9th Street Community Seed Project, 2020-ongoing
Illustrations and font by Laurie Olinder
Much of the mythology of the community gardens in and around the East Village and the Lower East Side is that they were started by individuals throwing “seed bombs” over the fences of vacant lots. While the history is more complicated than this, involving sustained and intentional labor, struggles for power, loss, and collaboration, the seed is an enduring symbol of possibility. Collecting and saving seeds from some of the most prolific self-seeding plants shares the abundance that exists at 9th Street. This effort encourages replication of a specific ecology as cultural preservation and living monument while celebrating collective work in service of creating and sustaining beauty, habitat, and protected places.