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….

“No fertilizers, no watering, no weeding. . . just throw the seeds in clay bowls. Then do nothing. Just leave everything to nature”

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