Echoes of the Rainforest Fell with Werkha, Lee Schofield and Yemaya Lee-Hew

What happens when the wild begins to vanish, and the stories that once lived beside it start to fade too? In this conversation, musician Werkha and conservationist Lee Schofield meet to explore how the loss of biodiversity echoes through the loss of culture. Chaired by Yemaya, the discussion will move between land, language, and memory, asking how the disappearance of our golden eagles or the silence of a valley might also signal a forgetting of song, craft, and subsequent belonging. 

Speakers:

Tom Leah, Producer Werkha

Hailing from Manchester with roots in the Cumbrian north, Werkha (real name Tom Leah) and his foot stomping, jazz inflected beats have been gracing the airwaves for the best part of a decade.

Influenced as much by the rolling fells surrounding his village home as those hot sweaty times we share on the dancefloor. Werkha makes music for those crucial moments, the ones that make us feel connected as humans. When the bustle of city life comes up against the steadiness of rural perspective.

Fascinated by this dichotomy, it’s the interrelationship between these two worlds and how they weave together that inspires Werkha to write. This push and pull is reflected both in his process and in the music. Striving to make something which straddles both worlds, Werkha creates dance music with a head and a heart. https://www.werkha.com/ 

Lee Schofield

Lee Schofield is the author of , published by Penguin/Transworld. Wild Fell is his account of a decade working for the RSPB at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park, where he oversaw pioneering conservation work across an upland mosaic of woodland, bog, mountain and meadow covering 30km2. Wild Fell details the personal and professional challenges involved in working at the coal-face of nature conservation in the uplands.

Yemaya Lee-Hewitt, Co-founder of ananci studio  (Chair)

Yemaya Lee-Hewitt helps organisations create impact through inclusive marketing and sustainability strategy. As co-founder of ananci studio, she partners charities, trusts, and mission-driven organisations and help them integrate sustainability and social responsibility into their work. She advocates for under-represented global majority communities while guiding companies committed to “doing good.” Yemaya has worked with Vodafone’s Minority and Inclusion Network, urban walking apps like Go Jauntly, women’s business networks such as The Stack World, and supports See My World, a Manchester-based program celebrating African diaspora creativity. https://ananci.studio/

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