Welcome to our Garden

“If war has an opposite, gardens might sometimes be it, and people have found a particular kind of peace in forests, meadows, parks and gardens.” — Rebecca Solnit

During the slow winter months we gladly leave behind, we have been quietly busy preparing the ground for our new Rights Studio Garden. Now it’s time to reconnect. 

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Beyond just another metaphor, gardens hold so much symbolism: they offer us a way of understanding our work, our role, and our vision while also developing our ecological awareness. 

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As we wrote before, they are also a symbol of our inner life; an ideal we aspire to. As a physical space, a garden is a place we can get lost in, where we can slow down, contemplate, reflect, think, but it is also a place that requires care, patience, and hard work.

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So we raked the soil, we cleaned, and weeded, we planted some seeds and now are ready to invite you to take a walk with us in our new garden — our digital space to make art and human rights grow, aka, our website. 

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As you wander, you will see that this is a work in progress and things will begin to bloom and mushroom in the weeks to come. We hope it better reflects who we are and what we do. May it be a place that entices you to contribute, or simply contemplate and be quietly curious. We hope you enjoy the view and the walk we start together.

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Words, Veronica Yates
illustration, Miriam Sugranyes

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References and Further Reading

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Orwell’s Roses, Rebecca Solnit 

‍The Overstory, Richard Powers

‍Wintering, The power of rest and retreat in difficult times, Katherine May

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Sep 17, 2021

Castles in the Air

“All things share the same breath — the beast, the tree, the man, the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.”— Chief Seattle, Suquamish

Aug 27, 2021

An Imagination Crisis?

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” — Albert Einstein

Oct 3, 2025

Afraid of History

“I have seen that it is not man that is impotent in the struggles against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality.… Human history is not man’s battle to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.” — Vasily Grossman

Jul 9, 2021

Utopia as a Garden

May 28, 2021

In Pursuance of Curiosity

“It’s not always easy to be comfortable in the space created by open questions. It’s tempting to hide in small rooms built from quick answers.”― Merlin Sheldrake

Feb 4, 2022

Seeking Simplicity

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move the opposite direction.”— E. F. Schumacher