Compost, Cotton & Cornrows

In this expansive and grounding episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in powerful conversation with Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a globally recognized climate scientist, former president of the American Meteorological Society, and one of the most trusted voices translating atmospheric science into everyday life. From his early days at NASA to advising national and global leaders, Dr. Shepherd brings both rigor and realness by breaking down climate change not as an abstract future crisis, but as a present-day force shaping everything from grocery bills to public health. With clarity and urgency, he reframes sustainability through the lens of resilience. He understands how wealth gaps define who survives and who is left vulnerable in a rapidly shifting climate.Together, they move beyond surface-level solutions and into the systems that actually shape our realities, naming the deep inequities driving climate vulnerability while refusing to stay in despair. Dr. Shepherd introduces his “kitchen table” framework, connecting extreme weather to daily life, and offers a blueprint for meaningful engagement rooted in policy, community co-creation and trust-building. From urban heat islands shaped by redlining to the rise of compound disasters, this conversation bridges science, culture and lived experience. As Dr. Shepherd makes clear, we don’t have another planet to figure this out on. And so the work ahead demands both accountability and collective action, grounded in truth and designed for survival.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford is in a rich and grounding conversation with floral designer, horticulturalist  and agricultural leader Dee Hall Goodwin. She is the founder of Mermaid City Flowers and the global network Black Flower Farmers. Living in Norfolk, Virginia, with roots in Brooklyn and St. Lucia, Dee invites us into a world where flowers are portals into climate awareness, cultural memory and regenerative possibility. From transforming her front lawn into a micro flower farm to source wedding flowers to rejecting the extractive global flower industry, Dee redefines what it means to live sustainably with softness and power.Together, they explore the intersections of Black land stewardship, coastal climate realities and the radical act of growing what you need, from basil in your bouquet or community across continents. Dee shares how flowers become a “medium, not the message,” offering an accessible entry point into deeper environmental truths, while honoring ancestral practices that have always existed beyond the language of “sustainability.” As a Black floral farmer, this episode is a reminder that the practice is expansive.https://www.mermaidcityflowers.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

CCC is on a two-week Spring Break Use this time to tap into past episodes, share your favorites and stay connected to the community. We’ll be back next week continuing Season 2 with more depth and necessary cultural climate conversations.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in a powerful conversation with Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, the visionary behind Afrogallonism - a radical artistic practice transforming discarded yellow oil containers into monumental sculptures, performances, and communal rituals. Living and working in Accra, Ghana, Clottey unpacks how these everyday objects, once used to transport cooking oil from the West and later repurposed to store scarce drinking water, carry layered stories of migration, global trade, environmental degradation and survival. Through cutting, stitching, weaving, and performance, he reveals how materials dismissed as waste become cultural archives, documenting the afterlife of globalization on the African continent.But Clottey’s work extends far beyond the gallery. Rooted deeply in the community, his practice has evolved into a living ecosystem where elders stitch, youth source materials, and entire neighborhoods participate in transforming plastic waste into art, architecture, clothing, and storytelling. What began as an artist’s intervention has become a collective act of environmental education, economic participation, and cultural reclamation. Together, Dominique and Serge explore sustainability as responsibility, the politics of global waste economies, and how tradition—from weaving to ceremonial performance can inspire contemporary solutions for a planet struggling under the weight of its own consumption.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Episode 41 | In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with meteorologist and climate storyteller Alesha Ray, whose journey from journalism to national broadcast weather reframes environmentalism through a lens that is both scientifically rigorous and deeply human. Together, they unpack the power of meeting people where they are, redefining sustainability beyond perfection, and challenging the narratives that make climate action feel inaccessible to the very communities most impacted. As Alesha shares, “sustainability is meeting people where they are… being resourceful, knowing what you need, and utilizing what you have to make a difference.”From rising heat as a public health crisis to the emotional weight of climate anxiety, this conversation moves through the urgency of now while holding space for color, joy, creativity, cultural expression and of course thrifting. Dominique and Alesha explore sustainable fashion as a practice of ingenuity, the necessity of representation in science and media, and the role of storytelling in translating complex climate data into something people can actually feel, understand and act on. Also Alesha speaks about the evolution of her educational offerings merging science with accessible and stylish storytelling! Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows podcast, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn’s 20th Borough President and the first Dominican to hold the office in New York City history. Raised in Williamsburg by Dominican immigrants who arrived seeking opportunity, Reynoso reflects on growing up in a neighborhood shaped by poverty, environmental injustice and public health disparities including asthma rates so severe that Woodhull Hospital built one of the city’s only emergency asthma units. From these early experiences, Reynoso developed a deeply human definition of sustainability that rooted in the everyday question: How do we manage the systems we cannot avoid: waste, infrastructure, industry, in ways that protect both people and planet?Together, Dominique and Reynoso explore sustainability through the lens of birthing justice, public health, and environmental equity. Reynoso shares how Brooklyn’s maternal health crisis, where Black women are up to twelve times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts, became a defining focus of his administration, leading him to invest $45 million into transformative maternal health units across Brooklyn’s public hospitals. The conversation also examines the structural forces shaping health outcomes across Central Brooklyn from food deserts and heat index disparities to underfunded parks and the erosion of the public healthcare system. Bridging data-driven governance with lived experience, Reynoso outlines his ambitious comprehensive planning framework for Brooklyn while calling on residents to participate in shaping their neighborhoods through civic engagement.At its core, this episode asks a powerful question: What does sustainability look like when we begin at birth and build systems that allow communities to thrive across generations?https://www.brooklynbp.nyc.gov/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with Diamond Spratling, MPH, award-winning Climate DisruptHER, two-time TEDx speaker and founder of Girl Plus Environment, a nonprofit mobilizing Black and Brown women at the forefront of climate solutions. Raised in Detroit, Diamond traces how her childhood—playing in neighborhood green spaces while her family navigated the realities of industrial pollution tied to the auto industry shaped her understanding of sustainability as something far deeper than environmentalism. For Diamond, sustainability means sustaining culture, sustaining community, and carrying ancestral practices forward a living commitment to protecting both people and planet across generations.Together, Dominique and Diamond unpack the intersection of public health, environmental racism, and economic opportunity from the legacy of pollution in Detroit to the rising threats of data centers, energy burden, and water insecurity across the South. Diamond shares how she built Girl Plus Environment into a powerful sisterhood of over 700 members, proving that Black and Brown women have always cared for the environment even if traditional environmental spaces failed to see them. The conversation also explores the importance of joy, rest, and storytelling in sustaining movements, including Diamond’s children’s book series Sage Sails the World, which inspires young readers to approach climate action with curiosity, hope, and cultural pride.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in rich conversation with Fredeline “Freddie” Amedee-Benjamin, co-owner of Papa Rozier Farms, a vertically integrated farm-to-store ecosystem rooted in Haiti What began as a mission to sustain Bati School evolved into a 50-acre regenerative farm producing cold-pressed castor and moringa oils that are grown, harvested, pressed, bottled and sold without a middleman in Brooklyn. “We are essentially the farmer and the producer,” Freddie shares. “I can tell you where it came from and how it came to be in your bottle.” Together, they unpack sustainability as the ability to self-sustain and to build something that protects and provides for itself no matter what the world is doing while also challenging the global narrative that reduces Haiti to crisis instead of creativity, ingenuity and legacy.This conversation is about memory, power and refusing to follow trends that simply circle us back to what our ancestors already knew. From Haiti’s revolutionary roots in 1804 to uplifting women through education and employment (Bati School is 85% women-led), Freddie reminds us that sustainability is cultural. Castor and moringa are not new, but instead  are ancestral technologies, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-trend. This is a story about building institutions that outlive headlines, raising daughters who show up unapologetically and proving that when you put enough energy into something, it becomes unavoidable.CAN’T STOP! WON’T STOP! https://paparozierfarms.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in powerful conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers - MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice and one of the foremost architects of modern environmental justice. From her upbringing in Lowndes County, Alabama where rows of cotton met front doors and families engineered their own sanitation systems  to advising the White House on federal environmental policy, Catherine reframes sustainability as “building something that’s lasting” in a nation designed for planned obsolescence. She unpacks how civil rights organizing shaped her advocacy, why environmental injustice is not a “Black issue” but a systems issue, and how storytelling, data, and local political power shape who gets protected.Together, they confront the rising tensions of our time: water-hungry data centers and what Catherine calls America’s “disaster economy” a system that profits from neglect and rebuilds only after harm. Yet this is not a conversation rooted in despair. It is grounded in stewardship, spirituality and the radical belief that if we “do the work again,” change is not only possible, it is inevitable. This episode is a masterclass in resilience, policy literacy and the sacred responsibility we all carry as environmental stewards.https://www.catherinecolemanflowers.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Christa Barfield, aka FarmerJawn - regenerative agriculture powerhouse, James Beard Award winner, and founder of the largest Black woman-owned regenerative farm in the United States. From managing 128 acres across Pennsylvania to building markets for heritage crops like Nigerian spinach, Christa breaks down what sustainability actually means when you remove the romance and face the reality: profitability. She unpacks why true longevity in farming requires economic power, why undercapitalization is one of the biggest threats to land stewardship and how her company’s decision-making is rooted in a three-pillar framework of environmental, social and physical health. This is a masterclass in building systems that nourishes financial legacy and wellbeing. Together, they explore regeneration as a lifestyle ethic from letting soil rest to letting ourselves rest. We unpack how “Food is Medicine” is an overused slogan in mainstream agricultural spaces, but for Christa, it’s a real strategy for public health transformation. Christa shares hard-won wisdom on funding pathways, building a protective business trinity (lawyer, accountant, insurance), navigating spaces where you’re the only one and why she’s done being “poor and popular.” The conversation stretches into lineage, land inheritance, family wealth models and her bold new pay-what-you-wish corner store designed to restore dignity and nutrition access in one of Philadelphia’s most underserved neighborhoods. This episode is a financial sustainability blueprint! https://www.farmerjawn.co/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, host Dominique Drakeford sits with Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of the Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leader, former mayor of Greenville Mississippi and former Regional Administrator for EPA Region 4. Together they explore what sustainability looks like when it begins with Black life, cultural memory and lived experience rather than policy jargon or extractive frameworks. Drawing from Heather’s leadership in cultural organizing, this conversation reframes environmentalism as something deeply familiar and rooted in the stewardship and wisdom of people who have always lived closest to the land.From petrochemicals and plastics to fast fashion, beauty culture and agriculture, Dominique and Heather unpack how industries built on extraction continue to harm Black and brown communities while selling convenience as progress. Heather traces the lineage from plantations to petrochemical corridors, challenges loud definitions of wealth and calls for a quieter, more intentional vision of luxury grounded in health, longevity and collective care. This episode is both a reckoning and a love letter, reminding us that storytelling is our most underutilized renewable energy source. This is a joyous call to action to listen differently, consume intentionally and claim our role as architects of the futures we deserve.https://www.beyondpetrochemicals.org/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Latham Thomas, renowned birth justice advocate, cultural theorist and founder of Mama Glow, a global maternal health and education platform transforming how birth, healing and care are practiced across communities worldwide. Known for pioneering a model of birth work rooted in Black feminism, spirituality and justice, Latham has shaped a generation of care workers. Together, they reframe sustainability as a living principle: regeneration grounded in lineage, community and the moral intelligence of Black women.What follows is a powerful meditation on care as resistance. Latham names how carceral systems - medicine, media, immigration enforcement  and state violence extract from Black bodies while denying dignity and why refusing the spectacle of Black pain is itself an act of protection. Drawing from Black matriarchy, Afrofuturism and ancestral technologies, she offers a blueprint for building futures that cannot be destroyed because they are encoded, relational and quietly revolutionary. This episode is an invitation to slow down and  build with intention. She unapologetically reminds us to remember that Black women have always set the moral and spiritual standard for what survival, sustainability and freedom truly mean.https://mamaglowfoundation.org/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

This week, Compost, Cotton & Cornrows interrupts our regularly scheduled program. No guest. No interview. No promo assets. Host Dominique Drakeford offers a short grounded  reflection on nervous system care, burnout and the radical necessity of pause as a sustainability practice. In a world saturated with trauma, crisis and constant resistance, this episode reframes rest and re-regulation as political acts of preservation and power - especially for Black women and Black mothers.This is not an escape from the work, it’s maintenance for the mission.Because sustainability must center the care of Black women as well as care as an infrastructure. 🌱Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Kev aka “The Plant Papi”, creator and cultural storyteller known for weaving plant care, mental wellness and radical self-honesty into everyday life. What begins as a conversation about houseplants opens into something deeper: how plant care becomes a mirror. Kev reflects on how tending plants during the pandemic helped him navigate grief, identity shifts, fatherhood and mental health and how he now reads his plants as signals of how he is doing. From moving away from perfection to embracing seasonality, balance and softness, this episode reframes plant care as a living practice of self-check-in.Together, Dominique and Kev explore representation, history and memory … what it means to be a Black man publicly rooted in wellness, curiosity, humor and vulnerability. Kev traces the ancestral and political journeys of plants across Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas while sharing an insightful example from the Haitian Revolution. The conversation moves fluidly between joy and truth, grief and play, reminding us that sustainability is not just about what we grow but how we show up, who we allow ourselves to be and the freedom found in being fully human. Come for the plants. Stay for the wisdom, the laughter and the reminder that healing doesn’t have to look one way.Listen now on all streaming platforms and watch the full conversation on YouTube.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this uncompromising conversation, Dominique Drakeford sits with Maurice Carney, co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, to name what the world has been trained to ignore: the Congo is not a footnote to modern life … It is its foundation. From the transatlantic slave trade to King Leopold II’s genocidal regime, from the assassination of Patrice Lumumba to today’s cobalt-powered green energy transition, Maurice traces how African labor, land and intellect have been systematically extracted to fuel global capitalism, while Congolese lives are rendered disposable. He dismantles the colonial gaze, challenges dominant climate narratives that erase Congo, and makes the case that you cannot talk about sustainability, technology, artificial intelligence or climate justice without reckoning with the Congo Basin - the world’s second-largest rainforest and one of its most critical carbon sinks.But this episode is not only an indictment; it is a declaration of resistance. Maurice introduces the Basandja Coalition and the principle of agro-liberation. It become evident how imperative it is to return to indigenous knowledge, soil, culture and collective ethics as pathways to liberation. He insists on agency over victimhood, naming the organizers, women, farmers and communities who are building power on the frontlines of mines, peatlands and forests. This conversation asks more of us as listeners, consumers and global citizens: to refuse normalization, to understand our complicity and to be found by the side of the Congolese people in the unfinished struggle for a #FreeCongo. A Free Congo is one where Congolese control their land, resources, and future for the benefit of Africa and the world.CCC COMMUNITY - this is a listening responsibility. Tune in, share this episode, and explore how to support Congolese movements at freecongo.org. Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts.https://friendsofthecongo.org/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In Episode 31 of Compost Cotton and Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Ciara Imani May, founder of Rebundle and producer of Reclaimed Beyond the Braid, for a conversation that reframes beauty as a climate and health conversation rooted in agency ownership and truth. What begins as a personal question about what synthetic hair is made of opens into a powerful exploration of sustainability as harmony between our bodies, our communities and the ecosystems that sustain us. Ciara traces her journey from hypothesis to action revealing how curiosity, resourcefulness and community feedback sparked the creation of plant based hair made from banana fiber and why hair has long been left out of mainstream sustainability discourse despite its global environmental and cultural impact.This episode goes deep into the science storytelling and strategy behind building a regenerative supply chain for a nineteen billion dollar industry while centering Black women as inventors, innovators and rightful owners. Ciara breaks down the cultural significance of securing a patent led by Black women alongside the necessity of legal protection in climate innovation and the future of expanding this model across the global banana belt. Together they name what so many avoid saying out loud that products touching our scalps are environmental justice issues that demand clinical testing accountability and imagination. This is a conversation about claiming space and building what has never existed before. This episode  understands that Black led innovation must be integrated as a central climate solution. https://rebundle.co/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this impact interview, Dominique Drakeford sits with Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier, co-directors of The Black School in New Orleans, to explore what it truly means to build a Black-led institution rooted in care, love, and collective imagination. Drawing from the wisdom of bell hooks, Malcolm X, Paulo Freire, and the Black radical tradition, they unpack sustainability not as maintenance of broken systems, but as the commitment to making what is good last for our people, our communities, and the land. From their foundational questions “What do you love about your community” and “What do you want to change about your community” to their belief that Black youth are already experts of their own realities, this conversation reframes education as a communal, creative, and liberatory practiceGrounded as a physical schoolhouse in the Seventh Ward, one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in the country, Shani and Joseph speak candidly about generational trauma, Hurricane Katrina, environmental chaos, and the realities young people face stepping into adulthood at this moment in history. They share how The Black School responds with a holistic, constellational approach that connects land, food, art, economics, spirit and joy, alongside tools like the Black School Process Deck that make Black radical frameworks accessible and actionable. This episode is a powerful meditation on building institutions that do not replicate harmful models, but instead protect Black space, honor joy as resistance and invite community ownership as a pathway to true sustainability and self-determination. https://theblack.school/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Niya Brown Matthews, a self-taught, first-generation farmer and community educator. Niya reframes growing as a practice of awareness and responsibility. The garden becomes a living classroom, teaching us to observe patterns, respect timing and respond instead of control. Sustainability, she explains, is bigger than self. It is legacy, alignment, and community stewardship. When we strip away perfectionism and curated aesthetics, we are left with the essential question: why are we doing this, and can it last? Nature answers when we are present enough to listen.Niya’s journey reflects range and resolve. She speaks of her pivot from a fast-paced corporate life in Atlanta filled with red bottoms, boardrooms and constant motion to building a farm space alongside her husband during the pandemic with the intention to heal, slow down and restore their relationship to food. That choice reshaped their health, clarified their purpose and deepened their responsibility to the community. Growing food is named for what it is: an urgent and necessary currency. One that builds resilience, restores health and strengthens community power. If we pay attention to the land, the body, and the climate, the future gives us aligned instruction. Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Jordan King steps into Compost, Cotton & Cornrows as proof that climate science does not have to be sterile, inaccessible or stripped of culture to be credible. Jamaican-born and trained in Marine Environmental Sciences and Biology, Jordan reframes the Everglades not as a distant wetland, but as a living system under siege by climate change, unchecked development, and disrupted freshwater flow. From flocculent organic matter to the importance and impact of carbon, Jordan translates complex ecological processes into truth you can feel, making it painfully clear how one shift in the system sets off a chain reaction that touches everything downstream including us.But this conversation is not just about science. It is about who gets to be a scientist. This 23 year old with a beautiful nature inspired grill weaves rap, fashion, art and cultural expression into research, rejecting the idea that brilliance must look buttoned-up to be valid. We talk about free graduate education, fieldwork waist-deep in Everglades water and why Gen Zers are hungry to engage with climate work when they can finally see themselves reflected in it. This episode is about advocating for ecosystems, telling the truth about climate systems and using every tool available to reach people where they are. Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Jazmin Duke enters this conversation like a wellness renegade dismantling everything we thought we knew about our bodies, our cravings and the colonial food systems that dictate them. She traces her journey from a painful menstrual cycle to a plant-powered lifestyle rooted in ancestral science, exposing the violent parallels between animal agriculture and slavery and asking a searing question: If our ancestors turned scraps into soul food under captivity, why are we still eating what they were forced to eat - now that we have the freedom and knowledge to evolve? As a longtime vegan, Jazmin breaks down the genius of Black herbal lineage, menstrual sovereignty and the radical truth that women’s wellness is not new, it really is memory. And she does it with unapologetic cultural flair that’s reminding us that Black women have always been the blueprint, always been the botanists, and always been the ones remixing survival into brilliance.But Jazmin doesn’t just remember, she is unapologetically building. In a landscape where the women’s wellness industry is overwhelmingly white and clinically sterile, she conjures Kitty Coo - a luxury women’s wellness brand that refuses to flatten femininity into beige minimalism. Her products feel like ancestral alchemy dipped in neon: vibrant packaging, playful design and her girly-girl aesthetic that is as scientific as it is spiritual, as joyful as it is rebellious. From okra’s hidden legacy as an ancestral aphrodisiac to the microbiome as a blueprint of liberation, Jazmin reveals how pleasure, period health and sexual literacy are political acts and why Black women cannot be erased from an industry they created. This is most certainly a cute conversation about self-care but it’s also a reclamation of knowledge, power and divine intelligence that feels like someone finally turned the lights back on.https://kittycoowellness.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Sherrell Dorsey enters this conversation with the certainty and clarity that sustainability is a return to our original intelligence and is the design lab where climate tech, capital, innovation and narrative control decide who gets to build tomorrow. In this episode she traces the ways climate action becomes transformative when rooted in storytelling, culture and technological fluency. Sherrell breaks down how fashion, beauty and wellness shaped her early understanding of systems and how those nonlinear experiences led her into the climate tech landscape. She explains that sustainability demands a deep reconnection to self and to the earth and insists that we already possess the regenerative solutions we need. The real barrier is not innovation but access and subsequently the power that money brings. Sherrell details the importance of learning how technology moves, who funds it and how narratives create entire worlds that shape our desires, economies and sense of possibility.As the conversation unfolds Sherrell reveals the urgent need for Black communities to unapologetically show up with precision in policy rooms, funding environments and climate negotiations. She examines the emerging universe of green tech investments, the rise of climate funds and the limitations of venture capital for long term climate solutions. Sherrell offers a strategic framework for negotiating community benefit agreements, building institutional power and moving from reaction to proactive civic engagement that’s also rooted in care. She argues that AI and climate technology will determine economic mobility for the next decade and warns that the train has already left the station. This episode calls listeners to build relationships, become fluent in the language of power and step into rooms that were not designed with us in mind. It is a masterclass in understanding sustainability as an ecosystem of storytelling, infrastructure and political strategy.https://www.sherrelldorsey.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, the storm still rages in our collective memory, not just as a natural disaster, but as a state-sanctioned genocide against Black communities in New Orleans. In this powerful conversation, Dominique Drakeford sits down with DAWN RICHARD who is an eclectic singer/songwriter, culture bearer and New Orleans native, to unravel the deeper truths of what Katrina exposed: environmental racism, modern colonization and the ongoing erasure of ancestral knowledge.Together, they discuss how sustainability is an inheritance carried through stories and rituals. It is community survival. From Cancer Alley to cultural preservation, from youth activism to intergenerational power, this episode refuses the sanitized narratives of climate disaster and demands that we center Black voices and the authentic lived experiences in the fight for environmental justice.This is more than remembrance. It’s a call to action. A reminder that the stripping away of our stories is the stripping away of our power. And a declaration that sustainability, at its root, has always been ours.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this vivid and electric episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford is joined by the incomparable Maya Penn — youth climate solutionist, award-winning animator, founder, and unapologetic disruptor shifting culture through creativity and care.Maya opens up about the realities and responsibilities of being a youth activist at the forefront of climate justice — carving space in a movement that often tokenizes youth while demanding labor without systemic support. With nearly two decades of experience (yes, starting at age 8), Maya reflects on how her early curiosity became a catalyst for global advocacy — and why today’s youth activism must go beyond awareness to radically rebuild systems from the root.They dive deep into the need to center climate justice — not as a trend, but as the core framework for collective liberation — reminding us that climate is not a siloed issue, it’s the multiplying force behind everything we care about.Maya also shares her passion for animation as activism, lifting the veil on her groundbreaking film ASALI: Power of the Pollinators — a visually lush, emotionally charged environmental short she wrote, directed, and animated, featuring a powerhouse cast (Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis, and more). Through Upendo Productions, Maya is proving that art, especially from the margins, can shift the world.Tune in for a journey into:🌀 The growing pains and power of Gen Z climate leadership🌺 ASALI: Power of the Pollinators and animation as climate education🛑 How environmental injustice shows up community and conversation📣 Why we must center climate justice — not just “climate change”🖤 Storytelling, cultural preservation, and the spiritual nature of sustainabilityThis episode is a love letter to young visionaries — and a reminder that the revolution will be illustrated.https://mayasideas.com/https://www.asali.movie/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What happens when you infuse radical transparency, ancestral ingredients, and community-rooted ethics into the beauty game? You get HanaHana Beauty—and a founder like Abena Boamah-Acheampong who's shaking the table with intention. In this dynamic episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford dives deep with Abena to explore the spiritual, political, and deeply personal layers of building a brand that refuses to compromise.From sourcing shea butter directly from cooperatives in Ghana and paying double the asking price, to redefining what it means to sustain—not just the earth, but the people behind the product—Abena doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks it with grace and grit. This isn’t your average clean beauty convo. It’s a powerful meditation on ethical sourcing, supply chain storytelling, and dismantling beauty industry norms with the audacity to be real.They unpack:✨ The sacred power of simplicity in Black body care✨ Why marketing must reflect the diversity of Blackness✨ The tension between financial growth and founder sustainability✨ Healing through community, faith, and the beauty rituals of our elders✨ Unlearning overconsumption and resisting the Amazonification of our needsIf you’ve ever felt the pull to align your beauty practice with your values—or you’re a founder striving to do business differently—this episode is your balm and your blueprint.hanahanabeauty.com Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What does it take to plant new roots on foreign soil—literally? In this global episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford speaks with Franklyn Hutchinson, a Trinidadian grape farmer living in Yamanashi, Japan. Without formal training, Franklyn carved his way into one of the world’s most meticulous agricultural markets—learning from local elders, YouTube, and an unwavering commitment to self-sufficiency.Together, they explore the science, sweat, and spirit behind Japanese grape cultivation, the myth that growing food is only for the poor, and how small-scale community gardening can spark major shifts in food justice. Franklyn reminds us that sustainability isn’t just about solar panels and policy—it’s about how we manage what we already have. Soil. Skill. Space. Intention.From makeshift trellises to dreams of bringing high-quality grapes back to Trinidad, this episode is a testament to ancestral grit, diasporic determination, and the power of growing for yourself, your people, and your future.Tap in if you're ready to:Rethink sustainability beyond trendGet inspired to grow your own food (yes, even in a container!)Hear a rare story of Caribbean diasporic farming in East AsiaHonor farming as both science and sacred artKey gems from Franklyn:“It’s not good to turn down an opportunity to learn something. It could help you later in life.”“Some people think only poor people grow food. But that thinking is why food so damn expensive.”“Even if it’s just 1% of what you eat—grow something. That’s sustainability.”@rosy_grapes-yamanashiCompost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What if sustainability wasn’t about systems—but about freedom? About waking up and choosing rest, joy, or stillness—because you can?In this healing-rich episode, Dominique Drakeford sits down with Cory Elliott, the heart and visionary behind The Black Neighborhood—a powerful grassroots ecosystem centering Black joy, safety, nourishment, and liberation. Together, they unravel a definition of sustainability most don’t dare to imagine: a life with options.“Being sustainable means having the option to say, ‘Today I’m going to rest. Today I’m going to make that smoothie I love. Today I get to choose.”From free farmers markets and college readiness programs to mental health hikes that have literally saved lives, The Black Neighborhood isn’t about disruption for disruption’s sake—it’s about care as a counter-force. Movement as medicine. Gathering as a revolutionary act.“The point of our hikes isn’t to be a disruption. It’s to take care of ourselves. And that self-care? That becomes the disruption.”Cory shares raw, soul-deep reflections on what it means to build a world where Black people can be seen, safe, and sovereign.“Waking up every day and still being Black is one of the biggest revolutionary acts there are, period.”This episode is a balm and a blueprint. For those of us who know that sustainability has to be more than solar panels and zero-waste jars—it has to be about power, peace, and possibility. It has to be about us.https://www.theblackneighborhood.org/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What happens when a Black woman dares to silence the noise, leave behind the American Dream, and root herself in the wild unknown? In this soul-stirring episode, Naomi Grevemberg unpacks her decade-long nomadic journey—from the depths of burnout and depression to the liberating joy of living simply, intentionally, and on her own terms.We explore what it means to align with your values, reclaim the power of choice, and embrace the discomfort of uncertainty. Naomi shares the truth behind her desert homestead, the healing she’s found in nature, and the ongoing, sacred work of slowing down in a world that demands we rush. This is a conversation about creative resilience, inner sustainability, and the radical act of living fully—especially as a Black woman carving her own path.If you’ve ever felt like there had to be more to life—this one’s for you.https://noamigrevemberg.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

***Since this recording, the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana—the heart of the documentary’s focus—has tragically burned down. In the wake of this devastation, the local community, in partnership with dedicated organizations, is actively working to rebuild and restore this vital cultural and economic hub. **** What if your donated trousers did more harm than good?In this compelling episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, host Dominique Drakeford sits down with Norwegian and Ghanian sustainable fashion advocate and filmmaker Frida Lidbom to dismantle the myth of the “charitable” secondhand clothing industry. Through the lens of her groundbreaking documentary Threads of Resilience, Frida exposes waste colonialism—where discarded Western goods flood Global South communities, not just with fabric, but with entire cultural systems of consumerism and economic dependency.Together, they unpack the deep colonial roots of textile waste, the erasure of traditional crafts, and the ways Western narratives often rob local communities of their agency, brilliance, and innovation. From local upcycling innovators, to the 30,000 workers powering Accra’s secondhand markets, this conversation re-centers the resilience and knowledge of the very communities most impacted.Whether you're in fashion, philanthropy, or just questioning your next thrift haul, this episode is a mirror, a magnifying glass, and a movement.Key Takeaways:Sustainability means reconnecting with nature and ancestral knowledgeWaste colonialism extends far beyond fashionTraditional artisans are cultural vanguards, not relicsSecondhand markets affect whole economies, not just wardrobesResilience lives in the Global South—fund it, don’t fetishize itTune in for an unflinching critique of fashion’s global power imbalances—and a call to action to uplift local brilliance, rethink “donation,” and support ethical, community-rooted fashion movements.Threads of Resilience documentary Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

This episode is for the freedom dreamers, the soil stewards, and the truth-tellers. Brea Baker—author of Rooted—joins us to crack open the spiritual wound of stolen land, unpack the real meaning of sustainability, and call in the ancestral wisdom that whitewashed greenwashing keeps trying to silence.We talk reparations—not the watered-down version, but the globally recognized, historically backed international law kind. Brea drops facts that had the power go out mid-recording (coincidence? The ops said no). From eco-therapy to generational wealth, we explore why Black folks deserve more than survival—we deserve leisure, legacy, and land to call our own.If you’ve ever questioned why you feel disconnected from nature, or been told that sustainability doesn’t include your grandma’s backyard remedies or your uncle’s fishing trips, this one’s for you. This episode is a call to reclaim joy, demand justice, and decolonize what we "think" we deserve.Quotes that will stay with you:“A big part of reparations is telling the truth.”“We are breathing toxic air while they sip clean water by the lake.”“We need to stop asking for seats at their table and start leading the agenda.”Tap in to remember: liberation lives in the land, and our roots run deep. https://www.breabaker.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this stitch-and-resist episode, Dominique Drakeford sits down with textile truth-teller and cultural strategist Hekima Hapa—founder of Black Girls Sew—to talk craft, confidence, and community. What started as a mission to sew visibility into a whitewashed industry has become a transformative nonprofit that’s training a new generation of fly, fearless sustainable fashion leaders before they even hit double digits.From upcycled sweatshirts turned self-expression to 10-year-olds mastering sergers like seasoned pros, this conversation threads together the deep legacy of sewing as cultural inheritance, the power of nontraditional education, and how making clothes can literally help remake lives. Hekima reminds us that sustainability isn't a trend—it’s how Black folks have always lived: resourceful, rooted, and radically creative.Tune in for a dialogue that cuts through the noise and honors the joy, grit, and generational genius of young Black girls learning to stitch their own futures—one dart, one zipper, one fierce garment at a time.🧵 “Culturally, we’re naturally sustainable.”🪡 “Art replaced the anger. Sewing saved me.”👧🏾 “I couldn’t find images of Black girls sewing. So I created them.”Black Girls Sew is more than a program—it’s a blueprint. Let’s talk legacy. https://blackgirlssew.bigcartel.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Let’s be real—your “woke” t-shirt might be screaming liberation, but let’s take it a step further… Is it organically grown, ginned, spun, woven, cut, and sewn by Black hands that's economically building Black global supply chains?In this blistering and beautiful convo, Dominique Drakeford links arms with Seed2Shirt founder Tameka Peoples to expose the truth behind the cotton industry—and why Black folks must reclaim every thread of it. From deep ancestral ties to cotton that built empires to the glaring wealth gap between Black and white farmers, Tameka breaks down why we can’t talk sustainability without talking sovereignty.Seed2Shirt is the first Black woman-owned, vertically integrated apparel manufacturing and print-on-demand company in the U.S.—ethically and sustainably produced by Black American and African cotton farmers.This episode is a masterclass in not becoming what the system has been to us. Tameka takes us from Southern U.S. fields to African textile mills, revealing how building non-extractive, global, Black-centered ecosystems isn’t just a dream—it’s LITERALLY happening.If we’re serious about liberation, we need more than slogans. We need supply chains that love us back.https://seed2shirt.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What does it look like to build a thriving, profitable, and unapologetically Black owned grocery store from scratch—rooted in the soil, powered by the people, and driven by deep love for community? In this episode, Dominique Drakeford links up with the fearless Ivy Walls: a married queer Black woman, a visionary farmer, and co-founder of Fresh Houwse Grocery—Houston’s only Black farmer-owned, community-operated grocery store that’s redefining what nourishment and neighborhood really means.Ivy breaks down the raw truth about the cost of doing this work—from shady urban ag tax laws that punish growers, to the dangerous normalization of doing labor for free in the name of community. She boldly reframes sustainability as financial responsibility and shows us how creating beauty and abundance in Black spaces is of course positive vibes —but more importantly it’s about economic strategy, ownership, and refusing to be exploited. But the magic doesn’t stop at the produce aisle. Ivy and her co-founder Jeremy—a married Black man leading with intention and care—showcase a powerful model of gender-balanced, queer-affirming leadership that uplifts two strong families, side by side, united by purpose. They’re breaking the mold of what Black agricultural business looks like, and doing it with joy, mobility (food trucks + prep kitchens!), equitably POURING into the community and a whole lotta love. In this episode, we unpack:Fresh Houwse Grocery as a radical model of community sovereigntyIvy’s fight for urban ag policy reform at the city, county, and state levelsWhy shade poverty is an overlooked environmental justice issueHer non-negotiable stance on financial security: “Profitability is sustainability”Challenging the idea that Black women should give everything for freeThe power of collaborative, cross-family Black leadership rooted in queer joy, respect, and shared visionHow Ivy and Jeremy are cultivating a space where people don’t just shop—they feel seen, heard, and lovedThis episode is a masterclass in vision, strategy, and sacred resistance. Whether you're on the land, in the city, or building your own lane—this one will light a fire under you.https://www.ivyleaffarms.com/https://www.blackfarmerbox.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this vibrant episode, fashion stylist and creative force Brownie Brown unpacks her evolution from a fashion-obsessed kid in Nigeria to a sustainability-driven style maven in New York. We talk fast fashion, thrifting gems, and how True Cost documentary flipped her worldview. Brownie dives deep into how cultural roots, personal style, and self-work fuel her mission to help others reimagine their wardrobes. From architectural inspiration to wardrobe healing, this convo is a whole fit check for your soul and the planet.https://www.highfashionthrift.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In honor of Black Maternal Health Week, we’re going deep into the sacred, radical, and healing power of Black birth with none other than Licensed and Certified Professional Midwife, Kiki Jordan.Kiki’s journey started with her own homebirth — and what it sparked was more than curiosity... it was a calling. Through her 20+ years of midwifery care, she’s built a wellness ecosystem rooted in ancestral wisdom, community care, and the unapologetic rejection of colonial, profit-driven healthcare systems.In this episode, Kiki drops truth about what it means to center Black birthing folks in holistic, financially accessible midwifery care — and she introduces us to her revolutionary vision: BIRTHLAND. Imagine Oakland’s first full-spectrum birthing center and wellness sanctuary — a space for safe pre- and postnatal care, emotional and spiritual healing, and cooperative, community-based clinical support. This isn’t just a dream. It’s a blueprint. Oakland has been craving this care — and now, the vision is taking root.We discuss how the future of Black birth is rooted in healing, autonomy, and thriving outside the trauma-inducing grip of the medical industrial complex.We get into the sacredness of trust between midwife and birthing person. We explore the power of storytelling to reshape what’s possible. And we name the truth: birth is not inherently a crisis — it’s spirit work.This is for the ancestors and the babies. For the mamas and midwives. For every Black woman ready to reclaim her power.Let’s get into it.https://www.birthlandmidwifery.com/https://www.bwellfund.org/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode, we dig into the reclamation of cotton with Julius Tillery, a fifth-generation Black cotton farmer and unapologetic advocate for Black agricultural futures. Based in North Carolina, Julius shares how cotton isn’t just a trauma drenched crop — it’s a calling rooted in his linage. A healing practice. A cultural archive.We explore the beauty and burden of cotton farming, the intergenerational strength that grounds his work, and how his land serves as a sanctuary for rest, resistance, and rural pride. Julius speaks on the financial realities of Black farmers, and how hip-hop has grounded his work in farming as both a lifestyle and a liberation tool.With a specialty in using cotton in floral design and home décor, Julius is flipping the script on cotton’s narrative — and reminding us that the soil holds stories worth telling.https://www.blackcotton.us/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

We love a fresh set of braids—but at what cost? Science has spoken: synthetic hair is harming Black bodies and the planet, and Dr. Raven Baxter is here to break it all the way down. In this episode, we unravel the tangled intersection of science, culture, and sustainability to confront the hard truths: How do we divest from harmful beauty practices while honoring our history? What does it mean to take up space in both science and sustainability? And most importantly, how do we build a legacy that protects our future?From the unsung Black scientists who fought to expose the toxic reality of synthetic hair to the deeper connections between beauty, wellness, and self-worth—this conversation is a wake-up call wrapped in love. Dr. Baxter keeps it real on why it’s time for the Black community to release what doesn’t serve us—from stress to synthetic braiding hair—and reclaim rituals that uplift both our bodies and our legacy.With a fierce blend of science, culture, and sustainability, we’re peeling back the layers of chemical warfare hidden in our beauty routines and taking bold steps toward collective healing. It’s time to rewrite the narrative and reimagine Black culture—because our well-being is worth far more than a flawless install.https://thesciencemaven.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Jamaica is more than sun-soaked beaches and reggae rhythms—it’s a frontline battleground where capitalism, colonialism, and climate injustice collide. Educator and climate justice activist Dahvia Hylton unpacks the hard truths about how tourism, bauxite mining, and corporate greed are gutting the island’s environmental and infrastructural integrity. From locals being locked out of their own beaches to the relentless grip of American socio-political influence, Dahvia breaks down the manufactured systems keeping Jamaicans in survival mode—an all-too-familiar reality for Black communities worldwide.With deep ancestral wisdom of land stewardship, Jamaica should be a climate-resilient haven, yet the odds are stacked. Dahvia speaks candidly on the uphill battle of sustainability, the hypocrisy of environmental policies, and the necessity of radical community-driven solutions. This is a raw and urgent reckoning with the forces threatening Jamaica’s future—and a powerful reminder that the fight for climate justice is a fight for liberation.https://ourfootprintja.org/@ourfootprintja@one_of_the_planeteershttps://environmentallyspeaking.buzzsprout.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Wanjiku Angela isn’t just designing clothes—she’s dismantling barriers. As the founder of Hisi Studio, a game-changing Kenyan fashion brand, she’s reimagining what truly inclusive and sustainable design looks like. This conversation isn’t just about fashion—it’s about revolution.Wanjiku breaks down how she’s weaving tactile elements, braille, research, and 3D printing into her creations, ensuring that visually impaired individuals aren’t just accommodated but centered. She doesn’t hold back on the hard truths either—calling out the systemic challenges in funding, advocacy, and the deep-rooted stigmas that have long erased disabled voices from Africa’s creative industries.This episode is a wake-up call for the sustainability movement: True circularity isn’t just about materials—it’s about people. Hissi Studio is proving that innovation, disability inclusion, and cultural regeneration aren’t extras—they’re essential. The future of fashion must be adaptive, radically inclusive, and socially conscious at its core. Wanjiku is already planting the seeds—are we ready to grow with her?@hisi_studioCompost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode, Chelsea Murphy takes us on a journey through her deep-rooted love for the outdoors and how sustainability shapes her relationship with nature—whether it's in her backyard or deep in the backcountry. She shares heartfelt stories about helping her parents reconnect with nature, navigating the historical trauma that often lingers for Black folks in outdoor spaces. It's a powerful reminder that healing can happen under open skies.But Chelsea isn’t just out here for herself. She and her partner are raising three little nature lovers, instilling an intergenerational bond with the earth—because loving the land is a legacy. From tackling generational gaps in outdoor engagement to unpacking the power of storytelling and community, Chelsea keeps it real about what it means to foster a love for the outdoors, especially within Black families.Oh, and postpartum healing? Nature’s got that too. Chelsea gets personal about how the outdoors became a space for her own restoration and reflection.Whether you’re surrounded by concrete or pine trees, Chelsea’s message is clear: nature is for you. She’s here to inspire her global online community (and you!) to find their own path to the outdoors—because the earth is calling, and it’s time to answer.https://shecolorsnature.com/@she_colorsnatureHeads up: Audio is a bit muffled, but the storytelling is pure gold.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What if birth work and sustainability were two sides of the same powerful coin? In this beautifully bold episode, Nicole JeanBaptiste (co-founder of Sésé, Birthing Freedom) takes us deep into the heart of holistic birth work, community health, and the radical act of care. From the frontline of activism to the sacred spaces of home births, she shares why sustainability isn’t just about the environment—it’s about creating an ecosystem where Black families, birth workers, and traditions thrive.We talk home births as a viable, informed choice for low-risk parents, the importance of cultural rituals in birthing spaces (yes, dancing to Soca is absolutely part of the process), and the overlooked reality that birth workers need care, too. Through personal stories of triumph and challenge, Nicole reminds us that wellness is a communal act—one that demands we nurture those who nurture us.HEADS UP: A tech glitch clipped 10 minutes of our convo, but trust—this episode is still packed with love, wisdom, and unapologetic truth. Tap in and let’s reimagine what sustainable birth work really looks like and why it’s especially important to support Black midwives, doulas and prenatal specialists.https://www.sesebirthingfreedom.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Akintunde Ahmad is not just a designer—he’s a disruptor, a political poet, and a fourth-generation Oakland native with revolution in his DNA. As the founder of Ade Dehye, his work isn’t just about fashion—it’s about radically ethical design.Rooted in Oakland’s legacy of political defiance and sartorial swagger, Akintunde bridges continents, weaving West Africa’s ancestral craftsmanship with a future of fashion that prioritizes sustainability, transparency, and decolonization. In this very real conversation, he lays bare the hard truths: how the global fashion industry has long profited from African labor while shutting out Black designers, and why it’s imperative for folks to build ethical, circular fashion systems that equitably center - not exploit - the continent.But Akintunde doesn’t just talk the talk. He’s about the receipts—ensuring that the very artisans and communities most impacted by climate injustices are creatively and economically elevated. He calls on Black American creatives, visionaries, and entrepreneurs to forge real partnerships with African textile experts while dismantling the racialized capitalist barriers that keep Black designers locked out and the global diaspora disconnected. (Hello F.U.B.U) This isn’t just about clothes—it’s about global community, cultural preservation, and a revolution in how we communicate, connect and create.Tap In! https://adedehye.com/https://www.akintundeahmad.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Picture this: You’ve got three young kids in Oakland, you're navigating a divorce, you're back in school—oh, and you're also launching a national movement. Sound impossible? Not for Rue Mapp as  the unstoppable force behind OUTDOOR AFRO, Rue didn’t just build an organization; she sparked a Renaissance that’s reconnecting Black communities with the great outdoors.In this episode, we unpack the often untold history of Black people’s relationship with the land—one of refuge, resilience, and connection. We also tackle the modern barriers that persist and why true sustainability begins with taking care of yourself. Rue gets real about creating welcoming outdoor spaces, using technology as a bridge, and harnessing the power of community through experiences. Plus, we dive into her stunning coffee table book, Nature Swagger—a love letter to the intergenerational joy of Black folks thriving in the outdoors. But this conversation goes beyond hiking or camping. It’s about reclaiming space, rewriting narratives, and remembering that we are nature.So lace up those boots (or just step outside your front door) and tap into what sustains you—because this episode is all about finding your way back to what’s always been yours. https://outdoorafro.orgCompost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What happens when the world’s top-selling Black woman nature photographer steps behind the lens? SUBLIMENESS! In this episode, we venture into the breathtaking world of Wild Gina, an intimate landscape photographer whose work isn’t just art—it’s a time capsule for the planet.Gina takes us on a tour on how she got into nature photography, the deeply rooted ancestral connections guiding her work, and the real talk on being a Black woman in a space that too often overlooks voices like hers. We explore one of her powerful mutual aid initiatives, 'Gift a Black Person a Print,' a visionary program where white folks (often allies) sponsor artwork for Black individuals, fostering connection, representation, and community through art.From lush forests to the raw beauty of fallow lands, we’re sharing a perspective on sustainability from the lens of Black artistry —rooted in ancestral wisdom, lived experience, and the images that literally keeps our world’s story alive. This isn’t just photography—it’s an reawakening of how we see nature, history, and ourselves.Brace yourself—once you see the world through Gina’s lens, there’s no going back. https://www.wildgina.com/Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Experience a beautiful ride into the world of sustainable RE-education with Mahdiyyah—aka the Fabric Alchemist—who’s here to prove that fabric upcycling is more than just a trend; it’s a catalyst for revolutionizing education! In this electric conversation, Mahdiyyah unravels her journey through the overwhelmingly white-dominated environmental scene, where she learned that “sustainability” was just another word for resourcefulness that Black folks BEEN adopting. With grit, warmth and heart, she shows us how inter-generational knowledge sharing (especially in garden classrooms) is the OG blueprint for sustainability.But wait—there’s more! She dives deep into the parallels between the fashion world and the food apartheid system (yep, we’re going there) to unpack how Black and brown communities are being boxed out of accessing natural materials, all thanks to discriminatory urban planning.And Mahdiyyah’s not just talking the talk—her groundbreaking research and relentless studies are connecting the dots, exposing the inequalities, and building a vibrant ecosystem of badass non-traditional educators and skill-sharers. This is more than a conversation; it’s a call to action wrapped in fierce creativity and unapologetic truth. Don’t sleep on this one!Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this episode, Nia Thomas enlightens us on shaking up the luxury fashion game—because, let’s be honest, the industry is drowning in poorly made fast fashion nonsense. As the mastermind behind her eponymous brand, Nia shares her journey from self-doubt to building a sustainable, high-end fashion house rooted in intention, integrity, and undeniable Black beauty. She and Dominique Drakeford dive into what it really takes to build and run an ethically operated independent brand with soul—the highs, the headaches, and everything in between. In an industry often driven by ego, they explore the power of collaboration as she manifests her dream of creating a full-fledged luxury house, the sting (and flattery?) of imitation, and why true sustainability is all about integrity, self-care, craftsmanship and creativity. Tune in for a joyous convo that’s both life affirming and insightful!"So it was really important for me to work with artisans that I handpicked it and hand selected myself, who've been working on this weaving, knitting, crocheting, sewing techniques for multiple generations within their families. Because I knew that if the quality wasn't there, I didn't want to have the brand. It's like, WHAT'S THE POINT OF MAKING MORE POORLY MADE CLOTHING. THE WORLD HAS ENOUGH OF THAT." " I think if you can't practice that intentionality in your own life, how are you supposed to bring that into your business?""With the homogenization of fashion, we're just so used to the same basic concepts of clothes and marketing. People want fashion to be able to dream."Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

DISCLAIMER - this episode features stories connected to self transitioning.EPISODE 1:  Get ready for a lively and unapologetically real chat with Dr. Tiara Moore—a powerhouse marine ecologist and the no-nonsense founder of Black in Marine Science. With a mix of sass and science, Dr. Moore spills the tea on her journey, from diving into the deep blue to making waves for Black scientists in a field that desperately needs shaking up. She doesn’t hold back as she shares the challenges of breaking barriers, the importance of community, and why sustainability requires resources. The conversation also highlights the intense impact of 2020 and how it sparked an advocacy movement for Black marine scientists. Dr. Moore also serves up wisdom on joy-centered leadership (because, let’s face it, we could all use more joy) - a blueprint for saving community, culture and climate. This conversation is equal parts inspiring, hilarious, and a masterclass in staying authentic. Buckle up! "Imagine the scientists who are supposed to be saving the Black community, if you will, from climate change, sea level rise and nutrient pollution are about to no longer be in this world because white people are bullying them at work. Like, I can't even do my job of helping my community out with a sea-level rise because I'm in the bathroom crying. No, fuck that. No, we're not gonna do that anymore!" - Dr. Tiara MooreCompost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

Hello, my name is Dominique Drakeford and welcome to Compost, Cotton & Cornrows!In this exciting trailer episode, we give you a sneak peek into what Compost, Cotton and Cornrows is all about. Here’s what you can expect:This space is where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling across a myriad of industries and interests including agriculture, fashion, art, maternal health, science, education, policy, marketing, wellness community building and so much more!I’m you’re host - Dominique Draekford -  a mother of 2, non-traditional environmental justice educator, published writer, independent researcher, content creator and creative storyteller that has been a leader in reimagining sustainability and social justice for the past 15+ years.This podcast is perfect for all audiences to learn and engage with a wide range of topics rooted in cultural sustainability and diving into environmental, social and ecological regenerative practices. Whether you’re here to learn, find new people to connect with or catch a vibe - you’re in the right place! Follow to join us on this journey, and don’t forget to share this trailer with your friends who are interested in the expansive and very nuanced conversations around sustainability. 📩 Stay ConnectedFollow us on social media: @Compost_Cotton_Cornrows💬 We’d Love to Hear from You!Leave us a review or drop a comment about what you’re most excited to hear on the show.Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows