All about the latest tour in Italy!

Links & resources from this episode

• Italy Tour
• Donate to the PayPal Pool to help print the Prisoner's Herbal in Italian
• Newsletter sign up to be notified of the next Practical Medicine Making Intensive Course

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

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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.

Let's get started.

Hey friends, how's it going?

I am back.

It's been a very busy few weeks, but I'm excited to launch a couple of episodes about herbal wound care in prison and also about connecting with plant allies, which are the last two bits of my prisoners herbal books that I've been recording as like solo episodes since I started this podcast.

And then I'm not gonna make a big announcement about it, but I'm gonna be releasing a series of podcasts from a group called the Medical Self-Defense Network.

, and I'm gonna, yeah, save that intro for another rainy day.

But I'm really excited about it.

Have been talking to some medics, working all over the world, and I think it's gonna be a really amazing series.

So I'm gonna publish the episodes about the, uh, wound care and plant allies separately.

I just wanted to do like a little longer catch up episode, all about the tour in Italy and the medicine making course that I recently taught.

, so yeah, I hope you are okay.

, this weekend it was the anniversary of my best friend's death, Taylor.

Was very intense, understandably.

, I saw Sam Taylor's partner in prison and one of my best friends, but yeah, went to the grave, kind of went to the sea where we scattered Taylor's ashes and , yeah, was just a thing.

And I'm on some weird grief come down today.

, but I am doing okay.

And last weekend I had the first practical medicine making intensive course at my place, uh, for three days.

So, , 17 people came together in the end.

Which was just absolutely amazing, and a bunch of them were able to be kind of gifted, like accessible, kind of free places, like because of the other people paying.

So that was awesome.

Like, you know, this sliding scale stuff's always like a real experiment between you know, sort of weird femme self-sacrifice stuff and then just like actually covering costs and then yeah, enabling like working class people to participate.

So yeah, I was really happy, like the fact that I kind of lent into charging a little bit more then was comfortable for me, but that enabled me to feel generous on the course and have enough materials for everyone and give free places to people and pay, , my mum to do all the catering.

And yeah, it was just like one of the best weekends I've had in such a long time.

Like I think I was a bit burnt out from lots of like popular education and teaching and stuff, and back in the day when I did more kind of community food stuff when I got outta prison.

But yeah, it was really wonderful.

Like I could not have asked for a nicer group.

Like people were caring and kind and just like really getting stuck in like just really like, Great listeners, like had loads to offer, were like sharing things they knew about different herbs and different medicine making strategies.

And yeah, it was just really inspiring.

, we looked at making different kinds of glycerides making tinctures, , making infused oils.

That was like one of the last days and was tons of fun.

, we looked at making indigestion lozenges, herbal vinegars.

Unfortunately it was kind of raining on the first day, but the sun did come out and people had an amazing time.

So yeah, I'm super stoked.

, please sign up to my newsletter if you'd like to hear when the next ones will be.

I'm gonna run two next year, , and I'm just confirming the dates and then I will, , I will make an announcement.

I probably won't open it for bookings until next year, just cuz it's like quite a lot of admin to stay on top of.

But , yeah, I'm really excited.

That I've got like this kind of prototype now that I can repeat and yeah.

And that hopefully people can come away with like some confidence for their practical skills to make medicines for their crews and their communities.

Yes.

So that was awesome.

And then before that, I did this tour of Italy.

Right.

And if you have been following me on Instagram, I'll never go over how pretentious that sounds to say that out loud, but you know what I mean?

You'll have seen all of my little stories of me and my partner Rob, being very silly on the train, , and all sorts of things.

But yeah, it was, it was tons of fun.

It was, it was hard work.

, I, yeah, I am not like, Early twenties anymore, do you know what I mean?

Like, I definitely really struggled physically.

, but it was really wonderful.

So I'm just gonna give like a little overview of, of how it went.

, so I was invited there by comrades who've translated the prisoner's herbal book into Italian.

Really, really sweet crew, awesome politics, kind, compassionate.

Yeah, just really on it folks.

And , yeah.

They've been translating the book and it's not like physically published yet, like we're trying to fundraise for those costs.

But, , the digital copy has been finished, , and they've just sent it like printed out to some people in prison just to like get their feedback.

So the first stop was, , this kind of like Herbal Festival, , Erbacce Fest in, , a place called Vado in Bologna.

And I'm sorry for mispronouncing the names of all these.

But yeah, it was like basically just like a d i y herbalism festival organized by this crew who published scenes who make medicine, who runs skill shares.

Like it was really sweet.

Shit loads of people there.

I wasn't expecting it.

, in the daytime I did like a workshop about how to make glycerin, I mean about how to make glycerites.

So glycerin is a form of medicine where kind of herbs are mixed with glycerin.

, and glycerin is basically like 95% or more glycerol, which is something found like in all of our bodies.

So yeah, I just kind of did a deep dive about what glycerin is.

It's kind of solvency, it's medicinal properties, how to work with it compared to things like teas and tinctures.

Some of the advantages around, you know, like it's basically like safe and appropriate for, you know, vast members of our community that tinctures aren't, for example, people who avoid alcohol for religious reasons or spiritual reasons, for health reasons, because they're in recovery.

All the things.

So yeah, we had like tons of fun doing like at this kind of practical glycerin workshop.

And then yeah, in the evening did a talk about the prison's herbal book and like the project and , you know, looking at, you know, what, what are prisoners experiencing inside, right?

Like what are the conditions of imprisonment?

Like, what are people's emotional needs?

Talked a lot about, , suicidality and how, you know, you can be at 95% and just 5% of something can tip you over the edge.

, whether that's, you know, abuse from an officer or, you know, bad news from home.

, and how herbs can be like preventative in terms of people feeling connected to something alive, and beautiful and can give people a sense of purpose.

And I always made sure in all of my talks that I was like, yo, like the purpose is not to get herbs into prison.

Like the purpose is to destroy all the prisons and build a world without prisons.

, but while people are in there, like what can we do to like include them in our communities as much as we can, and that includes including them in herbalism.

What can we do to build health autonomy to like resist this system that's basically killing people through medical neglect and other reasons.

, so yeah, it was kind of all about like the politics of that.

And then, you know, for some crowd leaders talked about like practical examples of, you know, like hiding hers in my bra or, , making medicine on the wing for people, stuff like that.

But, , yeah, I was so, I was so blown away by like the reception, like, , get a bit emotional talking about it, but like, oh, it can be really difficult in England.

, where there is a lot of like hostility and prejudice against herbal medicine and it's very under misunderstood and it's very biomedical and kind of like focused on being, you know, kind of professional and in suits and all of this shit.

And it's less about like relationship to land, to plants, to our ancestors who practiced herbalism who had more health autonomy, for example.

, and yeah, like it just was amazing to be in a country where people have this like rich relationship with plants.

No, I don't wanna romanticize like, you know, the entire country.

Like I know that loads of people there are also very separated from the land and their bodies and herbs and, you know, aade, just because the place has like a strong like kitchen culinary herbal practice doesn't necessarily mean there's like a strong.

, tradition of kind of like medicine, if that makes sense.

But yeah, overall, like I just, I was so blown away by people's just like, support of the project and.

Yeah, and it was really beautiful.

, and then there was, uh, lots of live music, which made me realize I am such a scrooge and really need like an early night and I can't cope with like, like techno to two in the morning.

, but yeah, people were great and it was fine and we had our own room and it was lovely.

, so yeah, so that was an amazing festival.

Like it happens every year.

So definitely check that out.

, I put a link on an Instagram post of where you can find out more.

It's this kind of Anarcho Herbane Collective, like a kind of anarchist herb list collective that organized it.

, and their email is like, on my website I've got page all about the Italy tour.

, so yeah, and then we had like a bit of a day off, which was really nice.

And then, , you know, walked around the land, , the mountains, like just, yeah, it was just so beautiful, like, so green.

Like it's not, apparently, it's not usually that green, it's just because there has been a lot of rain recently, which unfortunately had triggered a lot of landslides in the area.

, but yeah, it was really, really beautiful, the landscape.

And then we got a long train down to Rome, , the city and yeah, we didn't have time to do any fun like tourist shit unfortunately.

, but we did the anarchist tourist shit.

And, , yeah, I did a talk in this, uh, squat, , called Opsi, which is like a queer feminist, trans feminist squat.

So basically, , like cis men are the only people kind of, not welcome in the space.

Like, and it's like, yeah, a space for, for women, trans women, non-binary people, trans men, like anyone with kind of diverse genders.

And , yeah, it was just such a beautiful space.

Like I couldn't, yeah, it just, yeah, it's like the home of this woman who lived there.

And, , when she died, like, I think it went to like some distant relative and he hasn't really like, claimed the property.

So it's just kind of sitting on the end of the street, in the city with this amazing, huge garden and, , People had found loads of her stories and photos and like made like this amazing research project into her and like she's like super dynamic woman, like never got married, like had various lovers.

Like it just, yeah, it was just like tons of fun learning about her and seeing that how her space is now being used to support all this like feminist organizing.

, so yeah, we had like a really sweet talk.

, in the garden I got eaten to death by mosquitoes.

But again, it was like intimate.

It was, you know, talking about, , relationships to plants and prison and yeah, it was, yeah, it was really lovely.

So thank you so much to everyone who hosted me there.

Got to see a really old friend of mine, which was very special.

, And then the next day went to Milan.

So again, more, more traveling, more trains.

It was just like one long train journey.

, and yeah, the did a presentation at a squat called Villa Occupa, which used to be called Villa Vegano.

Like I went there like way back in the day, like, I don't know, 2015 or something to talk about, , repression and repression of the campaign that I was in and how that was affecting other people.

, so yeah, it was kind of strange to be back there.

, But people made me the most delicious or mero the most delicious, like gluten-free vegan pizza.

So that made me very happy.

And again, it was like super well attended and I met folks who've been doing a lot of like solidarity work on the borders.

, and that was really cool to learn from them.

Okay.

And then the next day went to the Susa Valley.

So this is like a real, , A real kind of famous area for like local resistance to like a high speed railway called the Tav.

, you know, which would potentially destroy like a lot of the local bioregion, which was absolutely outstandingly beautiful.

Just like these forested hillsides and like snowy mountains.

And like, I just, yeah, it was so breathtaking.

Like huge rivers.

Like I can see why people are like fighting to defend the land there, you know?

, and yeah.

Did the talk at a little, , Occupied space with a library and it was really beautiful.

And again, like loads of people came, , including one of my best friends in Enrico.

, so that was really nice.

I put a little picture of him on Instagram.

, and yeah, so it was awesome.

Like I tried to integrate a little bit more into the workshop around like, how does herbalism like affect.

You know, like how does that contribute to kind of like resilience in movements in the sense of like, how does repression affect our bodies?

How do we deal with burnout?

How do we deal with trauma?

And yeah, mention things like me herbalism and PTSD course and stuff.

, so.

And then the next day we had like a little impromptu workshop where I just was like talking with people about the mobile herbal clinic in Calais and talking with friends about how it works, how we organize some of our like clinical protocols, how we structure our team.

, and that was really awesome.

And yeah, like I think people took a lot away from it and they wanna come to Calais and learn from us and maybe start something in Italy.

So that's super exciting.

, and definitely was one of the highlights of my trip.

, and then we drove to Turin, , which I was actually really surprised cuz I'm like not a city person at all, but like, actually where we were staying was really beautiful.

Like, I was actually finding myself swooning over architecture, which is like, not something I do, but I was like, wow, it's like really beautiful here.

, so I did a presentation at a squat again.

It was just like so well attended, like, and so many beautiful, like, interested questions.

Like I just felt really emotional at the end of it.

, we talked about the prison's herbal and also talked a little bit about some like anti prison struggle in the uk, like, uh, struggles against prison expansion here.

, yeah, and that was amazing and I got to meet a few people who I haven't seen for a long time.

, and then, yeah, and then we basically just crashed out at this very weird Airbnb full of weird.

Like drawings and then just like hung out at the airport.

, very exhausted from like several days of loads of traveling and talking about prison like every single night.

, so yeah, it was definitely hard work, but also like amazing and strengthening and yeah, like I think doing all this anarchist stuff, like it can be tiring, right?

Like constant prison visits, like loads of like, Fundraising pressure, emotional pressure, like workload pressure, and then yeah, just like bang, you get these like highlight moments where you get to just meet people and be inspired by them.

Like one of the highlights of my trip was, , being at this like really gorgeous space in the Susa Valley, and they've made it into like a kind of autonomous, like healthcare space where they have, they've been teaching each other like d i y kind of gynecology exams and there was like loads of different books about gynecology and like a table, like a kind of massage table, , and other things and lots of diagrams and pictures and it just was like such a beautiful, like little piece of infrastructure, you know?

And yeah, it was really inspiring.

So yeah, I've probably said inspiring about 500 times, but yeah, it was like a blast.

, and like I said, you know, like things can be really tough sometimes and then you get just these amazing opportunities to like travel, right?

Like, you know, the expenses were paid.

Like it just, yeah, it was just awesome.

, and you know, like I am, I am like open to invitations to go places.

Like people are really cool and, you know, invite me around the place all the time.

Like if I wanted to be some kind of like random full-time traveling anarchist, I probably could be.

But yeah, too many responsibilities here, unfortunately.

, but yeah, it was really, really wonderful.

And I just wanna say like, thank you so much to everyone who organized the tour.

Yeah, it just was, it was like a wonderful opportunity.

All right.

So, yeah.

And finally on that note, , it is quite a hard place to fundraise.

Like it's, you know, very different compared to like England or Germany or, , you know, France.

So like, you know, if you can put some pennies into the fundraiser that I created, I just like, You know, bashed up a PayPal pool, , for people to contribute towards like the printing cost of the prison's herbal in Italy, but if you could just put anything in there, it would just be so appreciated.

It's got another 20 days left on it or something.

, so if you wanna support that project, you know, like conditions in prisons in Italy are like really hardcore, especially with the heat and you know, the age of lots of the prisons and the conditions and yeah, it just would mean the world to me to be able to support that book project and that collective.

, so.

All right.

I think that's me.

I will, , get this online and get the other ones online and, , yeah.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.