Archive
School for Living Futures is building a living archive of events, projects and collaborations.
Community Gardening Workshop, Summer 2024
In partnership with with Paige Polk of Not Yet, located in Radical Healing’s Trans Liberation Garden. Paricipants learned the fundamentals of seedling prep and explored communal gardening and well-being practices for our climate-changed future.
Future of Water Exibit, Spring 2024
In partnership with the Durham Art Guild, “Future of Water: a speculative art show” was a commissioned exhibit featuring three climate-engaged artists: James Keul, Patrizia Ferreira, and Lucas Brown which showed at the DAG’s Golden Belt Gallery in May, 2024. Over the course of four months, the artists conducted research, participated in progress meetings, and spoke with area-experts as they engaged with the challenges facing our local watersheds and imagined possibilities for future healing.
This project received support by the Durham Arts Council and NC Arts Council.
Living Futures Saturdays, Spring 2024
Held live Saturday, February 3rd at the American Underground in Durham, North Carolina, this event features presentations from mixed media & fiber artist River Takada, and the Program Director of the Duke University Campus Farm, Saskia Cornes, followed by community conversation and connection.
Topics:
Saskia Cornes: “Soil Matters: Re-meeting the earth beneath our feet”
River Takada: “Mindful Stitching: A practice in honoring our ancestors, and taking care of the textiles in our life with Sashiko Stitching”
Held live Saturday, March 2nd at the American Underground in Durham, North Carolina, this event features presentations from artist James Keul, as well as poet and professor Kristi Maxwell, followed by community conversation and connection.
Topics:
James Keul: "Resilience: Art x Climate"
Kristi Maxwell: "Generative Absence: Extinction and Experiments in Poetic Form"
Held live Saturday, April 6th at the American Underground in Durham, North Carolina, this event features presentations from writer and professor Kate Schapira, as well as cultural organizer Dasan Ahanu, followed by community conversation and connection.
Topics:
Kate Schapira: "The World Belongs to Everybody: Finding our Community Abundance and Climate Potential”
Dasan Ahanu: "ARTiculating Change: Art as a tool for Climate Justice"
What May Come & How: Speculative Fiction Writing, Fall 2023
Running October 8 to November 12, 2023, this fiction writing workshop, taught via Zoom by author Mary Margaret Alvarado, included participants from across the U.S.who came together to dream possible worlds.
Writing Sample: Excerpt from Whales in the Sky by Blueberry Morningsnow
Living Futures Saturdays, Fall 2023
Held live Saturday, October 6th, 2023 at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this fourth "Living Futures Saturdays" event features presentations from artist Claire Alexandre and ecologist and musician Diego Ellis Soto.
Topics:
Claire Alexandre: “The land is a portrait: Grounding the Black Diaspora in Earth pigments”
Diego Ellis Soto: “Listening to the natural world: Narratives blending ecology, environmental justice, and music in cities”
Held live Saturday, November 4, 2023 at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this "Living Futures Saturdays" event features presentations from Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop and musician and designer Napoleon Wright II, followed by community conversation and connection.
Topics:
Napoleon Wright II: “Creative Sustainability”
Samantha Krop: “Keeping the River Clean: Water Quality & Pollution in the Neuse River Basin”
Held live Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this event features presentations from NASA climate scientist, activist, and author Peter Kalmus and artist Natalia Torres Del Valle, followed by community conversation and connection.
Topics:
Peter Kalmus: “Showing Up”
Natalia Torres Del Valle: “Exploring Eco-Grief through Creative Expression”
Climate Social at Duke Gardens, Sept. 2023
Held September 2nd, 2023, in collaboration with Sarah P. Duke Gardens, the School for Living Futures hosted a climate social, which brought together over 80 climate activists, climate curious folks, and members of the triangle community.
Living Futures Saturdays, Spring 2023
Held live February 4th, 2023, at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this first "Living Futures Saturdays" event features Artist Bryant Holsenbeck & justice educator/artist Bevelyn Afor Ukah.
Topics:
Bryant Holsenbeck: “Life as a Hunter-Gatherer”
Bevelyn Afor Ukah: “Our Ecology: Shifting Our Gaze Inward”
Held live Saturday, March 4th, 2023 at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this second "Living Futures Saturdays" event features eco-somantic practitioners Jessica Cudney and Michelle Rozek from Way of Belonging talking about Seasonal Living.
Topics:
Way of Belonging: “Seasonal Living: A Pathway to Intimacy with the Natural World”
Held live Saturday, April 1, 2023 at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this third installment of the "Living Futures Saturdays" series features Radical Repair Workshop artist Julia Gartrell, and Germane James, Executive Director of the Northstar Church of the Arts.
Topics:
Julia Gartrell: “When Not Fixing is the Fix
Germane James: “A Meditation on Personal Sustainability”
Held live Saturday, May 6th, 2023 at Perfect Lovers coffee & art space in Durham, North Carolina, this fourth "Living Futures Saturdays" event features Black Geographer Danielle Purifoy and photographer Justin Cook.
Topics:
Danielle Purifoy:“Plantations are not Forests”
Justin Cook:“Journalism for the Climate Imagination”