Photo by Ben Slowey
Mushroom puzzle
Mushrooms are prized worldwide for their culinary, medicinal, ecological and spiritual uses. As someone fascinated by fungi, Lindsey Hill has populated their Riverwest apartment with all sorts of mushroom-themed decor, apparel and memorabilia. “The more you learn about mushrooms, the more you realize you just have to know more about the planet and nature in general,” Hill says. “When my partner Sereth and I started dating, one of the things we bonded over was hiking; he loves trees, and I love mushrooms.”
Stepping into their place, Hill’s living room houses a number of mushroom items including a throw pillow set, coffee table coasters, hanging artwork, several puzzles, a mushroom-oriented tarot deck, an incense holder atop a side table and carved wooden mushrooms used as bookends on a shelf. For this interview, Hill wore a t-shirt depicting a skull with mushrooms growing out of it as well as a pair of mushroom earrings. They also showed off a mushroom tattoo on their arm as well as their mushroom-themed phone case.
In the kitchen, Hill points out a few mushroom-themed coffee mugs as well as a teapot, glow-in-the-dark mushroom lamp, pot holder, refrigerator magnets and the Mushroom Foraging and Feasting cookbook by Victoria Romanoff. A mushroom rug sits in the bathroom at the foot of the toilet. On Hill’s balcony is a small nursery containing a mint plant growing in a mushroom flowerpot with a smiley face.
Hill’s office is where the biggest number of mushroom things live; it also contains the item that started their mushroom collection in 2021—a homemade candle that does not smell good on account of it being made from cheap wax. From a pile of clothes, Hill presents several mushroom-print articles of clothing including shirts, a tank top and hiking shorts. Neatly laid on their desk is the rest of Hill’s mushroom earring collection and a pair of mushroom and gnome-themed socks, plus two ceramic mushrooms they recently thrifted that Hill looks forward to painting in the near future. Their bookshelf is laden with cute mushroom knick-knacks and various books about fungi.
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Inner Child
“As I get older, I find myself embracing more and more of my inner child,” Hill reckons. Growing up, they always loved nature and flowers and spent a lot of time with their mother in the garden. “I’ve also always been a very spiritual person and I found a lot of that in nature.”
During Covid times, Hill watched the documentary Fantastic Fungi, which explores the fascinating biology and therapeutic uses of fungi. They share, “At the time, I was seeking therapy for complex PTSD. I was struggling really badly, and I’m immunocompromised so I wasn’t really leaving my house. I had started learning a lot about mental health and psilocybin and what it can do, and how scientists are seeing how fungi can kill trauma. Indigenous people have known this for a long time. This thing that so many people find gross and disgusting can actually be a beautiful source of healing, and I grasped onto that.”
They continue, “I had been deconstructing growing up in white Christian evangelicalism and questioning a lot of things about the world. I didn’t learn a lot about fungi or mushrooms at school, and something I’d held onto more in a spiritual sense was this idea of death and resurrection, and I see that as a big metaphor for transformation. Seeing [Fantastic Fungi] made me realize that mushrooms do that; they break down and decompose plants to create new life. Trees talk to each other through mycelium, which is amazing.”
Foraging World
Photo by Ben Slowey
Mushroom purse
One of Hill’s favorite mushrooms is coprinus comatus—commonly known as shaggy mane—noting, “They would rather destroy themselves than be eaten by a predator, and I think there’s something beautiful about that (laughs).” As a revolutionary socialist organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Hill affirms that valid comparisons to socialism can be drawn to the world of fungi. “This idea that everything that regenerates earth is interconnected by mycelium is a constant reminder that we are all connected—not just spiritually, politically or socially—but biologically. Our whole planet relies on these things. Imagine what the world would be like if mycelium died and the trees couldn’t communicate with each other or break down decomposing plants. Our entire beings are dependent on that connectedness.”
In the foraging world, there is a general rule of just taking some but not all from the land. “That’s what socialism is,” Hill adds. “You take what you need and get what you came for, but capitalism is the opposite of that. If you take everything then things can’t regenerate themselves. Biologically, our environment tells the story of what life is like when you seek to conquer and colonize, and how that’s literally destroying our world.”
Hill primarily collects items by way of thrifting or Poshmark. They plan to dress up as a mushroom for the Bristol Renaissance Faire this year.
