Do you wish for more space to engage with the big questions of our times? To have reflective space to develop ideas together? To find pathways out of confusion, anger or despair and towards different ways of acting and being? 

From the Heart Grows Wild is an educational project to create such spaces, running workshops to orientate ourselves and respond creatively in the face of the overwhelm of big picture politics, developing resilience by connecting with nature, community and our own bodies. It is run by me, Jay Wilkinson. I’m a workshop facilitator, artist and writer with a burning desire for social change and social justice on all scales large and small. My work is centred on individual and collective liberations, seeking to break down the limiting narratives we have inherited from oppressive systems, and to overcome the atomisation we experience in the modern world. My workshops endeavour to build our collective capacity for challenging toxic systems and power dynamics, and to find ways of thriving in spite of them, in solidarity with one another. The project is in its early stages and is currently a solo project, supported by friends, community, nature connection and the resources I have access to. I’m also very open to developing collaborations, and you can find a record of my previous collaborations here. (If you’d like to look into collaborating together, I’d love you to get in touch at info@fromtheheartgrowswild.earth )

At the core of my work are the following principles (see the link to this jargon buster for words in bold): 

– The need for joy, humour and fun to be integral to learning.

– The need to work on creating connection – with our own bodies and minds, with each other, and with the wonders of the more-than-human living world. 

– The need to understand how power dynamics and systems of domination cause oppression to us all, and in very different ways. Almost everybody suffers from our oppressive social and economic systems, but with different degrees of severity. People who are racialized/ Disabled/ economically marginalized/ without citizenship papers/ living in the Global South, may face extremes of oppression, and this needs to be recognized. 

– The need to hold space in a way that allows the intelligence, knowledge and experience of the group to emerge and be shared with one another.

– The need for working with group dynamics and access needs, so that inclusion and participation is maximised. 

– The need for workshops to be accessible to people of different income levels. 

I live with chronic illness, so the struggles that people with energy impairment face are close to my heart. I have privileges that come from my racial and class background, my citizenship status, and my level of formal education, but my earning power remains limited as a result of drastically fluctuating energy levels. For me, this project is partly about working on terms that are my own or agreed on with others, breaking with the domination of working on other people’s terms when I don’t have the capacity for it. 

On this website, you’ll also find my artwork, poetry, short stories and writings (see the Creative works drop down menu). All my creative work has been a way to liberate myself from toxic thinking and a sense of isolation, and I share it in the hope that it may aid others too. However, I’ve come to realise that my heart very much lies with holding group space to explore issues together, and above all I wish to commit to collective empowerment through educational workshops and courses.