Welcome to Futures in Motion, our monthly round up from the folks and groups working to transform our tomorrow. Each month, we will be bringing you cultural recommendations from a member of the Futures in Draft network.
We’ll also be including spotlights on groups doing inspiring work and recommendations of actions you can take in your own community. In this month’s newsletter, we hear from gardener, activist and writer Kalpana Arias, about the best kept secrets in London, who she is keeping an eye out for in 2026 and the hot take that has got people unionising for the arts.
This month, we sat down with author of our ‘How To Start Guerrilla Gardening’ guide; Kalpana Arias. We chatted to Kalpana about the things that she’s loving at the moment, and how and why we should all fall in love with growing.
Who is a creative you are inspired by in 2026?
Mindy Seu. Her book Cyberfeminism Index maps decades of cyberfeminist art, theory, and internet culture through a huge archive of scrapped websites, manifestos, and digital ephemera. Right now I’m reading her newest book A Sexual History of the Internet, which explores how desire, identity, and politics have shaped the internet since its earliest days.What is one of your favourite places to recommend to people in your city?
Did you know London is a National Park City? With over 1,000 community gardens and orchards across the city, you can find green oases everywhere, from places like Garden of Earthly Delights to Glengall Wharf Garden in Peckham, which has forest gardens, food-growing beds, beehives, chickens, and ponds. From there, you can hop onto the Green Chain Walk, a network of walking routes linking parks and green spaces across South East London, and end at Brockwell Park in Herne Hill for one of the best views over the city.
What is an Internet hot take/discourse you loved recently?
Timothée Chalamet single-handedly unionising people for opera, theatre, and the arts. His comments set off conversations on anti-intellectualism and the idea that art doesn’t matter when the world feels like it’s burning. But art has always been political – it shapes culture, emotion, and collective imagination.
What is your perfect way to spend a Saturday?
In my veggie patch. In spring, I’m planting peas, broad beans, kale, nasturtiums, and pollinator-friendly flowers. Our street has a few guerrilla gardening beds, so I’ll scatter seeds or tuck herbs into empty patches around the neighbourhood, turning them into edible gardens.
So much of our connection, relationships and relationship building happens over food. If you’re having a group of people over, what are you cooking?
I’ve been hosting food labs where people taste, ferment, and experiment with ingredients while talking about food systems. I’m a huge fan of beans (lentils, chickpeas, butter beans, broad beans, plus more!) and I’m a big supporter of the Beans is How campaign. It’s a global movement encouraging people to eat more beans because they’re affordable, nutritious, and great for soil and biodiversity. A big shared bean dish is always a good place to start a conversation about why everyone has the right to grow.
What makes you most inspired or excited about the future?
Solarpunk futures – where biotech meets urban infrastructure. Scientists and designers are already experimenting with mycelium insulation, bacteria that repair cracks in concrete, and algae facades that generate energy. Projects like Grow Your Own Cloud even imagine storing data in plant DNA – turning parks, forests and gardens into living data infrastructure that replace power hungry server farms. These are the cities of the future!
If you have just a moment
As we watch the violence of Western imperialism unfold in Iran and Lebanon, we’ve been returning to the work of creatives in the region who have been using their work for storytelling and worldbuilding. One of our favourite Lebanese creatives is Mashrou Leila, the Beirut based band who are known for their role in using music as a tool for resistance, as well as the celebration of LGBTQI+ rights. We’ve loved returning to their 2017 release, Roman, and the beautiful cinematography in the video which celebrates Arab women and the resistance taking place against patriarchy and oppression as well as Western stereotypes.
If you have a little bit longer
Enjoy exploring Vogue’s Women By Women exhibition shortlist HERE. This year’s theme was all about “what it means to see - and be seen - as a woman” and the shortlist brings together an incredible collection of photographs from women based around the world.
Image credit: Dhan Illiani Yusof
If you have a while…
Now is a great time to start planting wildflower seeds in the UK, with flowers set to bloom from May to September. You can pick up packets from supermarkets and these are easy to plant in most soils, even if you are a complete growing beginner. Or better yet, why not try and plant some seeds in local areas that are in need of greening? Wildflowers are great pollinators and do wonders for helping to improve our air quality. See here for tips on how to get involved.
Image credit: Kalpana Arias
Fiction or non-fiction
both….?! Speculative imagination helps us shape the world so fiction lets us dream new futures, while non-fiction helps us understand the systems we’re living in and how to change them.
Life on Mars or Life underwater
Life underwater…. Protect the deep sea!
Podcast or documentary
Podcast. I love walking in my local park and listening to podcasts
4-hour hike or 4-hour rave
A 4-hour rave in a forest.
What is it? A peer-led organisation providing autonomous, abolitionist, and accessible mental health care for and by the neurodivergent+ community.
Why we’re interested: We’re excited to see an organisation led by young people, offering strategies, programming and action that combines healing with political education in such an ambitious and refreshing way. In June, NEUROMANCERS will be launching the UK's first and only, consent-led peer support helpchat for and by neurodivergent+ people.
Parque Quetzalcoatl - Mexico City, Mexico
What is it? An ecological park and space for connection with nature through living landscaping combined organic architecture.
Why we’re interested: We love seeing intentional design practices that are using new ideas and approaches to reconnect us to the land and start needed conversations about how we can build differently.
Join folks advocating for a climate and nature bill to be adopted in the UK by signing this petition.
Looking for work in social impact but not sure where to start? This LinkedIn post shares a list of 40 people in the sector who are regularly sharing work opportunities.
The Circular Cultures Design School has opened applications. The programme will explore how circular design can be a catalyst for creativity, collaboration and regenerative thinking. Deadline: 4th May.
CIPC are offering grants of £3,000 to support creatives, community leaders and practitioners using imagination practice to drive change in their communities. Deadline: 10th May.
Thank you so much for subscribing, reading along and for being a part of the Futures in Draft community.
If you have enjoyed today’s newsletter or any of the suggestions, we’d love to hear from you. Equally, if you have any recommendations you’d like us to include in next month’s newsletter please let us know at [email protected]
