All We Can Save: Climate Change & Response
The Power of Local Advocacy | March 28, 2024
Mary Anne Hitt is Senior Director of Climate Imperative, a foundation supporting work to cut emissions this decade at the scale needed to confront climate change. She oversees their US programs and helps lead the foundation. Mary Anne has over 25 years of experience building and leading effective campaigns and organizations. She was previously with the Sierra Club for 12 years, where she was the National Director of Campaigns and served for a decade as director of the Beyond Coal Campaign, recognized as one of the most successful environmental campaigns in history. She has also been the executive director of grassroots organizations, including Appalachian Voices.
The Power of Ancestral Wisdom | February 20, 2024
Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry and the author of the essay collections Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History (W.W. Norton, 2017). Dungy has also edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.
The Power of Indigenous Leadership | November 17, 2022
Tara Houska is a citizen of Couchiching First Nation, a tribal attorney, a land defender, an environmental and Indigenous rights advocate, and founder of the Giniw Collective--an Indigenous women, two-spirit-led frontline resistance to defend the sacred and live in balance. Houska was active in resisting the Line 3 oil pipeline, the Dakota Access pipeline, and is heavily involved in the movement to reclaim Land Back and in defunding fossil fuels.
Supported by The Commons; the Office of Native American Initiatives; the Toni Johnson Center for Racial and Social Justice; the School of Social Welfare; the Environmental Studies Program; the Indigenous Studies Program; the KU Departments of African and African-American Studies, English, Geography and Atmospheric Science, and Geology; the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; and the University Honors Program
The Power of Communication | April 28, 2022
Join us for a conversation with atmospheric scientist, author, and educator Katharine Hayhoe. Following Dr. Hayhoe's lecture on April 27, this event offers a chance to ask questions and share ideas, and is moderated by Megan Kaminski, associate professor of English and poet, and Ali Brox, assistant teaching professor in the Environmental Studies Program.
Supported by The Commons; the Environmental Studies Program; the Indigenous Studies Program; the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction; and the KU Departments of African and African-American Studies, English, Geography and Atmospheric Science, and Geology; the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity; the KU Sawyer Seminar; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; the Health Humanities and Arts Research Collaborative; and the University Honors Program.
The Power of Stories | March 29, 2022
Kendra Pierre-Louis is a senior science reporter at Gimlet Media and produces podcasts like “How to Save a Planet.” Her work focuses on the relationship between humans and the environment, citing the blame for species extinction, loss of healthy fertile land, forest destruction, erosion of fresh water supplies, and climate change as byproducts of this relationship at its unhealthiest. Kendra's work balances investigating the problems with identifying solutions. Previously she was a climate reporter with The New York Times, a staff writer for Popular Science (PopSci). In 2012, she published her book, Green Washed: Why We Can't Buy Our Way to a Green Planet.
Pierre-Louis will give a presentation, after which she will be in conversation with A. D. Boynton, II, PhD Candidate in English, Writer, Teacher, Scholar-Blerd.
The Power of Food Sovereignty | February 17, 2022
Leah Penniman (Li*/Ya/She/He), Co-Director and Farm Manager at Soul Fire Farm, has over 20 years of experience as a soil steward and food sovereignty activist, having worked at the Food Project, Farm School, Many Hands Organic Farm, Youth Grow and with farmers internationally in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. Li co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2010 with the mission to reclaim our inherent right to belong to the earth and have agency in the food system as Black and Brown people. Her areas of leadership at Soul Fire include farmer training, international solidarity, perennials, writing, speaking, “making it rain,” and anything that involves heavy lifting, sweat, and soil. Li’s book “Farming While Black” is a love song for the earth and her peoples.
Penniman will give a presentation, after which li will be in conversation with Douglas County Grower and Food Policy Activist Cody Haynes.
The Power of Community | April 14, 2021
Elected at age 27, Heather McTeer Toney was the first African-American person, first female, and the youngest person to serve as Mayor of Greenville, Mississippi from 2004-2012. In 2014, she was appointed by President Barack Obama as Regional Administrator for Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Southeast Region. She is a national figure in the areas of public service, environmental justice, and community engagement. She currently serves as the Climate Justice Liaison for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Senior Advisor to Moms Clean Air Force, two affiliated organizations that represent more than 3 million climate and environment allies committed to fighting climate change and protecting children from the dangers of air pollution.
The Power of Culture | March 3, 2021
Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and social justice activist based in Oakland, California. Her art and praxis address migration, gender justice, climate change, racial equity, and sexual freedom. Her practice boldly reshapes the myths, stories, and cultural practices of the present, while healing from the wounds of the past through visual art, public art, writing, cultural organizing and power building. She leads meaningful collaborations with social movements that lead to resilient and transformative cultural strategies. In addition to her expansive studio practice, she is the co-founder and president of The Center for Cultural Power, a national organization igniting change at the intersection of art, culture and social justice. Rodriguez’s contribution to All We Can Save is titled “Harnessing Cultural Power.”
Rodriguez will give a presentation, after which she will be in conversation with artist and KU PhD Candidate in American Studies Imani A. Wadud.
