Natureship: Council of Worms, Harlem

Council of Worms is a public invitation into the larger vision of Natureship. It begins with worms.

Based in Harlem, New York, the project explores how composts and the living organisms they support might be recognized not simply as resources or infrastructure, but as valued participants in civic life. Natureship: Council of Worms begins where composts already exist — listening to, documenting, and advocating for the living organisms within them. Through declarations, documentation, mapping, and community engagement, Council of Worms invites residents into questions of ecological care, reciprocity, and representation — starting with what's already alive beneath our feet.

Why Composts?

Through years of following pollinators and observing community stewardship across Harlem’s urban microhabitats, I noticed something unexpected: people consistently responded to worms with curiosity, affection, and care. In community gardens, compost sites, and educational programs, young people and adults alike were eager to learn about the organisms transforming food scraps into soil. Composts became places where ecological relationships were visible, tangible, and already deeply valued.

These observations suggested that composts could offer an accessible entry point into the more complex ideas behind Rights of Nature. Rather than beginning with legal theory, Council of Worms begins with relationships — inviting participants to explore representation, stewardship, and reciprocity through living communities they can observe, support, and learn from directly.

Background & Origins

Beginning in 2019, while documenting urban ecosystems and community stewardship practices in Harlem, New York, I became interested in the overlooked relationships between people and the living systems that sustain city life. Following pollinators through community gardens, backyards, street trees, and other urban microhabitats led me to a larger question: what if these seemingly disconnected places were understood as a connected ecological landscape?

As these questions evolved, Natureship was selected for the Visions2030 Imaginator Fellowship, a program supporting imaginative responses to real-world challenges. During this period, I began exploring how concepts from the Rights of Nature movement might apply not only to rivers, forests, and wilderness areas, but also to the overlooked living systems and urban microhabitats of Harlem.

The fellowship led to an ongoing dialogue with Grant Wilson of Earth Law Center, whose work advancing Rights of Nature frameworks internationally has helped inform the project’s development and broader civic vision.

What if urban microhabitats were recognized as participants in civic life rather than passive infrastructure?

This inquiry became Natureship, an evolving initiative exploring how urban microhabitats might be recognized, represented, and supported as valued participants in civic life.

Why This Matters

Rights of Nature initiatives around the world have helped secure recognition and protection for rivers, forests, and other ecosystems. Yet cities contain countless living communities that rarely enter these conversations: composts, pollinator habitats, community gardens, soils, and the many urban microhabitats that support biodiversity.

Many of these places can also be understood as novel ecosystems — living communities shaped by both ecological processes and human activity. While often overlooked, they provide habitat, create soil, support pollinators, and contribute to the ecological health of neighborhoods. Collectively they form a mosaic of urban habitat that sustains city life in ways that remain largely invisible and unrecognized.

Existing Work & Partnerships

The project builds upon several years of place-based research, documentation, and relationship-building developed through Natureship’s ongoing work in Harlem. This includes development of the Declaration in Support of Natureship, ongoing collaboration with ecological and legal advisors, and participation in conversations exploring urban ecology, stewardship, and Rights of Nature.

Recent Master Composter training has expanded connections with compost practitioners, educators, and potential partner sites throughout Harlem. These relationships provide a foundation for the next phase of the project and help ensure that Natureship: Council of Worms grows from existing communities of care.

Project Phases

Phase 1: Listening & Observation Mapping participating compost sites, building relationships, and developing the Council Census across Harlem's urban microhabitats.

Phase 2: Public Participation Community engagement and a public event giving voice to the Council — inviting residents and organizations to enroll in support of Natureship and expanding participation across Harlem.

Phase 3: Documentation & Storytelling Mapping outputs, interviews, and public-facing materials — building the Council of Worms as a civic and ecological narrative.

Natureship: Council of Worms runs September 2026 through September 2028.

Community Impact

Across Harlem, residents already tend composts, build pollinator habitats, and care for the living systems in their neighborhoods. Natureship: Council of Worms builds on these existing acts of stewardship, making them visible, connected, and part of a larger civic conversation — one in which the organisms themselves are recognized as participants.

Tracking Impact

The progress of Natureship: Council of Worms will be documented through participation, mapping, and ongoing project records. Throughout the initiative, participating compost sites, partner organizations, educators, gardeners, and community members will contribute to a growing record of activity and engagement across Harlem.

Project milestones will include the number of compost sites and partners engaged, public events, community enrollments in support of Natureship, and the development of visual maps and documentation that make Harlem’s compost networks and soil-building practices more visible.

Natureship will provide regular updates through its Ma Earth profile, sharing project milestones, partnerships, observations, and lessons learned. Documentation and mapping produced through the initiative may also be shared through Restor and Earth Law Center’s Earth Law Portal, connecting local efforts to broader conversations around Rights of Nature, ecological care, and the role of urban microhabitats in civic life.

Participating sites may also contribute observations, stories, photographs, and documentation from the living communities within their composts, helping create a collective record of the Council Census.

Project Leader

Nicole Mackinlay Hahn is a transdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and advocate based in Harlem, New York. She grew up working in a family business on Fire Island National Seashore, where conversations with park rangers and environmental stewards first sparked her imagination about the relationship between people, place, and the natural world.

With documentary roots and a naturalistic approach developed across diverse communities around the globe, Nicole's work highlights sociopolitical ideas while amplifying stories of discovery and environmental futures. Her projects and installations have exhibited internationally, including at the New Museum, Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, and the V&A Museum.

Natureship grows from this practice — and from years of following worms, pollinators, and neighbors through the microhabitats of Harlem.