News / climate action
Easton launches climate leadership programme with ‘plant power’
A special event on Wednesday will bring together resident nature advocates, campaigners, educators and enthusiasts to celebrate the local environment and launch a new Climate Leadership programme for Easton.
The evening will feature a screening of ‘Plant Power’, a film that began life in the heart of St. Pauls and is now making waves around the world, as an introduction to local climate action.
The Black Seeds Network and partners will introduce their global majority-led project Nature Rising, and Amrish Pandaya of the Bristol Rainforest will run an interactive session on building communities around nature.
is needed now More than ever
Eastside Community Trust has been running interactive events for local residents to find out their local climate priorities which have been shaped into a community climate action plan – photo: Eastside Community Trust
Plant Power, a documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Professor Florence Aysi, shows how a shared commitment to growing and tending plants brough people together during lockdown in some of most nature-deprived areas of Bristol.
It features Judit Davis, a guerilla gardener on a mission to protect and revitalise the public spaces in St Paul’s. Judit initiated the ‘Memorial Roses’ project for black people that died of covid and established a garden at Malcolm X Community Centre as part of her goal to reclaim green spaces for community wellbeing.
Amrish Pandaya’s work with banyan trees in schools and community spaces also features in the film which has now been shown at film festivals in New York and California.
‘Plant Power’ is said to be an uplifting documentary in which ‘nature and its relationship to human wellbeing glow’
The evening will also introduce Nature Rising, a project that centres Bristol’s global majority experts and lived experience in environmental action. Gnisha Bevan of the Black Seeds Network and Mike Birkin of project partner Bristol Friends of the Earth will talk about the exciting programme of events they have coming up including a herbal medicine workshop for refugees and asylum seekers, creation of wildflower playgrounds and creative workshops at the May Project Gardens.
Writer and researcher Dr. Zakiya McKenzie will introduce the area’s new leadership programme for people looking to creatively engage with their communities on climate action. It will build on Easton’s Community Climate Action project that has been running for two years and produced the ‘Healthy Planet, Happy People’ climate action plan for the area.
The event, running 6-9pm at Easton Community Centre on April 24, is free with refreshments provided. Book at www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/easton-community-centre/wed-24-apr-plant-power-film-talk-106778#e106778
Main photo: still from ‘Plant Power’
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
