the chaos & the compost
The accelerating breakdown of environmental, social, economic and political systems makes it clear:
our relationship with nature
- and with one other -
is profoundly out of balance.
In order to live into our rightful relationship with all of life
we must compost..
our dominant story
of human separation
and superiority
over the rest of life
The Immense Possibility
People around the globe are yearning for a reciprocal relationship with a thriving planet.
It's not enough to feel it in our bones. We must come together in culture to live the world we want into being.
Radical Re-imagination
After centuries of collective amnesia, we must reclaim provocative language, stories, music, art and dance to celebrate our true kinship with the living world.
Without these artistic expressions we lose the shared language needed not only to connect—but to organize, imagine and create a regenerative future together.
The Power of Story
Magnetic stories compel us to change. Stories told and retold become the cultural narrative that shapes our values, behaviors and our individual and collective decisions.
Art as Activism
Social science reveals that humans are driven by emotions - not logic or reason. Art is the language of emotion and bypasses defenses, breaks barriers, and touches hearts in ways that facts do not.
Culture as a Catalyst
Culture in the fabric that weaves us together. It binds us or breaks us. We must infuse the threads of our efforts through culture in order to create lasting and transformative change.
living in kinship
Our Work
Kinship is an open-source, multicultural Hearth. As a Hearth, we convene individuals and organizations to co-create life-centered stories and creative expressions of living in kinship.
These works of artivism (art as activism) are infused through their respective local communities and cultures around the world inspiring a remembrance and reconnection with the web of life.
“What if we get this right?”
-Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Our Programs
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The Nature Culture Fellowship
The Nature Culture Fellowship (NCF) brings together 65 Fellows from 50 countries to explore the power of culture to drive systemic change. Through a 10-week learning journey and applied community projects, Fellows engage with nature, art, and story to reconnect with the web of life.
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Hearth Gatherings
Hearth Gatherings convene individuals and organizations working on social change rooted in culture change to join in our shared work of transforming the story of our relationship with life. Over the course of the Hearth Gathering, we explore how to co-create and amplify cultural narratives that honor interdependence with the natural world.
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Artist Hub
Kinship is engaging an inaugural cohort of 10–12 artists from around the world to interpret and express the power of kinship across diverse media. Through the Hearth Gatherings, Fellowships, and other projects, these artists will be invited to collaborate around cross-cultural narratives.
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Dynamic Research
Our Global Landscape Review and Global Literature Review will amplify new science and deepening perspectives on the interconnectedness of life. At the same time, we are tracking, sharing and elevating recognition of story and art as vital drivers of change. This evolving body of research will be shared across our network and through select social media platforms.
an example of
The Transformative Power of Story
“When I was about five years old, my sisters and I spent the weekend with our Aztecan grandmother. She got us up early one day, the sun was just about to rise, and she had us stand out in silence in her garden.
She told us we were to be quiet for five minutes every hour, and just return to the sunflowers, be with the sunflowers. And as we did that, every hour, in silence, we realized that we were turning the same way the sunflowers were, turning closer and closer following the sun.
I don’t have a lot of words for what happened, but I do know that at a deep level, the lessons my grandmother was teaching me were about how from nature I can learn. And that in that learning, I realized I am part of nature.
After dinner, we went back outside, we held hands and walked - it was really dark, there was no moon - and stood by the garden. We were quiet for a little bit and finally I said, “What are we doing? It’s so dark!”My grandmother turned on her flashlight, shone it on us and we were standing in circle, facing each other. Then she said look, and we looked over at the garden, and the sunflowers were looking at each other.”
—Anita Sanchez, PhD
Nahua (Aztec) and Mexican American
