As a part of A Dash of Lavender: Celebrating LGBTQ+ history month with Queer Botany, Join Maymana Arefin (Misery and @fungi.futures), Andrew Marks (Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture), and Sixto-Juan Zavala (Queer Botany) for a discussion about queering green spaces and queer community. A Q&A will follow with the audience.

The Physic Garden Café will be open for drinks. Doors from 6pm

Booking Information:

Tickets are £10 per person

Tickets include entry to the Garden. No discounts for members.

This Panel Discussion will take place in our first floor ‘Gallery’, unfortunately this space is not wheelchair accessible. If you have any questions prior to the event, please email

This talk is part of our Chelsea Physic Garden’s 350 anniversary year.

Speakers’ Bios:

Maymana Arefin

Maymana Arefin, Image credit @toby__fitzpatrick__

Maymana Arefin (she/they) is a community gardener, activist, forager and artist based in south London. She is an organiser with Misery, a sober mental health collective that centres healing for QTIBPOC (queer, trans and intersex black people and people of colour). Maymana is currently co-facilitating ‘Misery Medicines: Plant Magic’, a year-long programme of free, monthly herbalism walks for BPOC.

In 2020, Maymana founded @fungi.futures on Instagram, a space to map radical alternative futures, guided by her fascination for mycelial networks beneath the soil. She was awarded the Best Dissertation Prize in the STS department and Postgraduate Taught Prize across UCL for her MSc research on mycorrhizal fungi and care work (available to read here).

Andy Marks

Andy Marks (he/him) is a part-time PhD candidate at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), University of Edinburgh. Andy’s doctoral research investigates queer/feminist/trans experiences of community-building in relation to nature, with a focus upon initiatives and groups that organise themselves on a not-for-profit basis.

Prior to studying for his PhD, Andy received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and a Master of Science degree in Environment, Culture and Society from the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh. Andy enjoys teaching and has taught on Geography and Landscape Architecture courses at the University of Edinburgh.

Sixto-Juan Zavala

Sixto-Juan Zavala (he/him) is a designer and illustrator from Texas currently based in London. He holds a BFA in Communication Design and an MA in Narrative Environments from UAL: Central Saint Martins, working particularly on exhibition design, illustration, print, and collage. Zavala is especially interested in culture, marginalised groups, the environment, and using design to facilitate cultural change.

Zavala founded Queer Botany in 2020; inspired by the theoretical lens of queer ecology, the project studies connections between queerness and plants through events, storytelling, and design. Queer Botany aims to share marginalised perspectives and support more diverse representations in the environment and outdoors.