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THE HEALING POWER OF FLOWERS & OTHER ACTS OF GARDENING, TANJA HOLLANDER






You know the hundreds of thousands of flowers, floral bouquets, candles, and other bits of personal importance that people are called to leave at the physical locations of traumatic events? These flowers and other ephemera, and the human impulse behind them, are what catalyze Tanja Hollander.


This week on Cultivating Place, host Ben Futa is in conversation with Tanja, an artist & activist Gardener based in the US Northeast. Tanja works with gardens, social practice, photography, video, and installation to understand how cultural and visual relationships help us make sense of our chaotic world.


Very specifically, her Mourning Flowers and Ephemera projects bring awareness, often through cataloguing tribute flowers laid at mourning sites, and other communal acts of gardening, to the ripple effects of trauma and fear that communities sustain after acts of violence, specifically gun violence. In these chaotic and frequently violent times, we can all use some mourning to compost trauma into healthier minds, hearts, communities - and gardens.


For the past thirteen years, Tanja's practice has looked at the many ways in which we build community both on and offline. In her newest body of work, The Ephemera Project, she is collecting images and stories that build an archive of the people we love and the objects that hold us together.


Tragically, her hometowns of Lewiston-Auburn, Maine are now among many communities around the country that have been devastated by mass shooting events. Since October 25, 2023, she has focused on making work that reflects the impact of the shooting on her community.


She is the lead artist collaborating directly with Maine MILL (Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor) in Lewiston working to document and archive the community response to grief and trauma.


She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and received a B.A. in photography, film, and feminist studies from Hampshire College in 1994. Her last body of work, "Are you really my friend?" debuted in its entirety as an exhibition, short documentary and book for a year at MASS MoCA in 2017. She lives and works in Auburn, Maine.


I hope Tanja’s story will inspire you, as it has us. We are so pleased to welcome Tanja to Cultivating Place.


A note to our listeners, our conversation today includes discussion of mass violence.



Follow Tanja online:

and on Instagram:


All Photos courtesy of Tanja Hollander, ALL rights reserved.


If you enjoyed this program, you might also enjoy these

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JOIN US again next week, when we embrace the comforts of tea. From history to cultivation, the ritual to the rewards, we're in conversation with Michael Fritts, founder of Golden Feather Tea in Concow, CA. He shares the ecological, cultural, and personal beauties of a traditional Camellia sinensis tea garden. That's right here, next week. Listen in!



Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support

from

in honor of Bailey Shaw


supporting initiatives that empower women and help preserve the planet through the intersection of environmental advocacy, social justice, and creativity.






Thinking out loud this week...


Hey, it's Ben—


I’d like to challenge each of you to reflect on a question I asked Tanja –

what does community feel like to you, where you are? In our current

moment of manufactured division and algorithms, outrage and tension,

it’s easy to feel alienated and lonely.


Community can be a balm to those feelings of isolation, and I believe in

this moment, many of us are beginning to remember and lean back in to

what true, authentic, and real community feels like – in real time, in

person, right where we live. We’re seeing it happen in so many places,

and that fills me with hope.


I hope Tanja’s story inspired you. I hope it reminds you that having all

the answers isn’t the point: the point is showing up, digging a hole, and

planting something with the hope of a more beautiful tomorrow. This

applies to so many things…


No matter how you show up in this moment – thank you. It matters.

Every step, no matter how small it may feel, moves us all – collectively -

toward the future and community we want to live in, with our neighbors,

where – I would wager – many of us listening to this show up as

gardeners.


Never discount your work as “just pretty”. Cultivating Place champions

the power and potential each of us gardeners have to transform “space”

in to “place.” Sometimes, all it takes is a little gumption, a little bravery,

and a few plants from neighbors to make it happen.


Let’s dig in.


What does community feel like? This is a thread we’ll follow throughout

our conversation today, and a question I myself have been stewing on

for many months now.


I think it’s an important question to ask because it can be easy for

“community” to feel esoteric or abstract, rather than a concrete feeling

or thing – something we can quantify, measure, demonstrate, nurture,

and see. The more we understand it, the more we can cultivate it.


In conversations with friends, neighbors, and coworkers over the past

few months, I’ve caught myself in the middle of a conversation saying

something like, “This is what community is supposed to feel like. We’ve

just forgotten, or been encouraged to forget.”


Community is running into a friend at your local coffee shop.


Community is sharing ideas and dreams with people who are on a similar mission and with similar values.


Community is mutual aid, advocacy, convening.


Community is safety, belonging, support, and encouragement.


Community is sacred, and community is powerful.


I hope you’ll keep these ideas in mind, and continue to reflect on what community feels like to you, in your place.


Our conversation today is reminding me of a favorite quote from Margaret Mead:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,

committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."


Imagine what might happen if even a handful of us listening to this conversation right now stepped away and decided to dive a little deeper into a cause we care about, whether it’s to do with plants or not.


Imagine the collective impact we could make, all of us plant lovers and Gardeners with a capital G, when we apply the acts of gardening – cultivation, curation, observation, and care – towards the places each of us call home.

I mean this both literally and metaphorically. We know we need more people growing more plants in more places – and stories like this, are why.


We also need more people deploying acts of Gardening, and for what it’s worth, I think we’re seeing that begin to happen. I always wish for more of it, for things to move faster, for change to come sooner – but then, the plants step in and remind me: we’ll arrive when we’re meant to. What matters is growth.


What matters is persistence. Growing with care, intention, meaning, and purpose. All of us, in all our ways.


WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE

Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating Place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.org


The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, and regular hosting by Founder, Jennifer Jewell, as well as Abra Lee in Atlanta, Georgia, and Ben Futa in South Bend, Indiana. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse..


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