About – Dark Properties

Hi, I’m Willa—an editor, strategist, and experimental gardener living in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

Dark Properties is my newsletter-based quest to illuminate transformative possibilities for life on earth. In these digital pages, I’ve written about everything from aliens to almanacs, slime mold to spongy moths, and plenty of other topics I find “darkly intriguing.” I’ve interviewed heroes like seedkeeper Rowen White, environmental advocate Judith Enck, and artist Fritz Haeg. I’ve also featured some of my relevant and inspiring friends—people like writer and climate journalist Zoë Schlanger, and designer and master gardener Elana Schlenker. Early on, I even interviewed my own dad.

As a personal newsletter with some extra ambition, Dark Properties has also become a space to document my foray into ecological gardening, and everything I’ve uncovered along this rocky, floriferous path. Similarly, since moving to these woods in 2018, I’ve started both an experimental residency project and a mini flower farm—both have been documented here. I’ve also collaborated with a few publications I admire—including MOLD Magazine and Are.na Editorial—to explore themes like the entanglement between ecologies and technologies, and contemporary approaches for recommoning land.

Overall, this newsletter is an evolving project that will expand and evolve alongside my mind and, likely, my garden. Thanks for being here, it means a lot!

Have an idea for a person or project to feature here? My inbox is always open.

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