Episode 8: Ian Solomon-Kawall. Biodiversity, Creativity and Safe Space in Urban Settings
Hello, my love! And welcome to episode 8 of Prompted by Nature - episode 8, can you believe it!
So, this week, I’m sharing with you the conversation I had with Ian Solomon-Kawal, co-founder of the May Project Garden back in May.
Also known as KMT, Ian has over 20 years of leading positive social change and raising awareness for a multitude of social issues through the powerful words and rhythms of Hip Hop music and a non-exhaustive passion for the environment and conservation.
With reverence to his ancestral homeland, he chose the name KMT, an abbreviation for Kemit, now known as Egypt, to indicate the progressive nature of his indigenous ancestors. His birthplace of South London provides much of the inspiration that galvanises his vision for an inclusive and creative future within a city landscape.
KMT combines his love for music and love for nature; grounded in a deep respect for the beauty and abundance of Pachamama (Mother Earth), issues of global food security and local food growing systems, to entertain and educate. Examples weave together to form the rich tapestry that is the community-led food growing space May Project Gardens, which he designed using permaculture principles. Here he mentors young people, nurturing ideas and fuelling passions through music and a connection to the environment, through a 6 month leadership programme, Hip Hop Gardens.
As an artist/MC KMT has a 12 year history of live performances, tours, festivals, tv and radio appearances and continues to command audiences of all sizes with his infectious energy, knowledge and skill set; engaging, inspiring and motivating others to empower their futures independently.
It was hard to whittle down to just a few bullet points everything we covered in this varied and wide-ranging conversation, but some of the topics we discussed were:
His background and what led him to create the project
His desire to create safe space and the importance of safe space in encouraging creativity, confidence and trust in the young people with whom he works
The impact of accessible green spaces on mental health, especially in urban settings
Nature as art
The importance of making mistakes
Biodiversity and celebrating difference
Looking inwards to create change
Sustainability and environmental development as being central to political decisions
Learning cultural assumptions and why it’s crucial to observe first, ask questions and then help
Creativity as an internal practice and ‘doing the work to make the difference’
The need for councils to invest in projects such as MPG
His metaphor of trauma as compost and the power of listening
It really was an honour to speak to Ian, who serves a community in an area with which I worked as a teacher for a long time and many of his frustrations at the education system in particular echoed my own both during my time teaching in South London and now as I watch my own children move through the system (albeit the very early years). The work that Ian and the whole team at MPG does is of vital importance to our young people and I really enjoyed hearing about his commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and how he has created a safe space, something I speak of a lot, for the young people he works with to express themselves creatively and to enjoy and learn about nature, permaculture and biodiversity in an urban setting.
If you would like to find out more about MPG and their work, or to donate to them as I did - it’s really simple and you get a nice than you note from the team after, you can find them at www.mayproject.org where there are also links to their shop to purchase tracks and t-shirts, and what you can do to help them grow. To find out more about Ian and his creative work, garden workshops and opportunities to hire him as a speaker, you can go to www.3kmt.co.uk
If you’d like to get in touch with me, as always, my website is www.promptedbynature.co.uk or you can find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature And if you’d like to leave a 5-star review wherever you’re listen to this, or share it with your friends in real life, that would be an amazing way to support all of the people behind the voices on this podcast.
Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after!
