Take a deep breath.Â
Flower scents waft in the breeze, as the sounds of birds ring through the air. Warmth relaxes the skin on our faces, as we lift them to the sun. Our bodies are powerful sites of knowledge and relations, situated as they are with the Earth.
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Black Diasporic & Planetary Futures invites you to our final event that will bring us to our senses. We will gather in the Lang Courtyard from 4-7:30pm on April 22nd. Choose to explore through sensory-based interdisciplinary workshops how deeply entangled our existence is of and with this planet. Find nourishment with food from local vendors and conversations that spark our collective imagination for what shape futures on this planet may take.
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During the workshops, we will have the opportunity to hear from environmental historian Ligia A. Arguilez from Brown University, ecologist Mustafa Saifuddin from NYU, migration scholar Olivia Woldemikael from the Zolberg Institute, and anthropologist Dana Burton from the New School for Social Research. They will guide us through conversations and creative practices that provide the grounds to acknowledge the ways our lives are unequally affected by ongoing conditions of oppression, violence, and displacement; recognize the divergent ways we live our lives and relations despite this; and honor our commitments to difference, to community-based movements, the Earth, and each other, and how we can contribute to and imagine future visions together.Â
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An Is Was Way is supporting Earthy Engagements with a soul nutrition station, including tea, nibbles, oracle cards, and prompts for rumination or writing. Writing supplies will be provided.
Through these sensory experiences, we are invited to feel our connections, to slow our pace, and to breathe hopes into our planetary futures. Join for the entire evening, a single workshop session, or a little of everything.Â
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This event is family friendly!
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Event Schedule
4:00 - 4:15pm:Â Opening
4:30 - 5:15pm:Â Herbal Immersions - A historical and collaborative approach to herbs and the environment, facilitated by Ligia A. Arguilez
5:30 - 6:15pm:Â Engaging with Soil - Ecological and artistic engagements with soils, facilitated by Mustafa Saifuddin
6:30 - 7:00 pm:Â Wild Words - Open mic-style reading of poems, quotes, and dreams that inspire and connect us to our commitments to future possibilities, facilitated by Dana Burton
7:15 - 7:30pm: Closing Ceremony - a wrap-up of the semester’s activities and an offering to ourselves and the Earth, facilitated by Olivia Woldemikael
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*Throughout the event, there will be a collaborative collage making station, where folks may share their imaginings of and for collective planetary existences.
Presented by the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School for Social Research and The New School.
Mustafa Saifuddin is a Clinical Assistant Professor with XE: Experimental Humanities and
Social Engagement at New York University. Mustafa is an ecologist with a particular interest in soils, microbial ecology, and environmental and climate justice. Mustafa is a Staff Scientist with the Sustainable Food and Farming Program at Earthjustice, where they collaborate with lawyers, policy experts and community organizations toward reducing air, water and climate pollution from agriculture.
Ligia A. Arguilez is a borderlands environmental historian whose work highlights the stories
and cultural legacies of U.S.-Mexico border communities by centering nature, people, and place in the North American deserts. She applies interdisciplinary borderlands, environmental, and innovative sensorial oral history methods in her work. Ligia is currently a Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society, where she is
developing her book manuscript on the history of a common desert shrub.
Olivia Woldemikael is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility. She is an Eritrean-American scholar with a research focus on migration and a social justice orientation. She holds a PhD from the Harvard Government department in Comparative
Politics. She investigates global migration in local contexts, with a particular focus on the political and social consequences of migrant and refugee-hosting in cities.
Dana Burton is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Design at The New School for Social Research. She is an anthropologist who sits at the intersection of the anthropology of outer space, feminist science and technology studies, and multispecies studies. Diving into the world of astrobiology, Dana followed scientists from the Atacama Desert, Chile to NASA centers around the US, to (models of) planetary bodies across the solar system to explore the efforts to comprehend and materialize life beyond Earth.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders. Be sure to visit our Events Calendar to see the full roster.
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