Compost, Cotton & Cornrows
Compost, Cotton & Cornrows
Podcast Description
Compost, Cotton & Cornrows is disrupting sustainability storytelling and amplifying Black and Afro-Indigenous voices shaping a new narrative for liberation, cultural preservation, and planetary healing. From doulas and scientists to farmers and fashion designers, our guests are visionaries redefining what it means to build a sustainable future. This is an unapologetically intersectional, intergenerational, and global space celebrating the power of Black regenerative practices. Each episode is a dynamic fireside chat with changemakers across the Black diaspora, whose expertise and experiences span industries and identities. Compost, Cotton & Cornrows is more than a conversation—it’s an archive, a call to action, and a blueprint for the futures we’re creating for us, by us.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The show primarily focuses on sustainability, cultural preservation, and planetary healing through the voices of Black and Afro-Indigenous changemakers. Episodes highlight diverse topics like conscious fashion with industry leaders like Nia Thomas, who discusses ethical luxury, and marine science represented by guests such as Dr. Tiara Moore, who brings attention to challenges faced by Black scientists. The podcast aims to redefine what sustainability looks like in various industries and identities.
Compost, Cotton & Cornrows is a podcast centering Black sustainability leaders across fashion, agriculture, wellbeing and beyond. Through storytelling, culture, and climate conversations, the show explores how ancestral wisdom and modern practices can cultivate regenerative futures. Hosted by Dominique Drakeford, each episode unearths powerful insights that shift the narrative of environmental justice.
In this expansive episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with André Ware, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Bee U NYC, an organization using urban beekeeping as a gateway to environmental education, leadership development and career pathways for underrepresented youth. Born and raised in Brooklyn, André reflects on how transformative travel experiences (from Chile and Kenya to the Peace Corps) shaped his worldview and ultimately informed his approach to youth development. Together, Dominique and André explore why experiential learning remains one of the most powerful tools for helping young people connect classroom lessons to the realities of climate change, environmental justice and community advocacy. From beekeeping and green jobs to global citizenship and cultural exchange, André shares how expanding a young person's sense of possibility can become a catalyst for lifelong leadership.
Throughout the conversation, André offers a compelling vision for what equitable environmental education can look like when it is rooted in access, mentorship and community. He discusses Bee U NYC's work engaging predominantly Black and brown youth through hands-on beekeeping, paid fellowships and partnerships with organizations such as Weeksville Heritage Center and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. Together, they unpack the importance of supplemental education beyond traditional classrooms, the urgent need to invest in youth opportunities, and the environmental justice realities many young people are already navigating. Grounded in the collective wisdom of the hive itself, André reminds us that meaningful change requires collaboration, interdependence and a shared commitment to future generations. This conversation is a powerful testament to what becomes possible when we equip young people not only with knowledge, but with experiences that help them imagine and build a more just future.
Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!
@Compost_Cotton_Cornrows
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