Seed Stories, Fugitive Ecologies

Seeds are deeply entangled with the stories of our bodies, migrations, ecologies and resistances. We can trace instances of adaptation, survival, creativity and play through the histories of our seeds.

Seed saver and researcher Christian Keeve is fascinated by the popular re-emergence of seedkeeping practices, as well as the errant, furtive and fugitive histories of seed projects in the USA.

As new digital platforms seek to gather and share seed saving knowledge, Christian turns to the contemporary politics of agro-ecology and cooperative geographies to determine their potential for a decentralised and more just food system.

In a relaxed online event, Christian will be in conversation with Skye-based gardener and artworker Joss Allen. Together, they explore how ideas of care, play, knowledge politics and queer futurity mingle in our changing seedscape.

About the speakers

Christian Keeve is a PhD student in Geography at the University of Kentucky. A seed saver and chaotic gardener, they’re fascinated by the everyday more-than-human sorts of relations and cooperative practices behind seed conservation and plant breeding. Their research concerns in situ agrobiodiversity conservation, or the things that people do (or don’t do) with seeds, and the things that seeds may (or may not) do on their own. Currently, they are trying to think through the socioecological knowledge politics, archival practices, and cooperative geographies of seed work through Black, queer, and liberatory ecologies.

Joss Allen can be found at the edges of the garden, amongst the weeds and compost heaps. He is an artworker and amateur gardener exploring how creative practices can shape earthy politics, community economies and ecological ways of being. His work has been influenced by his time as a support worker for adults with autism, a labourer on an organic farm and a refuse collector, among others. He recently co-ordinated a three-year community food growing project, Town is the Garden (2017–20), with Deveron Projects, Huntly, Scotland. Joss is currently Co-Artistic Director (maternity cover) and Alternative Economies Manager at ATLAS Arts, Skye.

Glasgow Seed School

Glasgow Seed School is a slow season of free workshops, talks and events. It aims to nurture seed stewardship and help growers build climate, food and community resilience. It is organised by Glasgow Seed Library, in collaboration with friends and organisations across the city.