the paper grew at first out of necessity to complete the requirement, but soon became the main focus of my work. through writing this paper i have begun to discover in myself a long lost love for the written word, shedding the shackles of disciplinary writing and reclaiming language as a tool for personal and collective liberation. in this paper i blur the lines between genre, weaving poetry, philosophy, journalistic writing, and academic research to create a piece that aims to resonate with readers spiritually, emotionally, and practically, encouraging them to reflect on their lives and opening their minds to the possiblities of liberation which exist.

my introduction provides my immediate context and reasons for creating the project, as well as describing the dirt i am talking about, dirt which is both physical and metaphysical. in dark ecology and the mesh i bring in the philosophy of Timothy Morton as a framework for how we can look at the world to most effectively design our minds to be conducive to liberation, which i define in my next chapter, liberation. in addition to defining liberation, this chapter examines what a society practicing liberation may look like, the need for both decomposition and growth, and the importance of viewing liberation as a practice, not an end goal. in ecological living i describe my experiences in the aforementioned ecological communities, and in art, i describe the importance of my art practice both in understanding myself and sharing my messages with the world. expanding the scope brings in my research on permaculture and ecovillages, demonstrating how liberation is already being practiced by many humans on large scales.

this work is an offering, a gift, a medicine, for myself, for anyone who reads it, and perhaps most of all for the community at drew university.