About this publication
Plant Stories is a short (15 minute) activity developed by Civic Paths Group at the University of Southern California as a part of our Civic Imagination Project. At Civic Paths, the value of utopian and dystopian narratives for helping people to think about what they are fighting for as well as what they are fighting against.
Emerging from Covid-19 related lockdowns, we noted a renewed interest in nature and plants as a source of inspiration, connection, and wisdom as the pandemic pushed our participants to challenge how they approach their relationship to nature and plants. This led us to launch an initiative around plants and the civic imagination, which asked: what would discourse around environmental justice and climate change look like if plants had a voice (alongside humans and animals)? To explore this question, we developed a collection of facing activities that invite participants to pause, notice, connect and imagine with the plants around them.
Part of this collection, Plant Stories is a short (15–20 minute exercise) that invites participants (that could be you) to think about media content with eye towards noticing how plants show up, asking what might a story or film or other popular narrative look-like if plants were given a different (usually more active) role to play?
Here we share what we imagined when we ran the exercise on ourselves.
We invite you to take a stroll through our imaginings and reflections and join in by following our instructions here, should you feel inspired.
