Meet the Author:
Susie Miller Oduniyi,  London

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined
Susie Miller Oduniyi

Susie Miller Oduniyi

Susie Miller Oduniyi is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Humourisk, a Community Interest Company that create performance and art that redefines perceptions, co-creating work with communities and artists through creative exchange. Shed Life and New View Arts are current projects that have been co-created with the communities of Thames View Estate in Barking. Susie is a theatre director and community engagement specialist; she led the engagement strategy for the Hackney Olympic Handover celebrations in 2008. In 2009 Susie completed the Cultural Leadership Programme, an Arts Council England initiative to provide training and research based development opportunities for cultural leaders. In 2009 LIFT Festival (London International Festival of Theatre), Susie was Public Engagement Associate developing a model of arts-led community engagement, researched within arts organisations in the UK and Chicago and disseminated across the UK arts and cultural sector. Susie went onto to deliver art commissions for the Olympic Delivery Authority as part of London 2012 delivering an artist-led public art commission, engaging communities on the Woolwich Estate celebrating the archery tournament held at Woolwich Barracks. From 2013-2015 Susie was commissioned to produce the Sparked series of exhibitions at The View Tube on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for The Legacy List. Humourisk was commission in 2015 to create a public art commission for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham co-created with the community of Thames View Estate; the 8 reliefs designed by local residents adorn the top balcony section of the façade of Farr Avenue shopping parade. Susie was Artistic Director of Outside Edge Theatre Company from 2015-2018 the only UK theatre company working within addiction and recovery, directing ‘Rockston Stories’ a dark Victorian tale of addiction set in Hoxton Hall a Music Hall in East London with support from Associate Director Mark Rylance. Susie co-devised the Humourisk production of Brown Bread with a cast who drew on their lived experience of addiction. The production was performed as part of The Science Gallery Hooked season in 2018.

March, 2025

24 March 2025

A graphic of a map with "2024 Urban Art Laboratories"
The Urban Art Laboratories: During The Nature of Cities Festival 2024, a series of conjunct artistic and ecological actions took place in various parts of the world. What happened?
Carmen Bouyer, Paris Diana Wiesner, Bogota Baixo Ribeiro, São Paulo Patrick M. Lydon, Daejeon Suhee Kang, Tongyeong Matthew Jensen, New York Erica Mizutani, São Paulo Sophie Krier, Luxemburg Shaah Kamuruko, Den Haag Anna Andrejew, The Hague Floris Janssens, The Hague Elodie Seguin, Paris Juliette Ravel, Goa Jessica Taggart Rose, Margate Dilek Himam, Gömeç Leonardo Centeno, Bogotá

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19 March 2025

Integrating Nature-Based Solutions in Cities From the Global South
Carolina Figueroa-Arango, Bogotá

It’s December 12, 2035. I woke up in my apartment, in the middle of the city and there was a mountain. Yes, a mountain with a forest, greenery everywhere. I opened the windows and I could listen to the birds singing. I could smell the moist ground, the same smell...

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4 March 2025

A young woman planting a plant in a deep hole with an older woman guiding her
Economy, Employment, Environment. Can We Have It All?
Seema Mundoli, Bangalore Harini Nagendra, Bangalore

There is a close relationship between the three Es―economy, employment, and environment. Economic growth and jobs rely heavily on environmental resources, but a myopic focus on either of these aspects often results in environmental degradation. Green jobs have been seen as a way to buffer the adverse effects of economic...

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February, 2025

23 February 2025

The Art of the Detour: An Invitation to Poetic and Political Drift
Victor Coutard, Paris

In a world where every route is optimized, where algorithms predict our movements, and speed becomes an unassailable norm, the detour stands out as an act of resistance. It is the assertion of reclaimed freedom, a refusal of systematic efficiency that reduces our experience of the world to a digital...

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17 February 2025

Two people crouched down in a field of tall grass
“Heal the land, Heal the people”: A Conversation About Indigenizing Urban Natural Area Stewardship
Toby Query, Portland Serina Fast Horse, Portland

Serina Fast Horse and Toby Query met as employees at the City of Portland in 2018 while working on an innovative project that centered Indigenous voices and perspectives. This project, Shwah kuk wetlands (which means frog in Chinuk Wawa, a local indigenous trade language) intertwines Indigenous (or relational) and Western...

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12 February 2025

Concrete steps with a metal handrail leading down to a waterway. Green foliage is growing over the steps covering about half of them. At the bottom the water can be glimpsed through thick foliage.
What does the more-than-human city look like?
Ferne Edwards, Barcelona Lucia Alexandra Popartan, Girona Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Trondheim Lily Fillwalk, New Brunswick Audax M. Gawler, Victoria İdil Gaziulusoy, Espoo Giulia Gualtieri, Almere Gloria Lauterbach, Espoo Saba Mirzahosseini, Turin Clare Qualmann, London Trophica Lab, Bogotá D.C. Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe, Basel

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9 February 2025

A picture of a group of young people performing a dance on an outdoor stage
Rocinha’s Bio-Cultural-Spatial Uniqueness: Where Community and Forest Converge
May East, Edinburgh

Places, much like nature, are in a constant state of change. This is especially true for Rocinha, Brazil’s most populous favela, home to approximately 200,000 people. Perched on steep hillsides in Rio de Janeiro’s Southern Zone, Rocinha is a vibrant, multi-layered community where life unfolds within a dense network of...

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January, 2025

28 January 2025

A vast field of lush green grass and colorful flowers
Creating Biodiverse Australian Cities: Terminology, Aesthetics, and Acceptance
Meredith Dobbie, Victoria

Biodiversity has always been important to environmental scientists, conservationists, landscape architects, and others but only recently seems to have entered the public domain. It took a long time for Australia to accept the climate emergency. It is pleasing to see that the biodiversity crisis has been accepted more readily. There...

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21 January 2025

A group of people in a stream picking up trash
The Plastic Crisis: An Urgent Challenge For Our Rivers and Oceans
Ana Pinheira, Guimarães Carolina Rodrigues, Guimarães

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that 19 to 23 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in lakes, rivers, and seas annually[1]. This staggering number highlights the urgent need to tackle plastic pollution. The growing production of waste, inadequate disposal methods, and the slow degradation of plastics significantly...

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16 January 2025

The EU Nature Restoration Law is here. Do we have what it takes to make it work?
Bettina Wilk, Bilbao John Warren Tamor, Bonn Evelyn Underwood, Brussels Laure-Lou Tremblay, Brussels Ferenc Albert Szigeti, Budapest Adeline Rochet, Brussels Martin Grisel, The Hague Federica Risi, The Hague Silvia Quarta, Murcia Christos Papachristou, Dublin Anne-Sophie Mulier, Brussels Shane McGuinness, Dublin Goksen Sahin, Brussels Philipp LaHaela-Walter, Freiburg Gitty Korsuize, Utrecht Valerie Kapos, Cambridge Chris McOwen, Cambridge John Tayleur, Cambridge Opi Outhwaite, Cambridge Niki Frantzeskaki, Utrecht João Dinis, Cascais City Marta Delas, Madrid Jordi Cortina-Segarra, Alicante Humberto Delgado Rosa, Brussels Roby Biwer, Luxembourg Marta Mansanet Cánovas, Luxembourg Heather Brooks, Brussels Carlo Calfapietra, Porano Chiara Baldacchini, Viterbo Bogdan Micu, Bucharest Liviu Bailesteanu, Bucharest

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7 January 2025

A picture of people holding signs, walking along a sidewalk
The Power of Care for Climate Justice
Praneeta Mudaliar, Mississauga Lilian Dart, Mississauga Dannia Eyelli Philipp Gutierrez, Toronto Celina Mankarios, Mississauga

Commoning and climate justice The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Canada is bustling with youth-based climate action and advocacy. From bringing lawsuits against governments to advocating for fossil fuel divestment and spreading awareness about intersecting crises such as housing insecurity and climate impacts, young people are emerging as powerful voices...

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December, 2024

30 December 2024

Highlights from The Nature of Cities 2024
David Maddox, New York

Cities are, at their best, collaborative masterpieces, aren’t they? They emerge from the interplay of diverse professions, ways of knowing, modes of action, governments, and, most importantly, the people who call them home. They are cultural, ecological, human, and non-human. Together (ideally), these forces shape cities based on shared—and sometimes...

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17 December 2024

A group of brown tags with colorful pins on top of a map
People Love Nature, Even When It Hurts
Katie Keddie, Nottingham Chris Ives, Nottingham

Love, a complex and profoundly influential emotion, has been widely explored in a variety of academic fields including sociology, psychology, anthropology, as well as human and physical geography. In geography, love is explored in several ways, including love of place and of nature (tophilia and biophilia) (see Tuan, 1974 and...

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9 December 2024

A map of england with different colored spots
Re-envisioning the Green Belt for Biodiversity, Recreational Access, and Climate Resilience
Lincoln Garland, Bath

The UK’s new Labour-led government has pledged to tackle the country’s long-standing housing crisis head-on, with a bold promise to deliver 1.5 million new homes in the next five years. This plan comes in response to the mounting pressures of soaring demand, limited housing supply, and ever-increasing prices that have...

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9 December 2024

What can Nature-based Solutions and sustainability professionals learn from cultural institutions such as museums and botanical gardens? How can the synergies benefit both NbS and cultural institutions?
David Maddox, New York Carmen Bouyer, Paris Edith de Guzman, Los Angeles Lisa Fitzsimons, Dublin Todd Forest, New York Paola Lepori, Brussels Eleanor Ratcliffe, Surrey Susannah Drake, New York City Daniela Rizzi, Freiburg Meriem Bouamrane, Paris Thijs Biersteker, Paris Jan Chwedczuk, Warsaw Xavier Cortada, Miami Anna Cudny, Warsaw Jolly de Guzman, Los Angeles Artur Jerzy Filip, Warsaw Ewa Iwaszuk, Berlin Terry Hartig, Uppsala Magda Maciąg, Warsaw Baixo Ribeiro, São Paulo David Skelly, New Haven Ulrike Sturm, Berlin Thalia Tsaknia, Pallini Bettina Wilk, Bilbao Birgitta Gatersleben, Surrey

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4 December 2024

CARE: The Introduction to SPROUT Eco-Urban Poetry Journal Issue 4
Kirby Manià, Vancouver Dimitra Xidous, Dublin

Each time our editorial team gathers to publish an issue of SPROUT, we reflect on the role of poetry to comment on the current state of the eco-urban. When we read through the submissions, we feel that our original vision and mandate for the journal is confirmed by the special...

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November, 2024

28 November 2024

A group of children running outside beside a building
The World On A Brink Of Disaster: Leadership, Hope, And Strengthening Of Public Mental Health In Humanitarian Crises
Manasi Kumar, Nairobi Keith Martin, Washington D.C. Aniruddh Behere, Lansing

The world is still reeling from the massive mortality and setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing political invasion and violence between Nation states. Polarized geopolitics has steered us in a dismal direction. Added to this, natural and human-made emergencies are creating further uncertainties. We would have thought that...

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15 November 2024

A picture of glowing lanterns of colorful animals
Whimsy. Is there a role for laughter, subversive curve balls, ironic romance and “oh wow that’s cool” moments in the mainstreaming of knowledge and action in sustainability, climate change, and biodiversity?
Molly Anderson, Cape Town Pippin Anderson, Cape Town Emmalee Barnett, Spokane Nic Bennett, Austin James Bonner, Glasgow Tam Dean Burn, Glasgow Bill McGuire, Glasgow Ian Douglas, Manchester Paul Downton, Melbourne Lisa Fitzsimons, Dublin Chris Fremantle, Ayrshire, Scotland Elizabeth Frickey, New York City Tony Kendle, Saint Austell Gareth Kennedy, Dublin David Maddox, New York Rob McDonald, Basel Gareth Moore-Jones, Ohope Beach Richard Scott, Liverpool Hita Unnikrishnan, Warwick Ania Upstill, New York Wendy Wischer, Connecticut Claudia Misteli, Barcelona Alastair McIntosh, Glasgow

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13 November 2024

A group of trees in wooden planters in a room
How Could an Orchard Installed in a Gallery Affect Us (And The Gallery)?
Chris Fremantle, Ayrshire, Scotland

The Nature of Cities focuses on creative approaches to greening urban environments, what that means, why it is important, who is involved, and how, including Roundtables on “cities and pollinators“, and regenerative urban agriculture. The focus of this piece is 18 fruit trees installed for 6 months in an art...

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October, 2024

30 October 2024

An open book with a picture of a tree and pressed leaves
A Tree Grows in Queens
Magali Duzant, New York City

In 2020, to halt the building of a logging road in Canada, a group of activists set up blockades to protect woodland in British Columbia. A Pacheedaht elder named Bill Jones was quoted in The Guardian as saying, “We must not stand down”. He went on to call ancient trees...

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