Award-winning artist and designer 成楠 sylvia nan cheng (she/her) operates a contemporary floral design studio and grows specialty cut flowers under the name Growing Tkaronto on sacred land covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant.
sylvia is 客家 Hakka (which translates to the Guest People) and lives with the scars of genocide of her people. As a guest on Turtle Island, sylvia strives to bring a decolonization and anti-oppressive lens to the flower community and works to manifest that in various aspects of her business.
I am proud of my intersectional queer identity; many members of the flower community and clients have yet to reckon with their white privilege, they continue to uphold systemic racial injustice without reflecting on their role in dismantling it. Speaking out about my identity and current + historical injustices on social media feels vulnerable, isolating, and empowering. I hope more businesses embrace using their platforms to speak out on important issues; if you lose business, those people didn’t deserve you anyways.