Poetic Justice: Walking the Talk in Eco-Education
In the empty lot – a place not natural, but wild – among the trash of human absence, the slough and shamble of the city’s seasons, a few old locusts bloom. (Wendell Berry, “The Wild”)
In these times, it is worth remembering, we can still create, co-create, or if necessary, re-create, the value of things.
We know the facts of climate change… How to respond? The idea is simple: When we take students and scholars out of their classroom cages, minds and hearts open to the larger ecological, social and cultural world around them – a world that now desperately needs open hearts and minds. The session will begin with the session leader briefly sharing her latest work in a decade old project to engage students in reflective, ethics-based eco-education. From there, this walking-talking nature immersion session collectively explores mind-opening climate change education in light of heart-burning, soulful, mature, poetic reflection. Our radical goal is to talk, listen, take note, write, and find hope in the only place change ever begins: from the ground up.
As Masanobu Fukuoka, the founder of organic rice farming in Japan, says in The One Straw Revolution:
Artists and poets must also help to decide whether or not it is permissible to use chemicals in farming….
So, come on. Let’s do nothing, together!
Please bring a pencil, something to write with, and a passion for the great outdoors. (No experience necessary).
Time/Day: Saturday March 21 2015 10:10 am
Location: EMU Porter Lobby then the Great Michigan Outdoors.
Update: Our session evolved into a collaboration session with Jussi Mäkelä of the Art-Eco Project, Tampere, Finland http://artecoproject.com/team/ and his work, An Oak: A Phenomenological Approach to the Concept of True Capital. For this, Jussi found some Michigan Oak, a bee-hive, brought some copper wire from Finland and made a thought provoking sculpture exploring eco-justice and gender. Thanks for the way-open discussion with the Finlanders representing. Super cool.
Photo: Detroit Heidelberg Project
Veronica Gaylie 