Storytelling Our Climate Futures

Workshop

Storytelling Our Climate Futures

**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

Storytelling & Climate Futures hinges on the fact that storytelling brings us closer together. Stories reveal what is important, what our values are, what is worthy of preservation. Poetry has been revealed to increase empathy, and is an effective teaching tool, particularly when it comes to topics like climate change. Storytelling has been a cornerstone of the Black tradition since before the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was (and still is) a way to harbor memory, pass on tradition from generation to generation, and honor the histories that make up Black life. We will be looking at a couple of climate themed poems by Indigenous and Black authors (Camille Dungy and Craig Santos Perez) in order to build our own climate storytelling familiarity.

Ashia Ajani is a Black environmental storyteller & educator hailing from Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains and the unceded territory of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Ute peoples. They are the author of Heirloom, forthcoming April 2023 with Write Bloody Publishing and co-poetry editor of The Hopper Literary Magazine.Their words have been featured in Sierra Magazine, Atmos Magazine, World Literature Today and Apogee Journal, among others. Ajani believes another greener world is possible.