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O u r s e l v e s



N o u r i s h i n g 
O u r s e l v e s
An invitation to reconnect with the 
joy and playfulness at the heart of 
your creativity beyond the pressures 

of productivity, profit, or ‘impact’

A zine by Alaa Alsaraji and 
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan

Commissioned by Dr Suhraiya Jivraj, 
Reader in Law  & Social Justice

Supported by Naima Khan 



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Out of sight is the city

In the stillness,

The sound of birds,

The wind swaying

and moving

clouds and things and people.

 Zahra Ahmad



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In the slow rustle of leaves,

An unseen foot steps on a tree branch.

A car passes behind a wall of green,

Behind branch and bush,

Out of sight is the city,

Out of sight is the struggle

The journey,

Movement – Motion - Progress.



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In this quiet space,

Where you can find breath

And sight,

Focus on the intricacies

Of leaf and bark and twig -

The rest seems so small.

The heaviness, the insurmountable grief,

It dissolves under the canopy.

And surrounded by strangers,

You feel seen,

And at ease.



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You feel the rhythm 

and meandering of their stories,

Soft spoken imaginings 

Of a world unshackled.

Each soul searching for rest,

A slowing down.

An alignment - work and play,

Output and

Outliving stress.

Bringing life to clay,

Moulding our deep energies into the texture,

Our legacies hung on a thread,

Kissed by the fractured sunlight of the afternoon



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Nourishing Ourselves is a 
publication exploring the 
importance of using creativity 
as a way to re-connect with 
ourselves and our wellbeing.

Many artists and creative 
practitioners of colour carry 
the responsibility of using our 
visual, oral, written or other 
stories to produce counter-
narratives, to ‘shed light on’, or 
to ‘represent’. 

As a result, the open-ended 
play and joy which brought 
many of us to love creativity 
in the first place, is sacrificed 
to the need to ‘produce’ work 
under conditions of capitalism 
which demand constant 
output.

This zine asks what would 
happen if we had the time 
to be creative for the sake of 
tending to ourselves and each 
other? What would happen 
if we reconnected to the love 
and playfulness which makes 

creative expression possible, 
without forcing it to become 
something with utility? What 
opportunities, ideas and ways 
of being might that make 
possible?

This zine invites you to 
explore such questions, 
and to play and think about 
using your creativity for your 
own wellbeing. Some of the 
words, art and feeling in this 
publication come from a one-
day workshop curated by 
Alaa Alsaraji and Suhaiymah 
Manzoor-Khan upon these 
themes. 

Let these pages gently remind 
you that we are our most 
valuable resource, and that 
our wellbeing is the soil in 
which the futures we wish 
to build must take root. For 
anything to grow, the soil itself 
needs tending to, not just 
once, but over and over.

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ABOUT 
THIS 
ZINE



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Maki Arianne

I would say silence but what of the wind and the birch, 

the birdsong, busy bees. 

I would say stillness but what of the paw prints making 

tracks in leaves, spiders weaving, buds unfurling. 

I would say slow and calm but what of the deep bonds 

made with beautiful strangers, laughter, tears, a joy 

that buzzes from our eyelashes to our fingertips. 

So I say nourishing.

I say: us. 
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Introduction to Clay 

Playing with clay can be a 
fascinating, hands-on tool 
used for self-expression 
and reflection. Being able to 
use play and your body in a 
creative process activates 
different parts of your brain 
and emotions than using 
speech or writing does. 
This can lead to new and 
meaningful encounters. 

In the Nourishing Ourselves 
workshop, we started the day 
by giving everyone a piece of 
air-dry clay and asked them 
to create two models: one 
that represented how they felt 

about their creative practice/
expression currently; and the 
second model of how they 
wish it was instead. We used 
the models as the way each 
person introduced themselves 
to the group. 

We found ourselves mirroring 
each other in many ways - 
with the first model often 
reflecting feelings of over-
stretchedness, overwhelm 
and burn-out; and the second 
model symbolising a hope 
for holistic ways of existing, 
balance, playfulness, and 
growth.

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“It felt good to be surrounded by encouraging people and the 

tools to make both individually and together and to have the 

space to share what we've made. I played with clay for the first

 time because of the resources and time being readily 

available for me to do so- it felt so caring that… we could 

experiment… and that they gave us the time and space  to do 

what we wanted… It’s so often that I have to be the one doing 

this for other people and it felt great to just receive.”

- Sheyamali
1919



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Tulika Jha

They modelled clay 

Transitional objects of where they are 

and where they wish to be 

A rose, coils, steps, spheres, 

Frayed and smooth ends 

Polished and rough diamonds 

Under the canopy 

they unfurled their hearts

A pond around which school children sit 

Girls wearing hijabs 

Giggling, at ease 

Teacher from Bangladesh 

Talking about ponds back home 

Grounding us to this land 7 seas across 

But water is water 

And soil is Earth 

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5 Minute Presencing 
Technique

1. Find a spot of 'wild' that speaks to you. You can look out the 
window, spot in your garden,... 

2. Spend 1 minute to draw what you're looking at 

3. Repeat until you have 5 x 1-minute drawings

You can focus on different angles, details etc. each time
This activity helps with presencing and grounding, it allows us 
to really focus and zoom into one thing, and really observe it
You can find space to draw on the next page. 



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1

2

25

3

4

5



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Learning 
from/in/with 
nature 

Nature is not external to us. 
We are it, and it is us.

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Many people and histories 
remind us of the importance 
of learning from the living 
organisms around us and not 
treating them as separate 
to us, objects to be used, or 
property to be owned. 

For example, in her book, 
Braiding Sweetgrass 
(Penguin, 2020), Dr Robin 
Wall Kimmerer writes 
that indigenous American 
people understood land as: 
‘identity, the connection to 
our ancestors, the home of 
our nonhuman kinfolk, our 
pharmacy, our library, the 
source of all that sustained 
us’. 

So what happens when we look in 
nature through non-objectifying eyes?

Kimmerer takes lessons from 
all organisms. Writing about 
how pecan trees do not fruit 
seasonally but according to 
the collective conditions of 
the trees and ecosystems, she 
says 

‘they act not as individuals, 
but somehow as a collective….
What happens to one happens 
to us all. We can starve 
together or feast together. All 
flourishing is mutual.’

 This learning is at odds with 
what capitalism, exploitation 
and colonialism teach us: 
that we must compete for 
resources and not everybody 
can flourish. 

So whether it is lessons 
about the cyclic nature of life; 
reminders to allow ourselves 
to go through personal 
autumns and winters in 
order to reach springs and 
summers; or even reminders 
to ponder that if an acorn can 
become a tree, we should not 
put limitations on who we 
might yet become - learnings 
in nature help us in so many 
ways.

In the latter part of the 
Nourishing Ourselves 
workshop we invited 
participants to approach 
their surroundings as one 
would approach scholars and 
teachers. To observe, listen 
and learn.



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Learning in nature

1. Get amongst nature: go outside, sit amidst your plants, 
or even just look out of the window. Get comfortable. 

2. Write down what surrounds you. Be as detailed as 
possible: describe the colours, textures, sounds, smells, 
tastes. Write in whatever form you feel comfortable - a 
simple bullet point list is fine. 

3. Consider that every part of what you have described is 
trying to teach you something: from the grass stalks, to 
the birds in the sky, to the sunlight itself, and the sound 
of the rain. 

4. Review what you have written now considering that 
everything has wisdom in it. Listen, observe, write.

5. Keep writing for as long as you like, reflect on the 
wisdoms, build on them, connect them to your own life 
and story. 

6. Make a commitment to yourself to honour these 
lessons in your everyday life.

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15 minute writing activity



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34

Munira Mutaher

anikun: 

In sinhala this means others or other 
beings, human & non-human. The 
word is a point of departure, the faces 
overlap and merge into one with a 
central eye. 

We aren’t complete without the 
other(s). This is an invitation to come 
together to share in a vision.

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“The plant people have taught 
me to be generous and not be 

shy about blossoming, that it is 
our nature. I think when others 

see us, it can inspire them to 
open up and blossom too and we 
can be a field ablaze with dignity 

and beauty together” 

Brenda Salgado

Iman Datoo



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I’ve been leading a nightly reflective 
group on Allah’s names on zoom for over 
a year, connecting to Him in this way to 

try and make sense of who we are and can 
be. So the session being centred around 
nourishment really reminded me that I 
was ultimately being nourished by Him 

(Al-Muqeet) in a way I haven’t been before 
because He knew I really needed it and I’m 

grateful He put it on my path 

- Uzma Ahmed

In Islam 99 names are attributed to God, each demonstrating 
a different quality or capacity. Al-Muqeet comes from Arabic 
root letters which relate to feeding, nourishing, sustaining, 
preserving, observing and watching-over.

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The Nourisher 
Al-Muqeet 



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Layla 
Madanat

“I expected nourishment, 
but also gained such a 

sense of calm, connection 
and hope - and a new love 

for collaging! 
It was so clear the level 

of care and thought that 
had gone into the planning 

and I was really grateful 
to have been able to make 
it. It came for me at a very 
necessary time for sure.”

- Layla
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Reflections on holding 
and designing the space
Alaa Alsaraji & Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan:

As artists who frequently 
design and facilitate 
workshops, our experience 
facilitating Nourishing 
Ourselves was notably 
different. Being members 
of the same community the 
workshop aimed to serve, we 
were in the unique position of 
being able to centre our own 
needs in planning the day. 

In fact, we began by asking 
ourselves what nourishing 
meant to us. This differs 
greatly from the way 
workshop facilitators are often 
encouraged to ‘co-produce’ 
content with the communities 
they work with. Such a drive 

sometimes reveals more 
about the transactional and 
somewhat extractive way 
communities are worked with 
- with workshop outcomes 
often being pre-imagined and 
cliche.

Contrastingly, with Nourishing 
Ourselves, we were able to 
lean into the possibility of 
planning in an altogether 
different way. We could be 
guided by the expertise of our 
own lived experience, as well 
as instinctual knowledge of 
what would feel replenishing 
for us. This enabled a rare 
experience in which we 
facilitated the day with no 

45

prior expectation about what 
the ‘end-product’ should be, 
nor were we approaching 
participants voyeuristically or 
extractively. The line between 
‘us’ as facilitators, and ‘them’ 
as participants was not so 
clear cut. 

Even in the preparation of the 
workshop we centred care 
and play. Taking time, for 
example, to experiment with 
clay ourselves, or preparing 
and grilling vegetables for a 
wholesome lunch on the day. 
In such a situation where we 
could build a space that was 
intentionally nourishing for all 
present…. 

After the workshop we both 
recall a sense of rejuvenation 
despite the exertion and 
familiar tiredness of 
facilitating. Clearly, care had 
woven its way into the space 
and was mirrored by those 
who came. We hope to build 
this way of working into much 
more of our future work



How can you  continue 
to build nourishing 
practices into your 
everyday life? 

“We all nourish ourselves in different ways, 
ways that may not necessarily be tied to 

our individual practices, and so how can we 
continually cultivate nourishment through 

the unexpected or unfamiliar…”

- Iman 

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Thank you to all 
our participants



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Alaa Alsaraji @alaa_alsaraji 

Alaa is a visual artist, designer and creative facilitator. Through 
her creative practice she aims to explore themes such as 
belonging, reimagining space and community, predominantly 
using the medium of digital illustration. Alaa is also the arts 
editor of Khidr Collective, a multidisciplinary artist collective 
creating platforms and spaces for young Muslim creatives 
through the annual Khidr Zine and online platform. 
www.alsarajialaa.co.uk 
 

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan @thebrownhijabi

Suhaiymah is a writer, poet, playwright and educator. She is the 
author of Postcolonial Banter and Tangled in Terror: Uprooting 
Islamophobia, and her poems have millions of views online. 
Suhaiymah is also a writer in residence at Leeds Playhouse, a 
Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Geography at Queen 
Mary University of London and co-founder of The Nejma 
Collective, working in solidarity with Muslims in prison. 
www.suhaiymah.com

Intro to facilitators



Phytology is a cultural 
institute based at the 
Bethnal Green Nature 
Reserve in Tower Hamlets, 
East London. The space is 
a WW2 bombsite that has 
been cared for since 1977 by 
local residents, volunteers, 
staff, trustees and its non-
human inhabitants. The 
Nature Reserve has a delicate 
and complex ecosystem of 
plants, bats, birds, trees, soil, 
fungi, amphibians, insects, 
invertebrates and mammals 
(including people). Phytology 
collectively want this space 
to exist and nurture a diverse 
urban ecosystem for many 
years to come.

They host an annual 
residency for researchers 
working across the arts, 
architecture, science and 
humanities and their public 
programme actively engages 
with the environmental and 
social complexities of the 
surrounding urban landscape. 
To get involved, site care can 
take many forms, including: 
keeping paths, litter picking, 
watering the medicine garden, 
composting, and more. If you 
are interested in volunteering 
or finding out more, contact 
info@nomad.org.uk.

www.phytology.org.uk

Thank you to Phytology 
for allowing us to 
share the space for the 
workshop



Thank you to 
our funders

We would like to thank our funders 
The Socio-Legal Studies Association, 
Division for the Study of Law, Society 
and Social Justice, University of Kent 
for funding this project. 

Copyright © 2023  Alaa Alsaraji 
and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan in 
partnership with Suhraiya Jivraj, 
Kent Law School. 

Please do not reproduce this zine 
in part or whole. If citing use the 
following suggested citation: Alaa 
Alsaraji and Suhaiymah Manzoor-
Khan (2023). Nourishing Ourselves: 
A Zine. London, UK: Inclusive Mosque 
Initiative

Alaa
Cross-Out



If only she had listened to the 
trees more

they had always been saying
slow down

but the nature of man is haste
despite the gentle unfurl of the bud

despite the steady sprouting of acorn to oak

If only she had listened to the leaves more
they had always been teaching

take time
but the nature of man is now

despite the cyclic waiting for the seasons
despite autumn and hibernation before spring 

can come

The most beautiful growth requires deep roots
The invisible parts must also be nourished

But nothing can last in overworked soil

If only she listened to the earth more
If only she realised she was of it

By Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan


