I’m Nikki, an illustrator and author based in Brooklyn. My thesis project, Sentient Sidewalk: Lessons from New York City's Wild Medicinal Plants, is an illustrated book about personal growth. When I moved to New York City in 2019 to pursue my MFA in Illustration, I said goodbye to the mountains and meadows of my previous home. I wondered how I would find inspiration in a city of concrete. New York City is, of course, a place where anything is possible. Within my first semester of graduate school, I began to notice familiar plants in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Throughout the pages of my book, readers learn about nine of these plants — mugwort, reishi, datura, pokeweed, ginkgo, hawthorn, violet, clover, and dandelion — as if they are on a neighborhood walk with me. I hope my book inspires readers to connect with plants — and their own resilience — wherever they live.