In August I received an artistic rendering of the globe as part of the Carry the Earth project with a brief introduction that the purpose was to, while holding the globe, reflect on environmental concerns and think about action you can take, then pass it along. The following day Artichoke Dance was performing at Summer Streets, where select streets of Manhattan are closed to traffic and activated with performances and interactive activities. I love this annual event because it places people over vehicles and reimagines spaces, something I do quite a bit as a choreographer of site-specific work.
Artichoke Dance performs and Summer Streets while the globe is passed through the audience.
Part of Artichoke’s mission is to get the arts out to the public, an alternative to getting people into a theater. At Summer Streets we were performing excerpts of Visioning Bodies and Overflow. I took the globe and announced the project during intermission, passing it into the audience, and asked people to take a selfie with the globe and post their photo on social media along with their concerns and action items. This was my interpretation of Carry the Earth, which had been passed to me from Julia Levine, a talented and thoughtful theatre director I’ve previously worked with.
There was some paperwork that came with the globe that got lost at Summer Streets and the box containing the globe ended up next to my desk, slowly drifting into the background. Figuring out the next steps was on my to do list, but in the everyday I’d think, not right now. I have more pressing things to do.
Last week I got an email from Carry the Earth wondering if I would be posting a story about my experience with the globe. I followed the web link in the email and then realized the magnitude of the project. This wasn’t one globe; this was a universe of globes building a complex and interconnected web. How did I miss that?
Reflecting on Carry the Earth with my dog Seraphina. Climate Change affects all beings.
It dawns on me that my experience with Carry the Earth runs parallel to the climate crisis. Climate change surfaces into consciousness, assumptions are made, perhaps based on limited information, an action is taken inspired by a moment or a person, and then it can fade away.
And then…at some point the realization hits…holy s**t…this is a BIG DEAL!
…leading me to an ongoing challenge in climate activist work…engagement and progress.
That real and lasting change in our lives that is required to create the cultural shift necessary to overcome the climate crisis. I believe it takes reencountering engaging experiences from many perspectives, and this is where the arts play a key role.
Nearly 30 years ago, Leonard Shlain, in the book Art and Physics, laid out how the work of artist pioneers preceded discoveries in physics, and how these in turn produced cultural shifts. Given the increasing number of artists working at the intersection of arts and climate change, I have hope. Julia and her work with Climate Change Theatre Action, my follow choreographers working on environmental issues, and a plethora of visual artist projects including Carry the Earth, all creating encounters and shifting culture.