Day-Tripper: river wandle soundscapes

Explore, create, and connect in nature's boundless playground. Our curated day events are designed to immerse you in the beauty of nature while igniting your creative spark.

Maroon Tides is a project that proposes a shared method for listening, moving, and speaking across water. Maroon Tides links artists, scholars, and activists through locally grounded sound ‘walks’ staged on, by, and in oceans and waterways. Each ‘walk’ becomes a site for listening to grief, memory, and Black and Indigenous ways of care.

This sound walk will be led by L. Gre (they/she) and Kwame Phillips (he/him).

Attendees will be encouraged to speak while they walk, carrying their reflections through their bodies, tides, and histories. The ‘walks’ build a network of practice, shared recordings, and dialogic materials for future creative work.

You'll be split into groups and given equipment to record your reflections (recording devicer + prompts). We will then rotate the groups so that everyone is able to walk in the river (wellies provided).

This workshop is supported by The National Trust.

Location: Morden Hall Park

Date: Sunday 6th September 2026

Meeting point: Stable Yard Cafe, Morden Hall Park

Start time: 11:30am

Equipment provided, as well as light refreshments

Age: 18+

Who is this for? This is an exclusive event for queer women, trans and non-binary people of colour. Refunds will not be given if you ignore this message.

Refund Policy: All sales are final. No refunds unless event is cancelled.

Please familiarise yourself with our Community Agreement

Cost: There is a sliding pay what you can cost for this event, as well as a pay it forward option for those in the community who can afford to give a bit more. If you're unable to attend because of cost, please reach out via email and we'll help. This system means that we can continue to put on low cost and/or free events, support those in our community who are financially constrained and compensate our facilitators.

If you are struggling to attend this gathering, please reach out and we will be able to contribute to the cost. Financial aid is available.

What to bring:

🌼 Lunch (lunch vouchers will be provided also for the cafe but if you have special requirements, please feel free to bring preferred food)

🌼 Water bottle

🌼 Personal pair of wellies (we can also provide them)

🌼 Wear long socks as parts of the walk involves being in water

🌼 Weather appropriate clothes (e.g. waterproof jacket)

Accessibility

Mordern Hall Park's full accessibility guide can be found here.

This session involves walking along paved and unpaved paths. Some paths are quite narrow and are unsuitable for a wheelchair user. A portion of the event involves walking through a low river - this part is optional (shoes are provided).

About the facilitators

L. Gre (they/she) is a sound artist, vocalist, performance artist and composer-researcher working at the intersection of Black feminist theory, archival practice, and generative composition. Their methodology, Endarkened Co-Composition, treats sound as co-created with ancestral presence, refusing Western splits between knower and known. Recent works, installations and performances include Echoes of Care (premiered in 2024 at transmediale Berlin, performed 2025 at Universidad Federal de Bahia, and currently installed at John Hansard Gallery Southampton, UK), Embodied Cacophonies (installation at Lindisfarne Castle 2023-2025), Endarkened Listening (Gre, Mereiles and Rennie in Situated Listening Routledge, 2025). Gre is a Lecturer in Creative Composition and Fine Art at the University of Southampton and creates under Studio Gre. Https://studiogre.studio

Kwame Phillips (he/him) is an artist, scholar, and media practitioner exploring resilience, race, and social justice through sensory media, sound, remix, and experimental methodologies. His multidisciplinary practice spans visual anthropology, mixtape scholarship, installation, and performance, engaging sonic storytelling across archival contexts. His recent work includes the multi-sensorial project, Echoes of Care 003 (with Dr L. Gre and Olivia Ema), the sound art work “…of a great Catastrophe: A Mixtape for the Nakba” and the chapter “’Where’s that gotten us?’- Horace Ové’s Pressure and the Fallacy of Respectability” in Black Image Making and Whiteness (EUP 2026). Phillips is Associate Professor of Critical Media Practices at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. http://kwamephillips.com

About Touch Grass

Touch Grass is an outdoor community for queer women, trans and non-binary people of colour.

We are committed to fostering community growth through outdoor gatherings and wellness-focused trips that encourage us to rekindle our relationship with nature. Our immersive experiences go beyond relaxation — they're about empowerment, healing, and forging meaningful connections.

Our vision is for queer people of colour to see the outdoors as a space where we belong. A 20

Description supplied by the event organiser.