Multidisciplinary artist Joiri Minaya collaborates with writer and curator Dessane Lopez Cassell on an outdoor performance series, short film, and publication that reflect on the intertwined legacies of freedom, extraction, and ecology in North America's oldest surviving botanical garden. Through ethnobotanical designs and movement, the collaborators, both members of the Dominican diaspora, examine Philadelphia's colonialist horticultural practices and the cultural significance of plants for Native and Black people of the Americas, especially the Caribbean. An accompanying special issue of Seen, BlackStar's journal of film and visual culture, focuses on Caribbean art, performance, and film, allowing readers to further engage with the ideas that inform the project.

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