In this vivid and electric episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford is joined by the incomparable Maya Penn — youth climate solutionist, award-winning animator, founder, and unapologetic disruptor shifting culture through creativity and care.

Maya opens up about the realities and responsibilities of being a youth activist at the forefront of climate justice — carving space in a movement that often tokenizes youth while demanding labor without systemic support. With nearly two decades of experience (yes, starting at age 8), Maya reflects on how her early curiosity became a catalyst for global advocacy — and why today’s youth activism must go beyond awareness to radically rebuild systems from the root.

They dive deep into the need to center climate justice — not as a trend, but as the core framework for collective liberation — reminding us that climate is not a siloed issue, it’s the multiplying force behind everything we care about.

Maya also shares her passion for animation as activism, lifting the veil on her groundbreaking film ASALI: Power of the Pollinators — a visually lush, emotionally charged environmental short she wrote, directed, and animated, featuring a powerhouse cast (Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis, and more). Through Upendo Productions, Maya is proving that art, especially from the margins, can shift the world.

Tune in for a journey into:
🌀 The growing pains and power of Gen Z climate leadership
🌺 ASALI: Power of the Pollinators and animation as climate education
🛑 How environmental injustice shows up community and conversation
📣 Why we must center climate justice — not just “climate change”
🖤 Storytelling, cultural preservation, and the spiritual nature of sustainability

This episode is a love letter to young visionaries — and a reminder that the revolution will be illustrated.

https://mayasideas.com/

https://www.asali.movie/

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What happens when you infuse radical transparency, ancestral ingredients, and community-rooted ethics into the beauty game? You get HanaHana Beauty—and a founder like Abena Boamah-Acheampong who's shaking the table with intention. In this dynamic episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford dives deep with Abena to explore the spiritual, political, and deeply personal layers of building a brand that refuses to compromise.

From sourcing shea butter directly from cooperatives in Ghana and paying double the asking price, to redefining what it means to sustain—not just the earth, but the people behind the product—Abena doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks it with grace and grit. This isn’t your average clean beauty convo. It’s a powerful meditation on ethical sourcing, supply chain storytelling, and dismantling beauty industry norms with the audacity to be real.

They unpack:
✨ The sacred power of simplicity in Black body care
✨ Why marketing must reflect the diversity of Blackness
✨ The tension between financial growth and founder sustainability
✨ Healing through community, faith, and the beauty rituals of our elders
✨ Unlearning overconsumption and resisting the Amazonification of our needs

If you’ve ever felt the pull to align your beauty practice with your values—or you’re a founder striving to do business differently—this episode is your balm and your blueprint.

hanahanabeauty.com

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What does it take to plant new roots on foreign soil—literally? In this global episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford speaks with Franklyn Hutchinson, a Trinidadian grape farmer living in Yamanashi, Japan. Without formal training, Franklyn carved his way into one of the world’s most meticulous agricultural markets—learning from local elders, YouTube, and an unwavering commitment to self-sufficiency.

Together, they explore the science, sweat, and spirit behind Japanese grape cultivation, the myth that growing food is only for the poor, and how small-scale community gardening can spark major shifts in food justice. Franklyn reminds us that sustainability isn’t just about solar panels and policy—it’s about how we manage what we already have. Soil. Skill. Space. Intention.

From makeshift trellises to dreams of bringing high-quality grapes back to Trinidad, this episode is a testament to ancestral grit, diasporic determination, and the power of growing for yourself, your people, and your future.

Tap in if you're ready to:

• Rethink sustainability beyond trend
• Get inspired to grow your own food (yes, even in a container!)
• Hear a rare story of Caribbean diasporic farming in East Asia
• Honor farming as both science and sacred art

Key gems from Franklyn:

“It’s not good to turn down an opportunity to learn something. It could help you later in life.”
“Some people think only poor people grow food. But that thinking is why food so damn expensive.”
“Even if it’s just 1% of what you eat—grow something. That’s sustainability.”

@rosy_grapes-yamanashi

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What if sustainability wasn’t about systems—but about freedom? About waking up and choosing rest, joy, or stillness—because you can?

In this healing-rich episode, Dominique Drakeford sits down with Cory Elliott, the heart and visionary behind The Black Neighborhood—a powerful grassroots ecosystem centering Black joy, safety, nourishment, and liberation. Together, they unravel a definition of sustainability most don’t dare to imagine: a life with options.

From free farmers markets and college readiness programs to mental health hikes that have literally saved lives, The Black Neighborhood isn’t about disruption for disruption’s sake—it’s about care as a counter-force. Movement as medicine. Gathering as a revolutionary act.

Cory shares raw, soul-deep reflections on what it means to build a world where Black people can be seen, safe, and sovereign.

This episode is a balm and a blueprint. For those of us who know that sustainability has to be more than solar panels and zero-waste jars—it has to be about power, peace, and possibility. It has to be about us.

https://www.theblackneighborhood.org/

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

What happens when a Black woman dares to silence the noise, leave behind the American Dream, and root herself in the wild unknown? In this soul-stirring episode, Naomi Grevemberg unpacks her decade-long nomadic journey—from the depths of burnout and depression to the liberating joy of living simply, intentionally, and on her own terms.

We explore what it means to align with your values, reclaim the power of choice, and embrace the discomfort of uncertainty. Naomi shares the truth behind her desert homestead, the healing she’s found in nature, and the ongoing, sacred work of slowing down in a world that demands we rush. This is a conversation about creative resilience, inner sustainability, and the radical act of living fully—especially as a Black woman carving her own path.

If you’ve ever felt like there had to be more to life—this one’s for you.

https://noamigrevemberg.com/

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

***Since this recording, the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana—the heart of the documentary’s focus—has tragically burned down. In the wake of this devastation, the local community, in partnership with dedicated organizations, is actively working to rebuild and restore this vital cultural and economic hub. ****

What if your donated trousers did more harm than good?

In this compelling episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, host Dominique Drakeford sits down with Norwegian and Ghanian sustainable fashion advocate and filmmaker Frida Lidbom to dismantle the myth of the “charitable” secondhand clothing industry. Through the lens of her groundbreaking documentary Threads of Resilience, Frida exposes waste colonialism—where discarded Western goods flood Global South communities, not just with fabric, but with entire cultural systems of consumerism and economic dependency.

Together, they unpack the deep colonial roots of textile waste, the erasure of traditional crafts, and the ways Western narratives often rob local communities of their agency, brilliance, and innovation. From local upcycling innovators, to the 30,000 workers powering Accra’s secondhand markets, this conversation re-centers the resilience and knowledge of the very communities most impacted.

Whether you're in fashion, philanthropy, or just questioning your next thrift haul, this episode is a mirror, a magnifying glass, and a movement.

Key Takeaways:

• Sustainability means reconnecting with nature and ancestral knowledge
• Waste colonialism extends far beyond fashion
• Traditional artisans are cultural vanguards, not relics
• Secondhand markets affect whole economies, not just wardrobes
• Resilience lives in the Global South—fund it, don’t fetishize it

Tune in for an unflinching critique of fashion’s global power imbalances—and a call to action to uplift local brilliance, rethink “donation,” and support ethical, community-rooted fashion movements.

Threads of Resilience documentary

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

This episode is for the freedom dreamers, the soil stewards, and the truth-tellers. Brea Baker—author of Rooted—joins us to crack open the spiritual wound of stolen land, unpack the real meaning of sustainability, and call in the ancestral wisdom that whitewashed greenwashing keeps trying to silence.

We talk reparations—not the watered-down version, but the globally recognized, historically backed international law kind. Brea drops facts that had the power go out mid-recording (coincidence? The ops said no). From eco-therapy to generational wealth, we explore why Black folks deserve more than survival—we deserve leisure, legacy, and land to call our own.

If you’ve ever questioned why you feel disconnected from nature, or been told that sustainability doesn’t include your grandma’s backyard remedies or your uncle’s fishing trips, this one’s for you. This episode is a call to reclaim joy, demand justice, and decolonize what we "think" we deserve.

Quotes that will stay with you:

“A big part of reparations is telling the truth.”
“We are breathing toxic air while they sip clean water by the lake.”
“We need to stop asking for seats at their table and start leading the agenda.”

Tap in to remember: liberation lives in the land, and our roots run deep.

https://www.breabaker.com/

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows

In this stitch-and-resist episode, Dominique Drakeford sits down with textile truth-teller and cultural strategist Hekima Hapa—founder of Black Girls Sew—to talk craft, confidence, and community. What started as a mission to sew visibility into a whitewashed industry has become a transformative nonprofit that’s training a new generation of fly, fearless sustainable fashion leaders before they even hit double digits.

From upcycled sweatshirts turned self-expression to 10-year-olds mastering sergers like seasoned pros, this conversation threads together the deep legacy of sewing as cultural inheritance, the power of nontraditional education, and how making clothes can literally help remake lives. Hekima reminds us that sustainability isn't a trend—it’s how Black folks have always lived: resourceful, rooted, and radically creative.

Tune in for a dialogue that cuts through the noise and honors the joy, grit, and generational genius of young Black girls learning to stitch their own futures—one dart, one zipper, one fierce garment at a time.

🧵 “Culturally, we’re naturally sustainable.”
🪡 “Art replaced the anger. Sewing saved me.”
👧🏾 “I couldn’t find images of Black girls sewing. So I created them.”

Black Girls Sew is more than a program—it’s a blueprint. Let’s talk legacy.

https://blackgirlssew.bigcartel.com/

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows