Death & the Collective Imagination Huddle: Introducing our Cohort
Back in summer of 2023, as part of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Collective Imagination Practice Community, I shared an open call for a new peer learning journey (or Huddle) exploring the transformative potential of loss.
The invitation was to anyone wondering: What norms, ideas and systems are ready to be dreamed out of being? What are the unintended consequences of keeping them on life support? And what kinds of gifts might be contained within their loss?
The call was a tentative question into the void. It drew on a sense that the collective imagination & futures field was deep in midwifing new visions and ideas into being, but that the inverse practices of hospicing and composting often drew less attention. My gauge on the community’s appetite for this work was therefore pretty modest. However, it became clear from the volume of applications that this was a subject many were longing to explore. What was equally clear was that applicants were stuck for spaces to bring these often uncomfortable questions.
The huddle aimed to hold space for a deliberately broad pool of interests around collective imagination, death and loss: from mourning & grief, to end of life care, to ritual, to climate collapse, ecological cycles and organisational endings. What the huddle cohort all shared was an appetite for exploring new imaginaries where our relationship to all of these topics looks healthier, and more generative than it does today — to the benefit of all life.
Our final cohort of 12 was a diverse mix of ancestries, specialisms & experiences, spanning Europe, Africa & North America. Given the volume of interest and lack of similar spaces, we’re exploring broadening our community of practice in 2024.
The Cohort
Justin Adams, UK
Justin is a social entrepreneur focused on implementing innovative solutions to the climate, ecological, and cultural crises. After a distinguished career advancing green growth within the mainstream economy, he has taken a step out and back to develop a more expansive and ‘eco-centric’ approach for transformative change. As a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, he continues to explore ways of using finance to enable a more nature-positive economy. He is also setting up a new venture to support individuals and organisations forger deeper connections with themselves, their communities, and the Earth. He believes the only chance to navigate today's intricate web of crises is by weaving cultural and spiritual leadership into our economic and political responses.
Will Brown, UK
Will describes himself as a ‘Garden Thinker’. At root, he is interested in how gardens can help us to lead more grounded, contemplative lives. More broadly, he is working to explore the potential of gardening to addressing the polycrisis (climate, ecology, socio-economics, food security etc.), particularly through garden initiatives which partner local communities with educational, commercial, and governmental institutions. With a degree in Literature from the University of Oxford, and a Masters in’ Ecological Design Thinking’ from Schumacher College, he has also trained as a coach, as a teacher of Permaculture, and as a facilitator of group philosophical inquiry.
Natalia Eernstman, UK
I am an artist and educator specialising in creating spaces where communities can learn their way into an uncertain climate changed future through artful, performative and experiential means. I am the Short Course Director and Creative Practice Lead at Black Mountains College, where I teach on the Ba(Hons) “Sustainable Futures: Arts, Ecology and Systems Change”. And I create and manage BMC’s residential short courses for a very diverse set of audiences: from young people, to fund managers, parish councillors, faith leaders, artists, community leaders and everything in between.
Devyn Harris, USA
Devyn Harris (they/them) is this world to support healing through love. As a queer community organizer, integrative somatic practitioner, bodyworker, death doula, and artist they guide people to liberation through joy, love, and play. Rooted in a healing justice praxis their work dances between ceremony, community building, performance art, and body intelligence education. Offering tools to realize our body’s innate ability to heal trauma, connect with love, nature, and our ancestral wisdom, and supporting folks to rise above reactions and stay centered through the complexities of life. Specializing in sexual assault, and domestic violence healing, they help people in rediscover the feeling of safety and security in their own bodies and in connection with others.
Hilary Jennings, UK
Hilary is a freelance cultural practitioner working across the arts, museum and craft sectors with particular experience in leadership development, facilitation, assessment, award and project management — working with organisations including Clore Leadership, British Council and Engage. She has a particular interest in holistic approaches to the climate crisis which focus on alternatives to growth and which work at the intersection of culture and community. She is Director of the Happy Museum Project, a steering group member of Co-creating Change and a long time activist both locally and globally within the grassroots Transition Movement (recently Trustee).
Ally Kingston, UK (Huddle Host)
Ally works with creative practitioners, businesses and communities to support deep transition work through narrative and cultural change. With a hybrid communications & sustainability background, she has worked with the likes of Futerra, Purpose Disruptors & the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Recently she has been training as an end-of-life doula to deepen her relationship with death & endings, and is curious about how new hospicing practices — both for individuals and the collective — might contribute to the cultural transformation we need.
Stella McKenna, UK
Strategist, facilitator and community builder. Lover of this magnificent planet that we all call home. Storyteller, collector, curator. Endlessly curious about how we can learn to be together differently in the turbulent times of transition. Currently exploring this as Director, People & Programmes at 2X Global, Board Chair for The Visionaries, Fellow with The Bio Leadership Project and a Trainee Psychotherapist with Karuna Institute.
Naomi Alexander Naidoo, UK
Naomi is Partnerships Lead at Luminate, a global foundation working to ensure that everyone — especially those who are underrepresented — has the information, rights, and power to influence the decisions that affect their lives. Naomi sits within Luminate Strategic Initiatives, a team focused on digital threats to democracy and the harms of social media platforms. She is responsible for building relationships between the Luminate Strategic Initiatives team and other foundations, funders, and high-net-worth individuals. Naomi’s background is in community and network building and she previously worked at Chayn, the Finance Innovation Lab and ISEAL Alliance. Naomi sits on the advisory board of Money Movers and Make My Money Matter.
Diane Ragsdale, USA
I am back in the US after having been based in The Netherlands for about 12 years. I landed in Minneapolis about 18 months ago, where I have built and launched a new MA in Creative Leadership at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I also teach a four-week workshop at Yale University on aesthetic values in a changed cultural context. I would say that at the heart of it I am a commitment to stewarding people through change and using methods and practices of artists to help people develop necessary capacities to investigate and change their relationship to self, others, the natural and built world, the past, present, and future.
Amiera Sawas, UK
Hello! My name is Amiera. I was born and raised in south Manchester, of mixed Irish and Syrian heritage. I work on climate change and human rights issues as a researcher and advocate mainly. I’m 39 but I feel much older! I’m searching for spaces that can keep my intellectual curiosity alive and nurture my self care too.
Caroline Wilkins, UK
I am a Printmaker with a studio in Cornwall. I have an expanded practice which includes social engagement. I have been working as guest artist in a local graveyard and am currently in the latter stages of preparing this work for a solo exhibition. My practice is hyper local and uses the town I live in as a context and place for engagement.
Selam Zeru, Kenya
Selam is an experienced human-centred design practitioner, researcher and innovation consultant. She is currently a Creative Lead at Dalberg Design, based in Nairobi, and has led a number of projects and community engagements focussed on financial services, health, agriculture, education, gender inclusivity and livelihoods. Selam has led social impact projects most notably in Ethiopia, Jordan and Kenya and has also worked in tech, designing accelerator programmes for large corporates in the UK and testing a circular design model to commercialise products made from plastic waste in Kenya. A sociology graduate from the University of Warwick, Selam seeks to explore methodological advances in design and development that drive equity, innovation and impact.
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We’re excited to share the processes & practices unearthed in our learning journey over coming blog posts throughout early 2024.
