reading for livability
There are so many important non-fiction books out there to support the kind of social change needed on the planet today but many of us find it hard to get through them.
walking through the pandemic
Many of us are walking more now than ever. I feel grateful for the movement and freedom to move. Sometimes I walk in silence but more often I find myself listening to an audio book or podcast or on a call with a friend. Through the headphones, the intimacy of a voice in my ear …
you do you
This post is adapted from a speech I gave in 2017. I was invited by Ohio State University President Drake to speak at Convocation for more than 7000 first year students. I had 5 minutes to welcome them on behalf of the faculty and it was an amazing experience! The best part was when the …
mantras for livability
Livable futures is an open network of artists, scholars and activists seeking to share resources and foster human and more-than-human thriving
how to get started
What do you do when you don’t know where to start? Climate change terrifies me so for many years I turned away from it. Once I started turning toward it, then I had to figure out where to start. What can one person do? I did some online research and got some important but unsatisfying …
centering blackness
Today I am reflecting on service and on centering, centering Blackness as a practice for livability which requires dismantling white supremacy and rooting out anti-blackness in all its forms. I was guided to Centering Blackness several years ago during a workshop with dance artist Mayfield Brooks (they/their/them) and a process they call the poetics of …
the problem of the human
Centering livability encompasses social justice and ecological ethics…it invites critically rethinking about who survives and who gets to thrive in our communities
ancestors
find strength and courage by acknowledging the ancestors and guides that bring you to any new project or perhaps to each new day. Give thanks and savor the circles of support that you carry with you.
your limits are your freedom
One of my favorite creative strategies is to borrow a structure or container from another artist. Borrow generously. Credit and don’t plagiarize. But go for it. A re-purposed structure creates the necessary constraints that foster creative freedom. One of my early theater teachers often said “Your limits are your freedom.” choregrapher nancy spanier This is …
arriving, turning, centering
An incantation to support change work, turning toward what is, arriving into the moment with pleasure and presence, centering and decentering and falling into motion.