Still Life
In 2017, I began to refine my calling, from “architecture and social justice” to real estate activism, housing justice, land sovereignty, drop-in centers, and third spaces. I began self-directed research and conversations with individuals and organizations practicing in the field.
In 2020, I named this project “Still Life Extension”, in loving reference to my best friend Katherine Hreib’s “Still Life Farm” project at the time. Manifesting a near-future land(back) project with enough escape velocity to catapult out of the renter class into an exurban homestead, where the site of life is the site of work. Dodging the Whiteness, Escape, and reproduced settler-colonial harm of intentional communities, communes, eco-villages. Inspirations at the time included the Strange Foundation and Activation Residency, and the book “Radical Suburbs”. I wrote “Love Letter to Noncompliance” (Avery Shorts) and House of Commons (PIN-UP Magazine), which explored underground approaches to spatial justice and alternative models of property ownership.
In 2021, I commissioned a wider database of case studies (see Are.na - Still Life Extension, thanks for your help Alex), and met regularly with Manifesting Mutuals (a conversation club exploring emergent models of governance, technology, and land), and Jessa Carta (whose “LAND LAND” project was deeply kindred). That year, I moved away from South Carolina after two years, and became nomadic in order to test my research in the field, primarily in the Mohawk Valley of New York.
In 2022, I presented “Cooperative Land Projects” with Manifesting Mutuals for Woodbine’s Building Solidarities un-conference in Ridgewood. I made a site visit to Common Place Land Trust, opened conversations with the Kanatsiohareke community and Sustainable Economies Law Center around the legal apparatus of landback, and hosted free DJ and electronic music youth workshops in Upstate New York and my hometown in Washington State. I taught a seminar at Kent State University titled “Noncompliance: Activist Design Approaches”, which advanced this research. I also began a slow return to Hawai’i Island (after 3 years away), suspecting I would find more reciprocity for this work there.
In 2023, myself and three friends formed a group called Mudhole, dedicating several meetings and two site visits to exploring the prospect of developing a housing cooperative in the foothills of the Catskills. I also published “9 Profiles: Real Estate Activists”, a condensed version of my findings over the years.
In 2024, after two years of intentional visits to Hawai’i grounded in volunteering, teaching, and community-building, I found the invitation, permission, and enthusiasm I had been looking for, rooted in local movements of aloha ʻāina, Hawaiian sovereignty, and housing justice. From 2024-2026, I focused on getting educated on local issues (see Are.na) and building community. The former consists of creating an ‘ĀINA BACK INDEX that presents 1) A case for ʻāina back, 2) Four models for doing so, and 3) Case studies of projects that have successfully reclaimed land using these models. I am slowly sharing this research with individuals who can use it as a tool to advance this movement. The latter consists of building pilina (relationships) with organizations working to get kānaka (people) back on ʻāina (land). This might look like: talking story, shoveling lepo, clearing invasive species, planting kūpuna crops, historical research, site planning. A few organizations that I’ve connected with include: Kahaluʻu Kūāhewa, ʻāinaVIS, Māla Kaluʻulu, Pu'uhonua o Honalo, Misty Mountain Homestead, HALE o Hawai'i, Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, Nāpuʻu Conservation Project, Hawai’i Islands Land Trust.
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
― Lilla Watson
Hawai’i Images:
Pu’uhonua o Honalo, East Maui Land Restoration, Pu'uhonua O Waimanalo, MAHA, Kanaka Rangers at Mauna Kea, Keeaumoku Kapu
U.S Images:
Crip Camp, Strange Foundation, Azule (NC), Activation Residency, Arcosanti, Mad Duck Pond, POWRPLNT
