Compost, Cotton & Cornrows
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.
Episodes
36 episodes
Episode 34 | Latham Thomas Unapologetically Goes In on Survival and Sustainability Through Black Matriarchy, Afrofuturism and Weapons of Consciousness
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Latham Thomas, renowned birth justice advocate, cultural theorist and founder of Mama Glow, a global maternal health and education platform transforming how birth,...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 34
•
1:08:26
Reflection Moment | The Practice of Radical Care
This week, Compost, Cotton & Cornrows interrupts our regularly scheduled program. No guest. No interview. No promo assets. Host Dominique Drakeford offers a short grounded reflection on nervous system care, burnout and the...
•
2:54
Episode 33 | Kevin “The Plant Papi”: Showing Others That They Can - Growing Through Wellness, Joy, Vulnerability & House Plants
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Kev aka “The Plant Papi”, creator and cultural storyteller known for weaving plant care, mental wellness and radical self-honesty into everyday life. What begins a...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 33
•
50:28
Episode 32 | You Cannot Talk About Climate Without a #FreeCongo: Maurice Carney on the Foundations of Capitalism, the Silent Genocide Fueling the Global Green Tech Economy & Why Agro-Liberation Rooted in the Congo Basin Rainforest Is Essential
In this uncompromising conversation, Dominique Drakeford sits with Maurice Carney, co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, to name what the world has been trained to ignore: the Congo is not a footnote to modern life … It is ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 32
•
53:17
Episode 31 | Ciara Imani May of Rebundle Building Patented Climate Solutions Inside the $19 Billion Hair Extension Industry
In Episode 31 of Compost Cotton and Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Ciara Imani May, founder of Rebundle and producer of Reclaimed Beyond the Braid, for a conversation that reframes beauty as a climate and health conversation rooted in ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 31
•
42:47
Episode 30 | The Black School: A Copper-Colored Schoolhouse Rooted in Self-Determination, Joy, Art & Radical Black Education in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward
In this impact interview, Dominique Drakeford sits with Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier, co-directors of The Black School in New Orleans, to explore what it truly means to build a Black-led institution rooted in care, love, and collective imag...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 30
•
50:59
Episode 29 | From Red Bottoms to Rich Soil: Niya Brown Matthews on Healing Through Growing, Building Community and Finding Your “Why” as a Self-Taught First-Generation Farmer in ATL
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Niya Brown Matthews, a self-taught, first-generation farmer and community educator. Niya reframes growing as a practice of awareness and responsibility. T...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 29
•
40:26
Episode 28 | Jordan King: A 23-Year-Old Jamaican Scientist With a Master’s in Biology Doing Climate Research in the Everglades While Rockin’ a Nature Grill
Jordan King steps into Compost, Cotton & Cornrows as proof that climate science does not have to be sterile, inaccessible or stripped of culture to be credible. Jamaican-born and trained in Marine Environmental Sciences and Biology...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 28
•
37:19
Episode 27 | Coochie, Culture & Colonialism: Jasmine Duke Remixes the Alchemy of Herbal Women’s Wellness
Jazmin Duke enters this conversation like a wellness renegade dismantling everything we thought we knew about our bodies, our cravings and the colonial food systems that dictate them. She traces her journey from a painful menstrual cycle to a p...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 27
•
49:10
Episode 26 | Stories Make Markets: Sherrell Dorsey on Strategies for Funding Futures and the Politics of Climate Tech
Sherrell Dorsey enters this conversation with the certainty and clarity that sustainability is a return to our original intelligence and is the design lab where climate tech, capital, innovation and narrative control decide who gets to build to...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 26
•
52:32
Episode 25 | Dawn Richard on the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina: Ancestral Stories, Modern Colonization & Sustaining Our Power!
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, the storm still rages in our collective memory, not just as a natural disaster, but as a state-sanctioned genocide against Black communities in New Orleans. In this powerful conversation, Dominique Drake...
•
Episode 25
•
39:41
Episode 24 | She’s Been Fighting for the Planet Since She Was 8 — Now Maya Penn’s Environmental Animated Short Is In Collaboration with Viola Davis & Whoopi Goldberg
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...
•
45:43
Episode 23 | Abena Boamah-Acheampong Ain’t Here for Ashiness: Leading Ethical Beauty with Ghanaian Shea Butter & Radical Supply Chain Care
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 dynam...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 23
•
42:39
Episode 22 | From Woodwork in Trinidad to Vine Work in Japan: Franklyn Hutchinson’s Beautiful Story of Becoming A Grape Farmer in Yamanashi
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. Witho...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 22
•
27:11
Episode 21 | Cory Elliott on Youth Development, Violence Prevention, Healing in Nature & Building The Black Neighborhood
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,...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 21
•
40:12
Episode 20 | What If You Gave the American Dream the Finger? From a Decade of Van Life to Building a Desert Homestead, Naomi Grevemberg Chooses Slow, Nomadic Living & Radical Joy—on Her Own Terms
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 burnou...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 20
•
44:40
Episode 19 | A Must-Watch: Frida Lidbom’s Powerful Doc Exposes the Toxic Truth of Waste Colonialism—While Honoring the Radical Brilliance of Ghana’s Secondhand Artisans
***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 wo...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 19
•
33:49
Episode 18 | Black Land Back Is Non-Negotiable! Author & Activist Brea Baker on Reparations, Nature-based Healing and Reclaiming Community Power
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 ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 18
•
44:28
Episode 17 | Brooklyn, Brilliant, and Already Sustainable: Hekima Hapa on Teaching Black Girls to Sew
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 visibi...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 17
•
36:18
Episode 16 | Are Any of Your T-Shirts Made by Black Cotton Farmers? Tameka Peoples on Building Global Black Cotton to Textile Ecosystems
Let’s be real—your “woke” t-shirt might be screaming liberation, but let’s take it a step further… Is it organically grown, ginned, spun, woven, cut, and sewn by Black hands that's economically building Black global supply chains?
•
Season 1
•
Episode 16
•
39:34
Episode 15 | From Driving Policy to Gettin’ the Coins: Ivy Walls on the True Cost of Feeding the Block as Co-Founder of a Thriving Farmer-Owned Grocery Store in Houston
What does it look like to build a thriving, profitable, and unapologetically Black owned grocery store from scratch—rooted in the soil, powered by the people, and driven by deep love for community? In this episode, Do...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 15
•
37:58
Episode 14 | Brownie Brown: This Native Nigerian Turned New Yorker is a Couture Upcycler and Helps People Reclaim Their Closets —and Their Self-Worth
In this vibrant episode, fashion stylist and creative force Brownie Brown unpacks her evolution from a fashion-obsessed kid in Nigeria to a sustainability-driven style maven in New York. We talk fast fashion, thrifting gems, and how True Co...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 14
•
32:28
Episode 13 | Kiki Jordan Is Building Oakland’s 1st Full-Spectrum Birth Sanctuary — and Divesting from White Supremacy to Reclaim the Midwifery Model of Cultural Care
In honor of Black Maternal Health Week, we’re going deep into the sacred, radical, and healing power of Black birth with none other than Licensed and Certified Professional Midwife, Kiki Jordan.Kiki’s journey started with h...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 13
•
39:32
Episode 12 | Beats, Bloodlines & Black Cotton: Julius Tillery on Reclaiming Cotton and Powering a New Era of Black Farmers
In this episode, we dig into the reclamation of cotton with Julius Tillery, a fifth-generation Black cotton farmer and unapologetic advocate for Black agricultural futures. Based in North Carolina, Julius shares how cotton isn’t just a trauma d...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 12
•
26:31
Episode 11 | 30-Inch Buss Down or Fresh Braids? Dr. Raven Baxter on the Toxic Truth Behind Synthetic Hair
We love a fresh set of braids—but at what cost? Science has spoken: synthetic hair is harming Black bodies and the planet, and Dr. Raven Baxter is here to break it all the way down. In this episode, we unravel the tangled intersection of scienc...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 11
•
38:09