An (incomplete) manifesto for gardening as an EcoSomatic practice

This primarily visual and poetic contribution: part manifesto, part rally call for environmental and EcoSomatic action and part memoir, shares some of the work that I have been investigating in embodiment and in permaculture. It is part of ongoing practice as a gardener and dancer, a long-term research endeavour on an inner-city urban allotment in the United Kingdom, titled ‘And So We Sow’, which has been developing since 2017. It features images created in collaboration with the photographer Ming de Nasty at my plot in the summer of 2022. The work draws on principles from Releasing dance practices, particularly Skinner Releasing Technique, from organic gardening techniques and from wider embodied engagement. It has various strands underpinned by a curiosity about how we inhabit our inner and outer landscapes simultaneously. Currently, it reflects on my working-class roots and on women’s labour of the body and on the land.