I spend hours each day picking up fragments

What does it mean to lie dormant? Could seasonal rest be an active, not passive, practice of bodily resistance? How does a gardener, an artist, a microbiologist or a sick, disabled, neurodivergent bodymind tend to dormancy?

As seeds sleep, join an online study group led by artist and theorist Anastasia (A) Alevtin. Together, read and discuss excerpts from Derek Jarman, Alison Kafer, Mel Y. Chen and others. Then, explore writing exercises guided by researcher Char Heather.

Demystify and reclaim the notion of “queercrip”. Discuss the many ways of living and subverting a disabling world. And imagine other rhythms of being with plants, seeds, gardens and kin.

This study group is for anyone interested in anti-ableist gardening, collective practices of nurture, and what plants can teach us about survival and crip joy. No prior knowledge or reading required.

About the contributors

Anastasia (A) Alevtin (they/them) dwells as a theorist, writer and artist whose work centres on the ways in which queercrip, migratised and other precarious individuals and communities quietly subvert structural marginalisation. Herbs, berries and corpo-affectivity of chronic illness are currently on (A)’s mind.

Char Heather is a writer and researcher with a focus on crip narratives, and founder of 'the remote body', a platform for online workshops that prioritise chronically ill and disabled people.

Dr Emily May Armstrong (they/them) reads, writes, and researches across plants, bodies, queerness, and health. They are supported and informed by non-human teachers.

About the project

I spend hours each day picking up fragments is the first gathering of a Spring study group, organised as part of Dormancy, Reseeding, Resistance. Initiated by Anastasia (A) Alevtin, this project is centred on anti-ableist and queercrip dailiness, communal gardening and seed-saving practices.

It connects the northern latitudes of Finland and Scotland and disperses beyond them to discuss structural economic precarity, food insecurity and, in the words of Dr Emily May Armstrong, phytocrip resistance to a worldly condition of inflammation.

Our next gatherings (26 Feb, 26 Mar) will discuss inflammation as a political, social and material condition and everyday practices of dormancy which circulate around us.

Dormancy, Reseeding, Resistance culminates with a collectively written manifesto that mulches all the thoughts and affects accumulated in the group. This will be celebrated with communal meals in Glasgow and Vantaa’s Light-harvesting Complex. The manifesto is published by Ei Mainoksia, Kiitos!

Dormancy, Reseeding, Resistance is supported by Glasgow Seed Library, Light-harvesting Complex, The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland and The Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

Access

This event will take place online using Zoom. The interface will include automatic captioning. Please email glasgowseedlibrary@cca-glasgow.com with any questions or access requests.