Walks: Forests at the Edge Part of: the Urban Tree Festival, 13, 14, 21 May
I'm returning to the Urban Tree Festival this year to lead a series of artist-led walks and gatherings exploring forest ecologies at the fringes of London. Our connecting theme is edges, borders and boundaries - how are they decided, who are they serving and how do forest ecologies offer other ways of organising or thinking about shared space? How might edges be less a hard line and more a generative, fertile, sociable space for co-flourishing alongside each other in the city? Through art activities, discussion, sensory exercises and mindfulness practices we will venture into three distinctive woodland environments to uncover what these special places might have to teach us. Explore less-trodden parts of London, explore nature as a teacher and delve into pressing topics around access in creative ways. Keep an eye on Instagram to be notified when tickets go live.
Existence as Resistance, Sat 13 May 1pm-3.30pm, Barnwood N2 Edible Forest, Finchley
Bodies, Borders, Boundaries, Sun 14 May 2pm-4.30pm, Stanmore Country Park, Harrow
(Soft) Edgelands, Sun 21 May 1.30pm-3.30pm, Horsenden Hill, Ealing
Existence as Resistance, Sat 13 May 1pm-3.30pm, Barnwood N2 Edible Forest, Finchley
For Forests at the Edge: Existence as Resistance we will be venturing to Barnwood N2 in Finchley, an edible, forageable forest garden and hidden gem on the edges of the North Circular! We'll be joined by Founder Leo Smith and spend the afternoon exploring how such pocket-sized spaces embody joyful resistance, resilience and repair amidst multiple ecological crises of pollution, biodiversity, food scarcity and access to green space.
We'll use our full senses to explore the healing herbs in the forest garden; make our own repairing balms with Sajeda Meghji from plants foraged in the garden; and start seeding our own edible forests!
This will be a gathering with a difference! Rather than meeting us directly at Barnwood N2 we will meet at Finchley Central station walking first through the concrete urban sprawl of Finchley to reach our destination and share the experience of arriving at the edge.
Bodies, Borders, Boundaries, Sun 14 May 2pm-4.30pm, Stanmore Country Park, Harrow
Join artist Becky Lyon and Stanmore Country Park Warden David Rice for Forests at the Edge: Borders, Boundaries, Bodies - a walk exploring how urban forest space is organised both ‘environmentally’ and ‘ecologically’. We will continue venturing into human-forest interrelations by exploring borders and boundaries in the park and how they complement (or challenge...) how nature organises itself.
We will explore the borders of our own bodies - where do we end and the forest begin?! We'll delve into soft edges, rides, ecotones as places of flourishing in the forest and indicators of organising spaces differently. We will discuss the usefulness of borders and boundaries - who are they serving?; what are the challenges of stewarding spaces?; when if ever might it be helpful to have spaces ‘off-limits’?
This a follow up to The Relational Forest and Dia(log)ues with Dead Wood.
(Soft) Edgelands, Sun 21 May 1.30pm-3.30pm, Horsenden Hill, Ealing
Soft Edges is the third and final walk in the Forests at the Edge series and we are venturing to Horsenden Hill, a special place encapsulating London’s multi-textured ecology. As we travel from the Perivale Community Hive to the viewpoint of Horsenden Hill we’ll discuss, disrupt and fuzzy-the-edges of the words and concepts we usually associate with nature-in-the-city.
As we skirt the edges of parks, playgrounds, canals, city farms, industrial parks, veteran and ancient woodland - how do places like this redefine the ‘urban’? How does the concept of a ‘peri-urban’ ecology trouble the hard-edged binaries of ‘city’ and ‘countryside’ and offer something richer, more complex and more diverse? What role do industrial ‘edgelands’ play in our multispecies landscape? We will use creative activities to think, map and fiction possibilities and potentials…
