In-Relation with Seeds with Zayaan Khan

In this virtual storytelling and seed practice workshop, multidisciplinary artist Zayaan Khan will show how seeds are entrenched in our everyday lives. Sharing her experiences setting up the Seed Bibliotheek in Cape Town, she will teach participants how to germinate seeds; what it means to start and run a community-driven seed library; and how seeds inform fermentation practices, scarification, and pollination. A seed swap will follow (see below for more information).

Zayaan Khan is a storyteller who uses various mediums to share stories of struggle and solutions, particularly within the spaces, nuances, and relationships of land, food, and seed. Her work advances sociopolitical, ecological, and spiritual perspectives. Zayaan operates from a space of care, healing, and intuitive practice, embracing a generative and emergent process as part of her transdisciplinary artistic approach. Through curiosity, research, experimentation, and engagement, her work explores the in-between spaces that shape our collective heritage.

Following Zayaan Khan’s workshop, please join us for a medicinal herb seed swap. Seeds, plotting, growing, and tending are all forms of collective worldbuilding and worldmaking. We invite you to think about the stories that seeds carry, and the ways in which medicinal herbs sustain, nurture and bond us. Bring your leftover seeds, heirloom, community-collected, native or organic seeds, and pick up some seeds for the new year. Herbs are easy to grow in pots and can be used in cooking or dried for tea.

Host or Publisher Taft Research Center