MSU partners with Georgia Tech on Earthseed Project

Michigan State University has joined the Georgia Institute of Technology in the Earthseed Project, a humanities-centered research initiative that uses Afrofuturist literature to connect horticulture, climate resilience and food sustainability knowledge and practices.

The Earthseed Lab and research project launched in 2021 at Georgia Tech by Susana Morris, associate professor of literature, media and communication. Morris was inspired by Afrofuturist author Octavia E. Butler’s prophetic “Parable” series of novels (“Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents”) describing a dystopian California struggling with climate challenges, societal inequity and political instability.

“Looking at work like Butler’s gives us that language to take control, to take the reins of how we refashion our future,” Morris said. “We can discern the patterns in human society and behavior and make a difference through what we do with the land, with what we do with resources, by rejecting a kind of extractive notion and looking toward something that is more holistic, reciprocal, logical.”

When Morris and fellow Georgia Tech Professor John Thorton received a recent $575,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation, they were able to expand The Earthseed Project with new research and community outreach initiatives. This expansion includes a partnership with Kinitra Brooks, MSU professor of english and Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair of Literary Studies, along with establishing Earthseed North at MSU to complement Earthseed South at Georgia Tech.

“The Mellon Foundation really invested in the project,” Morris said. “It’s a lot of resources that can make a change, so we’re really excited about having this kind of latitude.”

Both Earthseed locations will use the humanities to explore historical botanical knowledge and food pathways connected with the Great Migration made by Black Americans between 1910 and 1970 and the significance of foodscapes in promoting Black livability.

Researching and Planting a Conjure Garden

At MSU, Brooks is collaborating with staff from the Beal Botanical Garden and Campus Abortorium to create a Conjure Garden that will feature plants used in spiritual and medicinal practices passed down through generations of Black Southern and Caribbean women and enslaved people.

“Conjure is a spiritual practice that includes Black folks’ practice of Christianity, as well as some of the remnants that were brought over through the transatlantic slave trade,” Brooks said. “There are spiritual remnants, spiritual ideas, spiritual practices, as well as the importance of the botanical knowledge.”

Founded in 1873, the Beal Botanical Garden and Campus Arboretum at MSU is the oldest continuously operated university botanical garden and the only garden in Michigan with accreditation from the Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Angelica Bajos, Community Sustainability Coordinator for Beal Botanical Garden, is balancing that legacy with new programming connecting The Earthseed Project and Conjure Garden.

“We’re really fortunate to have this opportunity to be creative and bring in other aspects like Afrofuturism and the humanities into the garden,” Bajos said. “Pulling out these different concepts, like the Conjure Garden, makes it more tangible for people to understand the ecosystem, how things operate, how things run.”

Department of English doctoral student Cheyenne Symonette is also helping prepare for the Conjure Garden by researching late 19th century and early 20th-century horticultural records along with interviews recorded between 1935 and 1973 in “Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork: Beliefs Accepted by Many Negroes and White Persons These Being Orally Recorded Among Blacks and Whites” by Harry Middleton Hyatt.

Symonette’s research will catalog the plants used in Black communities during and after slavery in a searchable database making this Indigenous knowledge more visible and accessible. She will also work with horticulturists at Beal Botanical Garden to select and source plants suited to Michigan’s climate to feature in the Conjure Garden, which will be planted in spring 2026.

Building Community Using Books and Plants

Another way The Earthseed Project is expanding narratives and a sense of belonging is through community reading groups in Beal Botanical Garden.

“Hosting events and programs is so important, especially when it comes to this concept of the garden, because we’re expanding on what Octavia Butler is sharing with us,” Bajos said. “Part of that is experiencing nature together. It’s not just talking about it.”

The first “Conjuring Hope: Deciphering Parables” event in July 2025 brought community members together in Beal Garden to read and discuss concepts of hope, Afrofuturism, gardening and the spiritual practice found in Butler’s “Parable” series.

“It’s amazing to give people the opportunity to see that reading isn’t just sitting in a chair, sitting in a classroom,” Brooks said. “People can read in the woods. People can read in the botanical gardens. People can get their hands dirty, literally through literature. We want to provide opportunities for that to happen.”

More than 20 people attended the event from local Greater Lansing areas as well as from Detroit. Participants ranged from college students to retired professionals, including an 89-year-old Mason resident.

Each person received graphic novels of the “Parable” series and planted their own wild strawberries reflecting the themes in Butler’s work related to how to heal ourselves, our community and our Earth.

“We want to show that this has real, live, practical uses, such as growing wild strawberries. Just as you can read these things in the ‘Parable’ series, you can also have your own garden at your home,” Brooks said. “Literature provides these models for us too, for real, actual lived lives.”

Ciera Lewis, a Lansing resident who works with MSU Counseling Psychiatric Services, was interested in the “Conjuring Hope” event because it brought together things she loves: books, plants and community.

“I appreciated the intentionality of this event wanting people to read in the garden, wanting people to touch the earth, wanting people to connect,” Lewis said.

Breah Alward, also from Lansing, is a gardener who was intrigued by the idea of connecting graphic novels with plants.

“It was great to be brought out in this space and see people from different backgrounds with similar interests,” said Alward, who also works for the MSU School of Social Work. “I’m excited to be able to look at some new books and replicate some of this in my garden, to sit outside and read.”

Next Steps: Creative Space for Difficult Topics

The Mellon Foundation funding will also support MSU undergraduate courses, service learning and more community reading and planting events that connect the study of Afrofuturism, climate resilience and food sustainability in Michigan.

“Turning the theory into the practice is how we practically help people. We’re teaching them to garden, teaching them how rootwork and conjure operated, but also how they can bring the ‘Parable’ series of books and botanical knowledge into their own homes and gardens,” Brooks said.

The Earthseed Project will culminate in three years with a Conjure Symposium in Beal Botanical Garden featuring the Conjure Garden in fall 2027 bringing together practitioners, scholars and community members.

The Earthseed Project overall offers MSU spaces and opportunities for people to creatively talk about and understand difficult topics on campus.

“We’re bringing people from different avenues and different perspectives all together in one space,” Bajos said. “As we’re thinking about building these programs for the public to learn and grow and explore, we’re not only asking people to take in information, we’re asking them to hopefully develop some changes in their lifestyles and in their habits.”

This project and its initiatives also help show the value of humanities research and scholarship in people’s everyday lives.

“It’s so important that our community knows what we are doing here at Michigan State University,” Brooks said. “We are deeply entrenched in the community and we want to make sure that we give even more than what we take.”

This story originally appeared on the College of Arts and Letters website.