Events on Saturday 15th May

Meditation with Trees

Each Slow Morning starts with 10 minutes of meditation. Book once for every morning.

09:00 Daily Festival Meditation with Trees with Mel Sutton. Join us for 9 days and establish a daily meditation practice. The start of the day is a great time for contemplation and self enquiry.

Susurrate

9:30  Hosted by Abi Wade, in her series ‘Susurrate’ she has created musical sketches based around urban trees. A new musical piece will be published each day of the Festival.

Video Strolls

10:00 Video Strolls curates and hosts accessible public discussions and screenings of artists’ films about place, people and journeying.  A new artists film will be published each day of the Festival.

Discover Downham

11:00 A 2 hour guided walk led by Tim Oshodi, London Borough of Lewisham. This walk explores some hidden treasures of Downham, in South-East London. As you walk, your guide - a knowledgeable local resident and self-build home owner - will show you sustainable ways of meeting housing need through community self-build timber frame eco - homes.

Urban Tree-wiki-thon

11.00 Launch event and editorial workshop led by Lucy Hine for the British Library. A online tree themed Wikipedia edit-a-thon, to create, update and improve Wikipedia articles about all things arboreal, including notable trees from history and literature.

Urban Bonsais real & imagined

11:30 Launch and practical workshop on creating your own urban bonsai led by artists Dean Reddick and Alban Low. A session explaining the concept of the Urban Bonsai and providing workshop participants with a guide on how to start creating their own Urban Bonsais.

Tree Rings Webinar

12:30 Tree Rings, a live discussion and Q&A on an urban tree topic hosted by CPRE London.
Trees for all - Improving accessibility Chaired by Jess Massucco, Trees for Cities with panelists Mama D, Community Centred Knowledge; Mariam Zulfiqar, Forestry England; Isaac Harvey, Trees for Cities volunteer; and David Bigden of Thames Chase Community Forest.

Games in the Woods launch event

14.00 Join the Festival’s Games Jam led by Ash Green & Marion Tessier for the British Library. An online tree themed game jam for all ages! You are welcome to join alone or in a team to create digital and analogue games. This jam will run throughout the duration of the Urban Tree Festival.

Tree Feeling walk

14:30 Join Tamsin Grainger for a walk in Edinburgh and explore how you feel about urban trees. Real-life event.

Elephant Adventure

15:00 Launch and practical workshop on creating your own storytelling with David Merleau. David will guide you through the process of crafting your own piece. You will be encouraged to visit your favourite urban forest area in person for “site-specific” inspiration.

The Nature Diary of an Elizabethan Gentleman

16:00 A light-hearted talk about surveying the wildlife of a small urban woodland nature trail at the Horniman Museum in south London over the last year given by Daniel Harwood. Daniel describes his many failures, and occasional successes, at cataloguing the trees, plants, fungi, birds and insects. He want to inspire everyone to grab a hand lens, put on a warm coat and peer at little bits of green stuff on twigs and the mouldy looking bits of leaves.

Book Club with Rob Cowen & Nick Hayes

17.00 Rob Cowen (author) and Nick Hayes (Illustrator) of The Heeding - a luminously illustrated meditation on our relationship with the natural world and each other through four unprecedented seasons & a global pandemic - chat with Festival co-producer Peter Fiennes