Nicole (she/her) introduces the vision and aims of the Frontline Herbalism Podcast, and shares some background info on the work of the Solidarity Apothecary.

Links & resources from this episode

• Prisoner’s Herbal Book
• Overcoming Burnout Book
• Medicinal Herb Colouring Book
• Ukraine Herbal Solidarity
• Herbal Solidarity Request Form

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

Support the show

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host, Nicole Rose

from the Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things, plants and liberation.

Hello.

Welcome to the frontline herbalism podcast.

This is obviously episode zero.

So thank you so much for, for downloading it and taking the time to listen.

I'm just going to share a little bit about what this podcast is about and a

little bit of background about myself.

So my name is Nicole Rose.

I organize a project called the Solidarity Apothecary.

Some of you might know if you've, you've actually managed to find this podcast,

but the mission of the Solidarity Apothecary is to materially support.

So, you know, support in practical ways, revolutionary struggles and

communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy,

self-defense and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.

So, you know, some small, some small goals there.

But some of the things I do, so I work as a herbalist.

I work with a project in Calais and Northern France with refugees.

I've written a book about plants and their uses in prison that

goes to prisoners worldwide.

And I'll be talking about this a little bit more later.

I supply herbal medicines to projects and groups and people living

on kind of frontline sites like protest camps, or demonstrations.

I work as a street medic.

Yeah.

And I also organize a Solidarity project called Ukraine herbal solidarity, which

I'll talk about more and yeah, in general, like my passions are plants obviously

and herbal medicine and social struggle.

So I'm a really long-term organizer.

I'm 34.

Now I started organizing when I was about eight years old.

After my grandma showed me around a factory farm to collect some

eggs and I was absolutely horrified and it started me on this big

journey around animal liberation.

And I got involved in all this sort of like normal kind of

mainstream things like Amnesty International and prisoner support.

And then yeah, over time I just kind of became like more and more radicalized.

And I found a book when I was babysitting by Errico

Malatesta, an Italian anarchist.

And it was just like, holy shit, like, this is the, this is it.

Like, this is the phrase open looking for that summarizes,

like how I feel about the world.

I know not everyone identifies as . And even for me, it's like a very imperfect

word, but for me and my kind of analysis of the world, like I like it because

it's the closest thing I have to kind of like a total liberation framework.

So I think that I want to be organizing towards a world where we've like

eradicated different forms of domination.

And I know that's going to be like a struggle across generations to challenge

different forms of oppression, whether it's racism, sexism, transphobia,

speciesism environmental destruction, like all the, all the things.

But yeah, I think.

I think anarchism for me gives me a really good framework where I can look

at bigger power structures, like the state or capitalism and how we organize

our lives and think about how they relate to power and oppression and yeah.

And to the land.

And you might be like, what the hell has this got to do of herbalism?

But we'll be revealed over the next few shows.

I actually think plant medicines are an incredible tool for resilience.

I think.

Amazing for our nervous systems for organizers who are dealing

with some pretty heavy shit, to be honest, like police violence,

raids, arrest, repression, prison, as well as anyone just trying to

survive in this capitalist world.

So yeah, some of the aims of the show so one of the biggest

ones is to support people.

So you guys listening to learn about plant medicines.

So I want to have like practical advice.

Plants about like knowledge about their uses, about their histories, about

different traditions around the world.

And I want to support people to basically like skill up, you know, I, I didn't,

I wasn't born knowing about herbalism.

I didn't have this romantic grandmother, like teaching me these

herbs, like, you know, I grew up in England and Wales and Scotland.

You know, my generation, like you're much more likely to be able

to identify thousands of corporate logos than you are ever like the most

basic of plants growing like in your garden or in the city where you live.

So for me, it's been a real big journey of like reclaiming this plant knowledge.

And, you know, like yeah, learning those skills, learning how to make

medicine, not just for myself, but for my community, for different

projects for resistance and resilience.

So yeah, I want things to be really practical.

The other aim is like, I really want this podcast to serve movements for liberation.

So that might be an, anarchists abolitionists anti-racist anti-colonial

to fascist feminist or movements working for queer and trans liberation,

animal liberation, ecological defense, just like all the things,

all the struggles against domination.

Like however they are, wherever that organizing.

I want this podcast to be useful because I think anyone engaged in those

movements for more than a second will know how difficult and challenging

this work can be, but also how life affirming and strengthening it can be.

And I think plant medicines are just like the most amazing support for

people doing that, doing that work.

I also want to share learning and inspiration from grassroots

health initiatives and frontline herbal projects around the world.

So that might be people doing clinics in refugee camps that might be, or,

you know, at like border sites, like in Calais in France or in Mexico.

That might be groups developing kind of like natural health clinics, like

for example, in Rojava in Northeast Syria, Kurdistan yeah, just like

different projects around the world.

Cause I think they've got a huge amount to teach people, you know, there's

no guidebook for this stuff, right?

Like I think the only way we're going to learn is by interviewing people,

seeing how they're working, taking what we can from their experiences

and applying them in our own regions and in our own communities, which are

all completely unique and different.

But, you know, we share like common threads.

The other goal is to amplify marginalized voices in herbalism to

center, voices of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour herbalists,

working class and queer communities.

I think, yeah, people are, you know, really doing the work and that the

kind of center stage of, of reclaiming herbalism of sharing, knowledge of

continuing knowledges, that haven't been completely successfully repressed

by, you know, like Western white, colonial capitalist, patriarchy, like,

you know, I want to be able to create a platform where I'm interviewing

guests and sharing news about projects and fundraisers for other projects.

So that's like a really big goal.

I also really want to like share political content that kind of

mobilizes people and give some resources like towards liberation.

So, you know, shout outs for new prisoners that want letters for projects,

for collectives, for action alerts.

And if you've got like anything that you'd like me to share on this

podcast, like I'm going to have a little segment where I'm doing like

mini shout, shout outs for projects.

And I'm going to put them in the show links and, and on my website.

And yeah, I really want it, you know, obviously like podcasts

got a date quite quickly, but.

It to be like a platform for everyone who can share, like stuff that they're working

on for liberation in different ways.

I want to kind of create content that supports people like who have experienced

or who are experiencing state violence, burnout or kind of like trauma with

practical tools and plant medicine and resources about like trauma recovery.

I'm an ex prisoner.

I did a three and a half year sentence when I was 21.

And that was a kind of amidst a decade of repression against the campaign I

was involved with to close down this animal testing company in the UK.

And yeah, it was an absolute minefield, like in terms of, of

PTSD and navigating that stuff.

And I support a lot of people leaving prison and who've been

through all sorts of stuff.

And I think plants offer us like amazing tools to help us support

our own other systems and to help us kind of survive in this world.

So yeah, I don't want it just to be for like, you know, organizers

and herbalists like, I also want it to be for people who are.

You know, who are in that, here in that pain place, if that makes sense.

Cause like, you know, it's, it's a long term thing, right?

Like I still struggle with PTSD.

Like it's, you know, I've definitely got on top of it as much as I can with

herbalism and supplements and then, you know, support and stuff like that.

But I think, yeah, I think it's an ongoing journey and I really

want to explore that in the show.

And finally, like, you know, the world is burning, right?

Like climate change.

Holy shit.

That's the thing.

I really want the podcast to be a practical resource for people that

are kind of proactively developing this kind of ecological and healthcare

infrastructure needed to respond to climate change like worldwide.

And there's so many beautiful examples of that from herbalists having stations

for respiratory support during wildfires, or, you know, responding to hurricanes

or floods or doing like refugee support, like all of these kind of things.

They're just gonna like increase over time.

Right.

Imminently.

And I think it's like amazing.

If we can have the kind of.

You know, the tools and resources collectively to respond to this stuff.

Yeah.

And then just in terms of like personal aims, like for the solidarity of

apothecary, I'm going to talk about my projects in a minute, but I really want

to build the sort of supporter base you know, like Instagram followers and

subscribers and monthly supporters.

Like I really like to sell more books.

And yeah, and just kind of like create chance for people to, to

get to know me a little bit and feel confident to access support.

So, you know, to submit a request for herbal solidarity for their, you know,

for their protest camp or for their collective or for themselves, right?

Like if you're burnt out or struggling or, you know, dealing with PTSD or

other things because of your work, like as an organizer or because

you've been through the system, like been through the prison system or

detention centers or anything else.

Like, I want people to feel confident to be able to contact me and be like, Hey,

I would really appreciate some support.

Yeah.

So.

That's kind of like what the show is about.

You know, too many, too many things as normal Gemini ascendent.

So it's like about all the things all the time.

But just a little bit about the solidarity apothecary.

I'd been doing kind of prisoner support for nearly 18 years now,

but that's a huge part of my life.

And over time I could just see people were really struggling like

with, with their health, with like that mental health, like all the

different things because of depression.

And I started kind of giving friends, some people I knew like herbs, like herbs

that I'd experimented with or taken.

And then that kind of just like grew over time.

And I decided that I wanted to be a full-time herbalist and I didn't want

my conviction or my time in prison to prevent me from supporting people.

So I managed to find an amazing school called the plant medicine school

in Ireland, who I highly recommend.

And yeah, I did a four year program to become like a clinical herbalist.

And it was like one of the best things I've done in my entire life.

And now I'm trying to support other people as a herbalist.

So in 2019 I wrote this book called the prisoner's herbal.

Everyone's like, oh, I can't believe you like publish this book so fast.

They don't realize it's like, I actually started working on this zine when I was

in prison, which is like 10 years ago now.

So it really wasn't a fast project.

I just kind of like did the graphics and stuff quite quickly, like, you

know, like the formatting of the.

But yeah, like the Prisoner's Herbal it's, it's like a pretty beefy book.

It's like 256 pages, I think.

And it's all about kind of like 10, 10 different plants that

I connected with in prison.

So that's just like plants that were growing in the courtyard.

Right.

That we're just like coming up through the concrete, like

dandelions and nettles and chickweed.

And it's also about like, things you can find on the canteen.

So this is stuff you can just like buy in the prison.

So things like salt or pepper or turmeric or yeah, different things

like that and how to use them and like fruits and vegetables as well,

like onion and apples and yeah.

You know, like all the things that you could possibly scrounge and find in a

prison, I like included in the book.

And then there's also a section about how to do, how to do like wound care and also

like how to connect to a plant's kind of a bit more spiritually, like lots of people

inside can obviously not access plants in any way, like, you know, especially

with the pandemic, like in a UK context, people are really doing like 23 and a half

hours a day, like locked in their rooms.

Like, and they're lucky if they get out for association, if I'm honest, and that's

what we call the time when you kind of are allowed out in your courtyard, you know,

for other prisoners, like they might be in a lower category prison and they might be

able to be unlocked or work in the gardens will work at some horticulture project.

But yeah, the kind of experiences of people incarcerated is vast.

And that's why I'm wanting to include like lots of different

options for connecting with plants.

And that book is distributed by a crew called the prisoner's

herbalism collective.

So I think it was 2020.

I put a call out for a bit more support to make it a bit more like collective.

So it, wasn't kind of like on my shoulders and got an amazing like international

crew of people who, you know, like process requests from prisoners.

We've got a PO box in New York and in the UK who upload all their details to

a spreadsheet and we get books posted out to them who help with fundraising.

And yeah, and it's a really huge part of my life.

Like every book that I've sold, like near enough, all the money has

gone to posting books to prisoners.

And we, must've got about 3000 now, I think by now to

people and present worldwide.

And there's different translated additions.

There's going to be additions coming out for Spain and Mexico.

In Greece and also like Germany and France kind of on a longer term horizon.

So yeah, so that's the prisoners herbalism collective.

I also have a book called overcoming burnout, which also came out in 2019.

And it's like a collection of blogs that I wrote back in,

like way back in 2016, 2017.

I got really sick on a speaking tour in Spain and the Basque

country and France, and yeah.

Developed this really gnarly long-term illness called costochondritis,

which is a chronic inflammation in the cartilage of your rib cage.

Excruciating pain.

And yeah, just like the experiences of being ill and navigating the medical

industrial complex and learning about herbalism and learning about how chronic

stress affects your health and how we deal with grief and movements and

how we You know, like process trauma and our body, like these were all

things that I kind of learned about.

Like, as I was kind of recovering, and I know like the word recovery

is a bit of a loaded word.

Yeah.

I just kind of started writing blogs really about my journey as

a kind of like cathartic rant.

It kind of really resonated with people with.

So yeah, so that book's available on my website as well.

Like the same as the prisoners herbal and the medicinal herb coloring book, like

all our available was downloadable eBooks, like as PDFs or as well as physical books.

And I hand, post them out myself cause you know, capitalism.

And then, like I mentioned at the beginning . I also have this option

on my website for people to request herbal support, like herbal solidarity.

So I get lots of requests through that form, and that could be like an individual

that wants support because they're burnt out or they've just got out of prison

and they need support, or it could be a project, you know, like a detainees

support group who are dealing with a really intense campaign or a really big

workload who just wants some kind of immune support, or it could be people

living at kind of a protest camp who are dealing constant evictions and stress and

arrests, and they want stuff, you know, to prevent like COVID and things like this.

So, yeah, so there's like a big variety.

Yeah.

And you know, to fund that work, I sell, I sell the books.

We also have a book called the medicinal herb coloring book, 50 incredible

illustrations by my friend Amani.

Who's just absolutely amazing talented artist.

She's definitely going to be on the show in the future talking about like

chronic illness and disability justice.

So, yeah, that's kind of like my work in the world.

There's probably stuff I've missed, but that's like a little bit about me.

Like I said, I'm based, I'm based in England in the Southwest near Bristol

kind of lineages are like English Welsh and Irish and the kind of plant medicine

I practice is from those traditions.

But, you know, I love learning about different plant cultures around the

world and yeah, I would encourage anyone listening to this podcast to, to kind of.

I understand that I'm talking about how it's from that lens.

Cause that's like authentic to me, but to kind of lean into

herbalism, that's like relevant to them and their lineages and yeah.

Their relationship to plant medicine and the family's

relationship to plant medicine.

Yeah.

And also, I just want to say like, This is like an experiment.

Like I'm a bit of a, like, get it done, get it out person.

Like I'm not a perfectionist, but I just want to like lean into the

fact that like, I will screw up.

Like, I will say things that are problematic or not phrased in a good way.

I'm sure I'll make comments that are like oppressive or abelist or

racist or sexist or, you know, like there's just like so many things that.

Yeah, I could say that are kind of like from where I am now or what

I'm saying, like unconsciously.

And I really appreciate it if people email me or give me feedback because

you know, all of this stuff is like a constant learning journey.

Like I just think like we are where we are and we have to just keep learning

and learning and learning and like leaning in towards like liberation.

And you know, sometimes we won't do that very well.

Like I can guarantee you won't do that very well if you're a white person.

So like, you know, I want the show to be like a space where people can learn, can

make mistakes, can educate each other.

You know, I think.

Liberation works should be liberating.

If that makes sense.

Like, I think, you know, we can all like lean in to hearing some content on here

that we could find a bit challenging.

You know, like I know people have all sorts of feelings about the prison

system and abolition, these different ideas, or, you know, how do we build

a world without states or, you know, armed struggle or whatever it is.

Like, there's so many different things we're going to talk about that

could upset people that could trigger them that could push them in certain

directions or, you know, generate a bit of feedback in them some way.

And I just want to say, like, that is the work, right?

Like, that is what I hope to do with these episodes.

And I'm sure when guests come on, like I'm going to really learn from them.

And that's what I'm super excited about is just like selfishly

all the people I found go on.

I'm just going to like invite on the show and get a precious bit of time with them.

So I'm really excited for that.

Oh, so I think podcasts are amazing because they're just more accessible.

Like I'm dyslexic.

I also drive and do like a lot of practical work where I work, you know,

where I live in terms of managing land and making medicine and harvesting herbs.

And, and so like, I think podcasts are amazing because they're just like this

great format in terms of accessibility.

I'm going to have transcripts up, but if there's like anything else I can do

to make the show like more accessible for you, like, please let me know.

Like I said, like I'm learning and yeah, I just want it to be as helpful

and useful for people as possible.

Yeah.

And you know, maybe it be a real niche, like maybe, maybe it'll just be me and

like six cute queers from Instagram.

And if it is that's okay.

But I really think there's people like all over the planet that are just, you

know, really dedicated and grafting for liberation in different ways.

You know, whether they're fighting dams in Serbia or, you know, organizing support

for refugees and migrants in Calais.

You know, like fighting police violence in the U S or, you know,

there's just like 1,000,001 examples.

And I think, yeah, these are really revolutionary times, you know, we've

got like global climate change.

We've got the invasion of Ukraine.

We've got, you know, wars happening, left right and center.

We've got environmental destruction.

I could list like a million depressing things.

In response to all of those, there's incredible cultures of solidarity and

self-organized movements, you know, like with the pandemic, like this huge

shift in kind of global awareness of tools, like mutual aid and, you know,

yeah, I just, yeah, I just think there's loads going on and I really want to

capture a little bit of it for this moment in time with this podcast and try

and get as much learning from that as possible for everyone and yeah, find me.

I just, I just want to be a plant geek.

I just want to talk about plants.

I want to share about plants.

I want to hear guests talk about plants.

You know, they are absolutely amazing and yeah, who wouldn't want to talk about,

I actually had an ex girlfriend wrote to me in prison and say that one of the

reasons she was breaking up with me was because she just wasn't that into plants.

So if you're not that into plants, this show is probably not for you,

but if you are, please keep listening and yeah, I'll do my best to, to

make a kind of fun and interesting and informative podcast for you.

The best I can.

Okay.

Take care.

Thanks.

Thanks so much for listening to the frontline herbalism podcast, you

can find the transcripts, the links, all the resources from the show at