The streets of New York City are alive with plants from all over the world that can tell rich histories, especially within the immigrant communities. Often these communities have long relied on plants to improve health, but such value and use is not widely shared. Additionally, cultural practices such as foraging and gardening are cast aside in young people’s attempts to assimilate. 

Planting Stories: Seeds of Diaspora will be implemented in New York City by the School of Professional Studies, the School of the Arts, the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, and Columbia Artist/Teachers, in partnership with the Humanities Institute at New York Botanical Garden and Columbia Secondary School, a public high school located in Upper Manhattan, NYC. 

The project team will conduct workshops that combine scientific and creative practices to facilitate cross-generational and -cultural learning on the relationship of plants to food culture, health, immigration and family histories. This pilot project aims to develop educational materials for use by learning institutions across New York City, in addition to methods for measuring how programming focused on plants and cultural histories may positively impact health in the broadest sense.