Decomposition as a Compass: In Conversation With Jordan Alexander Williams

Loam Listen

How might we collapse a world rooted in extraction and nurture one built on reciprocity? What can decomposition teach us about seeding sustainable futures? Join us as queer Hoodoo, earth tender, and living ancestor Jordan Alexander Williams contemplates the liberation of land, ourselves, and our communities from “radical individualism” in this soul-stirring conversation with Amirio Freeman. From meditating on a week spent at the revolutionary Soul Fire Farm to exploring the beauty of mycelial networks, Williams walks us through possibilities for planting world(s) worth growing into.

GUEST: Jordan Alexander Williams (they/them) is a queer Hoodoo, earth tender, and living ancestor. Jordan was born and raised in the so-called Chicagoland area of Illinois, lands stewarded by many peoples and lineages including: the Potawatomi, Miami, Ho-Chunk and at least a dozen more Indigenous Nations, and Hoodoos / Black African peoples of Turtle Island (so-called North America).

In 2016, Jordan graduated from the University of Illinois (a land-grab university) with a degree in environmental science and a concentration in human dimensions of the environment. They have since collaborated with human and more-than-human beings across Turtle Island to:

• develop the collective visions and leadership of environmental changemakers;
• facilitate organizational culture shifts towards anti-racism and cooperative leadership;
• cultivate food, climate, and ecological justice; and
• build liberatory practices, relationships, and spaces with Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans / Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (2SQT/BIPOC).

Jordan trusts that the liberation and regeneration of people and planet will come by dancing in the moon and sunlight, getting our hands in the soil, caring for each other, and reclaiming and evolving the earth-sourced wisdom(s) of our ancestors.

RESOURCES: Soul Fire Farm

• Soul Fire Farm BIPOC Farming Immersion
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

Hoodoo

• Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald
• Ep. 25 Mama Rue Breaks the Juju Down (A Little Juju Podcast)

Nested Wholes & Fractals

• The Regenerative Life: Transform Any Organization, Our Society, and Your Destiny by Carol Sanford
• Regenerative Design for Change Makers by Abrah Dresdale
• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown