Artist Journei Bimwala’s collaboration with the Bronx River Alliance (BRA) focused on environmental justice, empowering people to access and take ownership of green spaces. Their mission was to “make what is unknown known and what is known accessible.” They engaged the community through workshops on foraging and herbalism, emphasizing the use of the five senses to identify wild plants and create medicines. Their educational programming included foraging tours, making plant wands, and online videos. They also initiated a yearly wild edible banquet that showcased the plants of the Foodway, fostering community connection through shared meals. Additionally, they offered an apothecary to support the community’s herbal needs. The program was also able to send Journei to New Mexico to learn herbal first-aid, to inform potential future workshops at BRA.

The Bronx River Alliance serves as a coordinated voice for the river. We work in harmonious partnership to protect, improve and restore the Bronx River corridor. Our goal is to make a healthy ecological, recreational, educational, and economic resource for all communities through which the river flows. The Alliance works in close partnership with the New York City Parks as well as dozens of community-based partners, regional nonprofits, businesses and all levels of government.