Herbal Remedy Handbook.
Karen Leason is the director and founder of OmVed Gardens, a garden, exhibition space and sustainable food project in north London, which aims to re-establish the connection between the urban population, food and nature.
A partner of the UN World Food Programme and Chefs Manifesto, OmVed aims to educate and inspire conversations around sustainable food practices and ecological transformations. Committed to foster creativity and community-led change, OmVed Gardens plays host to an inspiring collective of artists, creatives, horticulturalists and chefs. Follow @omvedgardens to find out more and join their upcoming events.
