Nicole (she/her) introduces the vision and aims of the Frontline Herbalism Podcast, and shares some background info on the work of the Solidarity Apothecary.
Links & resources from this episode
- Prisoner’s Herbal Book
- Overcoming Burnout Book
- Medicinal Herb Colouring Book
- Ukraine Herbal Solidarity
- Herbal Solidarity Request Form
Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/
Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.
Transcript
Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host, Nicole Rose
Speaker:from the Solidarity Apothecary.
Speaker:This is your place for all things, plants and liberation.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Welcome to the frontline herbalism podcast.
Speaker:This is obviously episode zero.
Speaker:So thank you so much for, for downloading it and taking the time to listen.
Speaker:I'm just going to share a little bit about what this podcast is about and a
Speaker:little bit of background about myself.
Speaker:So my name is Nicole Rose.
Speaker:I organize a project called the Solidarity Apothecary.
Speaker:Some of you might know if you've, you've actually managed to find this podcast,
Speaker:but the mission of the Solidarity Apothecary is to materially support.
Speaker:So, you know, support in practical ways, revolutionary struggles and
Speaker:communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy,
Speaker:self-defense and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.
Speaker:So, you know, some small, some small goals there.
Speaker:But some of the things I do, so I work as a herbalist.
Speaker:I work with a project in Calais and Northern France with refugees.
Speaker:I've written a book about plants and their uses in prison that
Speaker:goes to prisoners worldwide.
Speaker:And I'll be talking about this a little bit more later.
Speaker:I supply herbal medicines to projects and groups and people living
Speaker:on kind of frontline sites like protest camps, or demonstrations.
Speaker:I work as a street medic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I also organize a Solidarity project called Ukraine herbal solidarity, which
Speaker:I'll talk about more and yeah, in general, like my passions are plants obviously
Speaker:and herbal medicine and social struggle.
Speaker:So I'm a really long-term organizer.
Speaker:I'm 34.
Speaker:Now I started organizing when I was about eight years old.
Speaker:After my grandma showed me around a factory farm to collect some
Speaker:eggs and I was absolutely horrified and it started me on this big
Speaker:journey around animal liberation.
Speaker:And I got involved in all this sort of like normal kind of
Speaker:mainstream things like Amnesty International and prisoner support.
Speaker:And then yeah, over time I just kind of became like more and more radicalized.
Speaker:And I found a book when I was babysitting by Errico
Speaker:Malatesta, an Italian anarchist.
Speaker:And it was just like, holy shit, like, this is the, this is it.
Speaker:Like, this is the phrase open looking for that summarizes,
Speaker:like how I feel about the world.
Speaker:I know not everyone identifies as . And even for me, it's like a very imperfect
Speaker:word, but for me and my kind of analysis of the world, like I like it because
Speaker:it's the closest thing I have to kind of like a total liberation framework.
Speaker:So I think that I want to be organizing towards a world where we've like
Speaker:eradicated different forms of domination.
Speaker:And I know that's going to be like a struggle across generations to challenge
Speaker:different forms of oppression, whether it's racism, sexism, transphobia,
Speaker:speciesism environmental destruction, like all the, all the things.
Speaker:But yeah, I think.
Speaker:I think anarchism for me gives me a really good framework where I can look
Speaker:at bigger power structures, like the state or capitalism and how we organize
Speaker:our lives and think about how they relate to power and oppression and yeah.
Speaker:And to the land.
Speaker:And you might be like, what the hell has this got to do of herbalism?
Speaker:But we'll be revealed over the next few shows.
Speaker:I actually think plant medicines are an incredible tool for resilience.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Amazing for our nervous systems for organizers who are dealing
Speaker:with some pretty heavy shit, to be honest, like police violence,
Speaker:raids, arrest, repression, prison, as well as anyone just trying to
Speaker:survive in this capitalist world.
Speaker:So yeah, some of the aims of the show so one of the biggest
Speaker:ones is to support people.
Speaker:So you guys listening to learn about plant medicines.
Speaker:So I want to have like practical advice.
Speaker:Plants about like knowledge about their uses, about their histories, about
Speaker:different traditions around the world.
Speaker:And I want to support people to basically like skill up, you know, I, I didn't,
Speaker:I wasn't born knowing about herbalism.
Speaker:I didn't have this romantic grandmother, like teaching me these
Speaker:herbs, like, you know, I grew up in England and Wales and Scotland.
Speaker:You know, my generation, like you're much more likely to be able
Speaker:to identify thousands of corporate logos than you are ever like the most
Speaker:basic of plants growing like in your garden or in the city where you live.
Speaker:So for me, it's been a real big journey of like reclaiming this plant knowledge.
Speaker:And, you know, like yeah, learning those skills, learning how to make
Speaker:medicine, not just for myself, but for my community, for different
Speaker:projects for resistance and resilience.
Speaker:So yeah, I want things to be really practical.
Speaker:The other aim is like, I really want this podcast to serve movements for liberation.
Speaker:So that might be an, anarchists abolitionists anti-racist anti-colonial
Speaker:to fascist feminist or movements working for queer and trans liberation,
Speaker:animal liberation, ecological defense, just like all the things,
Speaker:all the struggles against domination.
Speaker:Like however they are, wherever that organizing.
Speaker:I want this podcast to be useful because I think anyone engaged in those
Speaker:movements for more than a second will know how difficult and challenging
Speaker:this work can be, but also how life affirming and strengthening it can be.
Speaker:And I think plant medicines are just like the most amazing support for
Speaker:people doing that, doing that work.
Speaker:I also want to share learning and inspiration from grassroots
Speaker:health initiatives and frontline herbal projects around the world.
Speaker:So that might be people doing clinics in refugee camps that might be, or,
Speaker:you know, at like border sites, like in Calais in France or in Mexico.
Speaker:That might be groups developing kind of like natural health clinics, like
Speaker:for example, in Rojava in Northeast Syria, Kurdistan yeah, just like
Speaker:different projects around the world.
Speaker:Cause I think they've got a huge amount to teach people, you know, there's
Speaker:no guidebook for this stuff, right?
Speaker:Like I think the only way we're going to learn is by interviewing people,
Speaker:seeing how they're working, taking what we can from their experiences
Speaker:and applying them in our own regions and in our own communities, which are
Speaker:all completely unique and different.
Speaker:But, you know, we share like common threads.
Speaker:The other goal is to amplify marginalized voices in herbalism to
Speaker:center, voices of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour herbalists,
Speaker:working class and queer communities.
Speaker:I think, yeah, people are, you know, really doing the work and that the
Speaker:kind of center stage of, of reclaiming herbalism of sharing, knowledge of
Speaker:continuing knowledges, that haven't been completely successfully repressed
Speaker:by, you know, like Western white, colonial capitalist, patriarchy, like,
Speaker:you know, I want to be able to create a platform where I'm interviewing
Speaker:guests and sharing news about projects and fundraisers for other projects.
Speaker:So that's like a really big goal.
Speaker:I also really want to like share political content that kind of
Speaker:mobilizes people and give some resources like towards liberation.
Speaker:So, you know, shout outs for new prisoners that want letters for projects,
Speaker:for collectives, for action alerts.
Speaker:And if you've got like anything that you'd like me to share on this
Speaker:podcast, like I'm going to have a little segment where I'm doing like
Speaker:mini shout, shout outs for projects.
Speaker:And I'm going to put them in the show links and, and on my website.
Speaker:And yeah, I really want it, you know, obviously like podcasts
Speaker:got a date quite quickly, but.
Speaker:It to be like a platform for everyone who can share, like stuff that they're working
Speaker:on for liberation in different ways.
Speaker:I want to kind of create content that supports people like who have experienced
Speaker:or who are experiencing state violence, burnout or kind of like trauma with
Speaker:practical tools and plant medicine and resources about like trauma recovery.
Speaker:I'm an ex prisoner.
Speaker:I did a three and a half year sentence when I was 21.
Speaker:And that was a kind of amidst a decade of repression against the campaign I
Speaker:was involved with to close down this animal testing company in the UK.
Speaker:And yeah, it was an absolute minefield, like in terms of, of
Speaker:PTSD and navigating that stuff.
Speaker:And I support a lot of people leaving prison and who've been
Speaker:through all sorts of stuff.
Speaker:And I think plants offer us like amazing tools to help us support
Speaker:our own other systems and to help us kind of survive in this world.
Speaker:So yeah, I don't want it just to be for like, you know, organizers
Speaker:and herbalists like, I also want it to be for people who are.
Speaker:You know, who are in that, here in that pain place, if that makes sense.
Speaker:Cause like, you know, it's, it's a long term thing, right?
Speaker:Like I still struggle with PTSD.
Speaker:Like it's, you know, I've definitely got on top of it as much as I can with
Speaker:herbalism and supplements and then, you know, support and stuff like that.
Speaker:But I think, yeah, I think it's an ongoing journey and I really
Speaker:want to explore that in the show.
Speaker:And finally, like, you know, the world is burning, right?
Speaker:Like climate change.
Speaker:Holy shit.
Speaker:That's the thing.
Speaker:I really want the podcast to be a practical resource for people that
Speaker:are kind of proactively developing this kind of ecological and healthcare
Speaker:infrastructure needed to respond to climate change like worldwide.
Speaker:And there's so many beautiful examples of that from herbalists having stations
Speaker:for respiratory support during wildfires, or, you know, responding to hurricanes
Speaker:or floods or doing like refugee support, like all of these kind of things.
Speaker:They're just gonna like increase over time.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Imminently.
Speaker:And I think it's like amazing.
Speaker:If we can have the kind of.
Speaker:You know, the tools and resources collectively to respond to this stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then just in terms of like personal aims, like for the solidarity of
Speaker:apothecary, I'm going to talk about my projects in a minute, but I really want
Speaker:to build the sort of supporter base you know, like Instagram followers and
Speaker:subscribers and monthly supporters.
Speaker:Like I really like to sell more books.
Speaker:And yeah, and just kind of like create chance for people to, to
Speaker:get to know me a little bit and feel confident to access support.
Speaker:So, you know, to submit a request for herbal solidarity for their, you know,
Speaker:for their protest camp or for their collective or for themselves, right?
Speaker:Like if you're burnt out or struggling or, you know, dealing with PTSD or
Speaker:other things because of your work, like as an organizer or because
Speaker:you've been through the system, like been through the prison system or
Speaker:detention centers or anything else.
Speaker:Like, I want people to feel confident to be able to contact me and be like, Hey,
Speaker:I would really appreciate some support.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That's kind of like what the show is about.
Speaker:You know, too many, too many things as normal Gemini ascendent.
Speaker:So it's like about all the things all the time.
Speaker:But just a little bit about the solidarity apothecary.
Speaker:I'd been doing kind of prisoner support for nearly 18 years now,
Speaker:but that's a huge part of my life.
Speaker:And over time I could just see people were really struggling like
Speaker:with, with their health, with like that mental health, like all the
Speaker:different things because of depression.
Speaker:And I started kind of giving friends, some people I knew like herbs, like herbs
Speaker:that I'd experimented with or taken.
Speaker:And then that kind of just like grew over time.
Speaker:And I decided that I wanted to be a full-time herbalist and I didn't want
Speaker:my conviction or my time in prison to prevent me from supporting people.
Speaker:So I managed to find an amazing school called the plant medicine school
Speaker:in Ireland, who I highly recommend.
Speaker:And yeah, I did a four year program to become like a clinical herbalist.
Speaker:And it was like one of the best things I've done in my entire life.
Speaker:And now I'm trying to support other people as a herbalist.
Speaker:So in 2019 I wrote this book called the prisoner's herbal.
Speaker:Everyone's like, oh, I can't believe you like publish this book so fast.
Speaker:They don't realize it's like, I actually started working on this zine when I was
Speaker:in prison, which is like 10 years ago now.
Speaker:So it really wasn't a fast project.
Speaker:I just kind of like did the graphics and stuff quite quickly, like, you
Speaker:know, like the formatting of the.
Speaker:But yeah, like the Prisoner's Herbal it's, it's like a pretty beefy book.
Speaker:It's like 256 pages, I think.
Speaker:And it's all about kind of like 10, 10 different plants that
Speaker:I connected with in prison.
Speaker:So that's just like plants that were growing in the courtyard.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That we're just like coming up through the concrete, like
Speaker:dandelions and nettles and chickweed.
Speaker:And it's also about like, things you can find on the canteen.
Speaker:So this is stuff you can just like buy in the prison.
Speaker:So things like salt or pepper or turmeric or yeah, different things
Speaker:like that and how to use them and like fruits and vegetables as well,
Speaker:like onion and apples and yeah.
Speaker:You know, like all the things that you could possibly scrounge and find in a
Speaker:prison, I like included in the book.
Speaker:And then there's also a section about how to do, how to do like wound care and also
Speaker:like how to connect to a plant's kind of a bit more spiritually, like lots of people
Speaker:inside can obviously not access plants in any way, like, you know, especially
Speaker:with the pandemic, like in a UK context, people are really doing like 23 and a half
Speaker:hours a day, like locked in their rooms.
Speaker:Like, and they're lucky if they get out for association, if I'm honest, and that's
Speaker:what we call the time when you kind of are allowed out in your courtyard, you know,
Speaker:for other prisoners, like they might be in a lower category prison and they might be
Speaker:able to be unlocked or work in the gardens will work at some horticulture project.
Speaker:But yeah, the kind of experiences of people incarcerated is vast.
Speaker:And that's why I'm wanting to include like lots of different
Speaker:options for connecting with plants.
Speaker:And that book is distributed by a crew called the prisoner's
Speaker:herbalism collective.
Speaker:So I think it was 2020.
Speaker:I put a call out for a bit more support to make it a bit more like collective.
Speaker:So it, wasn't kind of like on my shoulders and got an amazing like international
Speaker:crew of people who, you know, like process requests from prisoners.
Speaker:We've got a PO box in New York and in the UK who upload all their details to
Speaker:a spreadsheet and we get books posted out to them who help with fundraising.
Speaker:And yeah, and it's a really huge part of my life.
Speaker:Like every book that I've sold, like near enough, all the money has
Speaker:gone to posting books to prisoners.
Speaker:And we, must've got about 3000 now, I think by now to
Speaker:people and present worldwide.
Speaker:And there's different translated additions.
Speaker:There's going to be additions coming out for Spain and Mexico.
Speaker:In Greece and also like Germany and France kind of on a longer term horizon.
Speaker:So yeah, so that's the prisoners herbalism collective.
Speaker:I also have a book called overcoming burnout, which also came out in 2019.
Speaker:And it's like a collection of blogs that I wrote back in,
Speaker:like way back in 2016, 2017.
Speaker:I got really sick on a speaking tour in Spain and the Basque
Speaker:country and France, and yeah.
Speaker:Developed this really gnarly long-term illness called costochondritis,
Speaker:which is a chronic inflammation in the cartilage of your rib cage.
Speaker:Excruciating pain.
Speaker:And yeah, just like the experiences of being ill and navigating the medical
Speaker:industrial complex and learning about herbalism and learning about how chronic
Speaker:stress affects your health and how we deal with grief and movements and
Speaker:how we You know, like process trauma and our body, like these were all
Speaker:things that I kind of learned about.
Speaker:Like, as I was kind of recovering, and I know like the word recovery
Speaker:is a bit of a loaded word.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I just kind of started writing blogs really about my journey as
Speaker:a kind of like cathartic rant.
Speaker:It kind of really resonated with people with.
Speaker:So yeah, so that book's available on my website as well.
Speaker:Like the same as the prisoners herbal and the medicinal herb coloring book, like
Speaker:all our available was downloadable eBooks, like as PDFs or as well as physical books.
Speaker:And I hand, post them out myself cause you know, capitalism.
Speaker:And then, like I mentioned at the beginning . I also have this option
Speaker:on my website for people to request herbal support, like herbal solidarity.
Speaker:So I get lots of requests through that form, and that could be like an individual
Speaker:that wants support because they're burnt out or they've just got out of prison
Speaker:and they need support, or it could be a project, you know, like a detainees
Speaker:support group who are dealing with a really intense campaign or a really big
Speaker:workload who just wants some kind of immune support, or it could be people
Speaker:living at kind of a protest camp who are dealing constant evictions and stress and
Speaker:arrests, and they want stuff, you know, to prevent like COVID and things like this.
Speaker:So, yeah, so there's like a big variety.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, to fund that work, I sell, I sell the books.
Speaker:We also have a book called the medicinal herb coloring book, 50 incredible
Speaker:illustrations by my friend Amani.
Speaker:Who's just absolutely amazing talented artist.
Speaker:She's definitely going to be on the show in the future talking about like
Speaker:chronic illness and disability justice.
Speaker:So, yeah, that's kind of like my work in the world.
Speaker:There's probably stuff I've missed, but that's like a little bit about me.
Speaker:Like I said, I'm based, I'm based in England in the Southwest near Bristol
Speaker:kind of lineages are like English Welsh and Irish and the kind of plant medicine
Speaker:I practice is from those traditions.
Speaker:But, you know, I love learning about different plant cultures around the
Speaker:world and yeah, I would encourage anyone listening to this podcast to, to kind of.
Speaker:I understand that I'm talking about how it's from that lens.
Speaker:Cause that's like authentic to me, but to kind of lean into
Speaker:herbalism, that's like relevant to them and their lineages and yeah.
Speaker:Their relationship to plant medicine and the family's
Speaker:relationship to plant medicine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And also, I just want to say like, This is like an experiment.
Speaker:Like I'm a bit of a, like, get it done, get it out person.
Speaker:Like I'm not a perfectionist, but I just want to like lean into the
Speaker:fact that like, I will screw up.
Speaker:Like, I will say things that are problematic or not phrased in a good way.
Speaker:I'm sure I'll make comments that are like oppressive or abelist or
Speaker:racist or sexist or, you know, like there's just like so many things that.
Speaker:Yeah, I could say that are kind of like from where I am now or what
Speaker:I'm saying, like unconsciously.
Speaker:And I really appreciate it if people email me or give me feedback because
Speaker:you know, all of this stuff is like a constant learning journey.
Speaker:Like I just think like we are where we are and we have to just keep learning
Speaker:and learning and learning and like leaning in towards like liberation.
Speaker:And you know, sometimes we won't do that very well.
Speaker:Like I can guarantee you won't do that very well if you're a white person.
Speaker:So like, you know, I want the show to be like a space where people can learn, can
Speaker:make mistakes, can educate each other.
Speaker:You know, I think.
Speaker:Liberation works should be liberating.
Speaker:If that makes sense.
Speaker:Like, I think, you know, we can all like lean in to hearing some content on here
Speaker:that we could find a bit challenging.
Speaker:You know, like I know people have all sorts of feelings about the prison
Speaker:system and abolition, these different ideas, or, you know, how do we build
Speaker:a world without states or, you know, armed struggle or whatever it is.
Speaker:Like, there's so many different things we're going to talk about that
Speaker:could upset people that could trigger them that could push them in certain
Speaker:directions or, you know, generate a bit of feedback in them some way.
Speaker:And I just want to say, like, that is the work, right?
Speaker:Like, that is what I hope to do with these episodes.
Speaker:And I'm sure when guests come on, like I'm going to really learn from them.
Speaker:And that's what I'm super excited about is just like selfishly
Speaker:all the people I found go on.
Speaker:I'm just going to like invite on the show and get a precious bit of time with them.
Speaker:So I'm really excited for that.
Speaker:Oh, so I think podcasts are amazing because they're just more accessible.
Speaker:Like I'm dyslexic.
Speaker:I also drive and do like a lot of practical work where I work, you know,
Speaker:where I live in terms of managing land and making medicine and harvesting herbs.
Speaker:And, and so like, I think podcasts are amazing because they're just like this
Speaker:great format in terms of accessibility.
Speaker:I'm going to have transcripts up, but if there's like anything else I can do
Speaker:to make the show like more accessible for you, like, please let me know.
Speaker:Like I said, like I'm learning and yeah, I just want it to be as helpful
Speaker:and useful for people as possible.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, maybe it be a real niche, like maybe, maybe it'll just be me and
Speaker:like six cute queers from Instagram.
Speaker:And if it is that's okay.
Speaker:But I really think there's people like all over the planet that are just, you
Speaker:know, really dedicated and grafting for liberation in different ways.
Speaker:You know, whether they're fighting dams in Serbia or, you know, organizing support
Speaker:for refugees and migrants in Calais.
Speaker:You know, like fighting police violence in the U S or, you know,
Speaker:there's just like 1,000,001 examples.
Speaker:And I think, yeah, these are really revolutionary times, you know, we've
Speaker:got like global climate change.
Speaker:We've got the invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker:We've got, you know, wars happening, left right and center.
Speaker:We've got environmental destruction.
Speaker:I could list like a million depressing things.
Speaker:In response to all of those, there's incredible cultures of solidarity and
Speaker:self-organized movements, you know, like with the pandemic, like this huge
Speaker:shift in kind of global awareness of tools, like mutual aid and, you know,
Speaker:yeah, I just, yeah, I just think there's loads going on and I really want to
Speaker:capture a little bit of it for this moment in time with this podcast and try
Speaker:and get as much learning from that as possible for everyone and yeah, find me.
Speaker:I just, I just want to be a plant geek.
Speaker:I just want to talk about plants.
Speaker:I want to share about plants.
Speaker:I want to hear guests talk about plants.
Speaker:You know, they are absolutely amazing and yeah, who wouldn't want to talk about,
Speaker:I actually had an ex girlfriend wrote to me in prison and say that one of the
Speaker:reasons she was breaking up with me was because she just wasn't that into plants.
Speaker:So if you're not that into plants, this show is probably not for you,
Speaker:but if you are, please keep listening and yeah, I'll do my best to, to
Speaker:make a kind of fun and interesting and informative podcast for you.
Speaker:The best I can.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Thanks so much for listening to the frontline herbalism podcast, you
Speaker:can find the transcripts, the links, all the resources from the show at
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