Five writers including award winning rappers release new work celebrating nature and National Landscapes.
BBC 6 Music favourite, Manchester’s OneDa and MOBO award winning Still Shadey from Croydon are amongst five writers who have created pieces inspired by a National Landscape and designed to connect local communities with these special places.
Rappers OneDa, Still Shadey; and writers Louisa Adjoa Parker, Lee Nelson and Ayesha Chouglay are amongst those involved. They have worked with communities in Luton, Yeovil, Dorset, Weston-Super-Mare, Burnley, East and West Lindsey (Lincolnshire) and New Addington in Croydon.
OneDa has created ‘Connections’ and Still Shadey ‘Nature’s Anthem’, inspired by their time in the Forest of Bowland and Surrey Hills National Landscapes as part of the ground-breaking Arts Council England and Defra funded Nature Calling programme.
In 2025 Nature Calling is bringing together the 34 National Landscapes in England, local arts organisations and community groups from within a 30-minute journey time of their nearby National Landscape in an ambitious new national arts programme.
Artists Rob St John; David Blandy and Daniel Locke; Matthew Rosier; INSTAR; Gwyneth Herbert, Jason Singh and Chris Howard; and Becca Gill will work with local communities, taking inspiration from the landscape and from the written and spoken word pieces to create artwork for a public Season of Art from May - October 2025, reaching an audience of tens of thousands.
The project is coordinated by the National Landscapes Association and executive creative producers, Dorset-based Activate Performing Arts. Poetry School are supporting the work nationally and geographically spread National Landscapes will operate as key hubs of activity including Chilterns, Dorset, Forest of Bowland, Lincolnshire Wolds and Surrey Hills.
Nature Calling’s written commissions come from different perspectives and invite new conversations about who is accessing the landscape today. The poems and raps released today inspire and reflect on new feelings of connection to these iconic places.
Residents of Luton spent time in the Chilterns with poet Lee Nelson, sharing their experiences and creating their own work.
John Watkins, Chief Executive of the National Landscapes Association said:
“I’m thrilled with the quality and range of written and spoken pieces we’re releasing today as part of the Nature Calling programme. The pieces are incredibly poignant, they are moving and meaningful and beautifully conjure up what the writers felt and thought whilst in a National Landscape.
Our aim, through Nature Calling is to support people from all walks of life to find new ways to connect with their National Landscapes on their terms – either for the first or the thousandth time – to discover and share their unique connection. There is truly something for everyone amongst these pieces.”
Kate Wood and Bill Gee of Activate Performing Arts, Co-Executive Artistic Producers said:
“All these writers have made such thoughtful and fresh responses to these old and special landscapes, they are a brilliant start and inspiration to the larger programme of major commissions that will be revealed in the Spring that will engage so many people both who live within and without the National Landscapes.”
Manchester based rapper OneDa ran workshops with young people from Burnley to learn about their experiences of spending time in nature and in the Forest of Bowland National Landscape
Fresh from a 2024 including multiple award wins and the release of her debut album ‘Formula OneDa’, OneDa’s ‘Connections’ rap brings to life her visits to the Forest of Bowland National Landscape, she says of the process:
“Creating Connections was a deeply immersive journey of exploration, reflection, and collaboration. The Forest of Bowland—vast, serene, and unfamiliar—became both a source of inspiration and a space for personal and creative transformation. This project wasn’t just about writing; it was about engaging with the land, its sounds, and the stories it holds to craft an experience that resonates beyond the written word.
A significant part of my process involved facilitating Hip-Hop and spoken word workshops with young people from surrounding areas. These sessions gave me valuable insight into their perspectives and experiences of Bowland, adding a rich layer of depth and authenticity to the piece. Their voices shaped the work, reminding me of the importance of community and collaboration in art.
As a Black artist, this process carried additional significance. Navigating spaces like Bowland—places often disconnected from the stories and histories I grew up with—challenged me to break down barriers, both external and internal. It became an opportunity to rewrite my relationship with nature and reflect on the ways these landscapes can serve as spaces for healing, discovery, and belonging.
Connections is an invitation. It asks listeners and readers alike to wander, to question, and to immerse themselves in the unknown. It’s about finding beauty beneath the surface, breaking boundaries, and allowing ourselves to truly connect—with nature, with others, and with ourselves.”
Still Shadey, an award winning rapper based in New Addington, Croydon, got to know the Surrey Hills National Landscape as part of his work creating Nature's Anthem.
2022 MOBO ‘Best gospel act’ Still Shadey created the piece Nature’s Anthem
“Working on the Nature Calling project has been transformational. It’s been a recent desire of mine to tell stories beyond my own. Being able to experience the Surrey Hills from a writer’s perspective has been therapeutic and energising for me. I look forward to the rollout of this amazing project, and am deeply proud of the piece that I was able to create”.
Poet Ayesha Chouglay's grandmother and great grandfather lived in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Poet Ayesha Chouglay who worked in Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape explains her process:
“I approached the writing through the lens of an unexplored family connection to Lincolnshire; my mother’s side of the family were based there for over 500 years, as far back as we can trace it.
I find it fascinating how you can feel so connected to a place you’ve never been to, and Nature Calling provided the first opportunity for me to visit the area. Walking the same paths as people I’d been learning about from family members made me feel very connected to the land, and facilitating a workshop at Hubbard’s Hills, and subsequent online workshops, formed a vital part of my process, connecting to people who know the area well.”
Lee Nelson took part in walks and outdoor workshops with members of the Luton community.
Poet Lee Nelson was inspired by his visits to the Chilterns National Landscape as a child, and his more recent visits with his own son and community groups from his hometown of Luton, the result is a short collection of nine poems with which he wanted to explore the radical potential of connection and kindness. Lee says of his work:
“From the beginning I had an idea of the basics of what I wanted the poems to 'say'. It was important that things not be too much from one point of view - the intention is to draw people out [to the countryside near Luton] to see for themselves and being told that some old geezer knows better what they should be looking at is unlikely to achieve much in that direction.”
Lee’s poems frame the next stage of the Nature Calling project in the Chilterns – the recreation of a real-life henge for Luton by artist Matt Rosier – who has described Lee’s poems as ‘quietly radical and emancipatory’.
The iconic Dancing Ledge is mentioned in Louisa Adjoa Parker's prose piece 'This patch of land' inspired by conversations with people from across Dorset.
Dorset based commissioned poet Louisa Adjoa Parker says:
“I lived in Dorset for 25 years and have always loved being out in the landscape and learning as much as I can, but the commission for Nature Calling gave me the opportunity to find out so much more. I heard from children and young people, farmers and land managers, people with accessibility needs, artists, storytellers, and archaeological or wildlife experts, and this brought the land to life; each and every conversation helped shape the piece. What shone out most for me was how enthusiastic people were to talk about their relationship with landscape and nature – I hope that Nature Calling will help more people to feel confident about visiting and enjoying these places.”
National Landscapes include places synonymous with British culture, such as Willy Lott’s Farm in Dedham Vale National Landscape – familiar as Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’; the iconic silhouette of Pendle Hill in Forest of Bowland National Landscape – instantly recognisable in the north of England as the centre of the Pendle witch scare of 1612; and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall National Landscape – the brooding location of classic novels Poldark and Jamaica Inn.
There are 46 National Landscapes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They cover 15% of England, 20% of the coastline and are home to 10% of the UK’s farmland. Teams across these instantly recognisable locations – the nation’s nearby countryside – are uniting to inspire visitors old and new to find exciting ways to engage with their local landscape in 2025, keep your eye on the Nature Calling website and socials to find out more and to get involved.