N o u r i s h i n g 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 4 5 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 6 7 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. 8 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. 10 1111 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 12 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. 13 ABOUT THIS ZINE 14 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. 15 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. 16 “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 20 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 21 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. 24 1 2 25 3 4 5 26 Learning from/in/with nature Nature is not external to us. We are it, and it is us. 27 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. 28 29 30 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. 31 15 minute writing activity 32 33 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. 35 36 37 “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 38 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. 39 The Nourisher Al-Muqeet 40 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 41 44 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 46 47 Thank you to all our participants 50 51 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