Fertile Soils, Abundant Worlds
These events prioritize opportunities to consider abundance and growth, not as quantifiable, but as vehicles for connection, awareness, consideration, and capacity, acknowledging that unknowable and many possibilities can take root in collective wisdom.
Within this theme, we explore:
• What sources of inspiration might offer new alternatives for wellness;
• How might barriers to participation be identified and eliminated;
• What does ancestral knowledge teach us that formal education does not;
• How might we visualize power structures in ways that enable reciprocity; and
• Where can community form in order to develop new modes for imagining?
Abundant Worlds Programming
Spencer Lecture: Alexis Nikole Nelson
Alexis Nikole Nelson (@BlackForager) is a forager and an outdoor educator using her platform to yell, sing and celebrate the edible plants hiding in plain sight! She invites all who will come on the foraging journey of collecting, identifying, and eating wild food, while peeling back historical layers on African American food traditions that have in recent history been repressed.
AfroRithm Futures Group
AfroRithm Futures Group (ARFG) is an Afrofuturist consultancy and storytelling collective led by Dr. Lonny Brooks, Ahmed Best, and Jade Fabello. They describe themselves as a group of curious, inventive optimists who believe in the transformative power of play, and know that all the best futures are possible. This work employs collaboration, education, and play to overcome obstacles and drive transformative action for social justice-related issues in any organization.
Pop-up Public Fruit Event
Bringing to life ideas from the Common Book, "Parable of the Sower," by Octavia Butler, this pear-picking event on campus brings attention to the fruit-bearing trees in our midst while featuring discussion about public food access.
Educate & Act: Climate Feminism and Other Ways of Leading around Climate Change
What kinds of possibilities might feminist-led efforts make space for?; How are youth-led efforts embracing feminist principles?; What other forms of knowledge should enter the conversation?