Roots: Memory, Migration, Nature & Belonging

This workshop explores how our memories, identities, and sense of belonging are shaped by the plants and climates we grow up with, and how these relationships change through experiences of migration, movement, and transformation.

Whether migration is across countries, cities, languages, or social environments, we carry traces of these places with us, often in ways we do not immediately recognise.

Grounded in queer ecology and theory, this workshop approaches nature as a space that challenges fixed categories and celebrates diverse ways of relating, adapting, and existing.

Queer Ecology, Memory, and Migration

Drawing from writers such as Sania Shah and Jessica J. Lee, alongside examples of queerness in flowers and plant life, participants will reflect on their own connections to place, memory, and movement.

Together, we will explore questions such as:

• What do we carry with us when we migrate?
• How do plants, landscapes, and climates shape identity?
• What traces of former homes remain with us?
• How do we create belonging in new environments?
• What can nature teach us about adaptation and transformation?

Creative Reflection and Making

Participants are invited to identify a transformational plant, flower, tree, or natural element that holds personal significance.

Through storytelling, group discussion, painting, and speculative making methods, we will explore how reconnecting with these plant memories can help us understand where we come from, how we identify ourselves, and how we root ourselves in the places we inhabit today.

Together, we will imagine and create small portable objects inspired by these plants and memories.

These creations may become:

• Personal holders
• Necklaces
• Keychains
• Magnets
• Pins
• Other everyday companions

These objects will serve as small reminders of memory, movement, belonging, and transformation.

Community, Anti-Racism, and Collective Storytelling

The workshop also engages with themes of anti-racism, the right to existence, community-building, and collective storytelling.

Through rounds of sharing and listening, participants contribute to a supportive environment where personal stories become a starting point for understanding broader experiences of belonging, migration, identity, and difference.

Sharing personal experiences is welcome but never required. Participants are encouraged to engage in whatever way feels comfortable for them.

Who Is This Workshop For?

This workshop welcomes:

• Migrants and refugees
• Diaspora communities
• LGBTQIA+ people
• Artists, writers, and creatives
• Nature lovers
• Community organisers
• People interested in identity, memory, and belonging
• Anyone curious about migration, ecology, and storytelling

No prior knowledge or artistic experience is required.

About the Facilitator

Nazgol Sobhan

Nazgol Sobhan facilitates creative and community-centred spaces exploring migration, memory, identity, belonging, and ecology. Through storytelling, discussion, and creative practices, she creates opportunities for participants to connect personal experiences with broader social and environmental questions.

Accessibility Information

This event takes place at Villa Vida Café, Linke Wienzeile 102, 1060 Vienna.

Accessibility features include:

• Step-free entrance
• Wheelchair-accessible ground floor venue
• Accessible toilet
• Seating available throughout the event
• Quiet spaces available upon request
• Service animals welcome
• Free drinking water available

If you have specific accessibility requirements, please contact us before the event and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.