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.
Compost, Cotton & Cornrows
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 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