DSM.215: Scrambling Time and Collapsing Space

And amongst the rubble, the hum of growth sings to us.

Demolition site of the University City Town Homes affordable housing complex at 40th and Market St., West Philadelphia

‘…it is a phenomenal unruliness of mind that sometimes seems to scramble time and collapse space…’ La Marr Jurelle Bruce, How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind

There is a tree system that I now consider a relative, and who kept me alive for some years in the Overbrook section of the city, where I battled the impulse to commit suicide for three years.

The trees that have loved me follow Cobbs Creek from the Jamaican spot by Baltimore Ave up north past the memorial sign of the MOVE bombings off Osage, up and around the 63rd Street Blue Line Tracks, past the new Family Dollar off Haverford Ave and up into Morris Park, where it becomes Indian Creek, and feeds small fish at the bottom of a steep gorge that can be accessed through various trails.

While I still don’t know every species of tree in that forest that held me, I will never forget the way they, as a collective, whispered to me in the night. Off 66th street, if you looked out in a lonely, desperate night over the rooftops of your apartment building, you could see the Black expanse of of the treeline, laid over the horizon under the night sky. And the trees would see me, and I them, and my doomed plans would dissipate under their leaves.

Today, whenever I hang a left on Lansdowne Ave off Haverford, there are knots that eat at my gut, and I try to avert my eyes [but fail] at the 100 acres of trees that were cut down to make way for an expanded Golf Course. I often feel tears well up in my eyes, and consider my life had I been without those trees.

The disrespect of the broken up logs, stacked in preparation for a game of more holes. Gutting is the drive down Lansdowne Ave, as it turns into Carrington Rd, toward 69th Street, where all the wires of the trains and high speed rails now lay exposed without it’s usually greenery to ease the transition into another deindustrialized municipality.

This is the context in which we at DSM.215 find ourselves this year investing in an initiative to combine the power of local green spaces with intentional, community-grown mental health practices, developed in collaboration with Philly neighbors, since DSM.215’s founding in 2021.

In celebrating the madness of memory, and mood, and the unruliness of dreams and of nature, we commit to the forest, and the trees, even as they seem to disappear. We will keep planting, Golf Course or not.

Participants of 2023 Land-Based Restorative Practice training stand outside Pentridge Children’s Garden.

This year we continue to build collective practices in activating green spaces as sites for community mental health care through restorative practice, and psychoeducation. We hope that our neighborhoods will in turn increase capacity to solve collective problems, increase their ability to engage in community care, and prevent system involvement among residents.

Many of you are familiar with our work alongside Pentridge Children’s Garden, perhaps as a site of our land-based restorative practice training, or the site of medicine making and community vision circles throughout the fall and winter of last year. We have so valued this experience, and intend to make sure all of our learnings are recorded, processed, and ready to be disseminated.

Throughout the summer and beyond, we hope to expand the scope of our work to other green spaces, and with other critical partners. We want these seeds to catch the air your way— below are opportunities to connect and grow with us.

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Calls for Support

• We are seeking new green space partners to activate community mental health care incorating harm-reduction and restorative partners. Interested community orgs can email us at deepspacemind215 at gmail dot com.

• We are seeking community advisory board members to partner with our Projects. CAB members should be neighbors who have been participants or partners with DSM.215 programming, and have lived experience of mental health challenges.

  Interested candidates can email us at deepspacemind215 at gmail dot com with an inquiry, please put CAB participation in the subject line.

• We are seeking social work interns for the 2024 year from local universities. Students interested in pursuing macro, mezzo interests, the inclusion of people with lived experience in mental health care, community and ancestral practices in mental health care, and Black mental health and wellness are encouraged to apply.

  Interested candidates can email us at deepspacemind215 at gmail dot com with an resume and letter of interest. Please put Social Work Internship along with your desired semester of service in the subject line.

• We are seeking to expand our staff, as well as secure a permanent physical space to increase the scale of our practice. Please consider supporting the work of DSM.215 Projects with a donation.

NEWS

May 11th 12-2pm - We are back at Pentridge Children’s Garden, planting starts in the ground and maintaining beds. Calling West Philly neighbors of all ages [and especially children!], DSM215 Network Participants, gardeners, designers, healers, educators – gather and get in the dirt with us every 2nd Saturday. 

Come through to connect with our farm manager and collaborators to find out about opportunities for summer participation!

Forthcoming this  Winter 2024, DSM215 will be dropping Cultivating Wellness in Black Neighborhoods: Establishing Philadelphia’s Deep Space 215 Cooperative published by Lived Places Publishing. We will be spending this spring and summer interviewing our partners, DSM215 participants, and archiving the work we have done in the city.

Do you have a story or media to share about your experience with DSM215 in your neighborhood? Let us know at deepspacemind215 at gmail dot com!

We are proud to announce support from the Barra Foundation’s Catalyst Fund, and The Black Disabled Liberation Project for our DSM.215 Projects involving community care and restorative practice, and activating green space for collective mental health in local neighborhoods.

Post by Rashni Stanford. RASHNI  is a licensed social worker, certified peer specialist, sci-fi writer, practicing afro-futurist, and co-founder of Deep Space Mind 215.