Take a deep breath. 

Flower scents waft in the breeze, as the sounds of birds ring through the air. Warmth relaxes the skin on our faces, as we lift them to the sun. Our bodies are powerful sites of knowledge and relations, situated as they are with the Earth.

 
Black Diasporic & Planetary Futures invites you to our final event that will bring us to our senses. We will gather in the Lang Courtyard from 4-7:30pm on April 22nd. Choose to explore through sensory-based interdisciplinary workshops how deeply entangled our existence is of and with this planet. Find nourishment with food from local vendors and conversations that spark our collective imagination for what shape futures on this planet may take.

 
During the workshops, we will have the opportunity to hear from environmental historian Ligia A. Arguilez from Brown University, ecologist Mustafa Saifuddin from NYU, migration scholar Olivia Woldemikael from the Zolberg Institute, and anthropologist Dana Burton from the New School for Social Research. They will guide us through conversations and creative practices that provide the grounds to acknowledge the ways our lives are unequally affected by ongoing conditions of oppression, violence, and displacement; recognize the divergent ways we live our lives and relations despite this; and honor our commitments to difference, to community-based movements, the Earth, and each other, and how we can contribute to and imagine future visions together. 

 
Through these sensory experiences, we are invited to feel our connections, to slow our pace, and to breathe hopes into our planetary futures. Join for the entire evening, a single workshop session, or a little of everything. 

 
This event is family friendly!

Event Schedule

4:00 – 4:15pm: Opening

4:30 – 5:15pm: Herbal Immersions – A historical and collaborative approach to herbs and the environment, facilitated by Ligia A. Arguilez

5:30 – 6:15pm: Engaging with Soil – Ecological and artistic engagements with soils, facilitated by Mustafa Saifuddin

6:30 – 7:00 pm: Wild Words – Open mic-style reading of poems, quotes, and dreams that inspire and connect us to our commitments to future possibilities, facilitated by Dana Burton

7:15 – 7:30pm: Closing Ceremony – a wrap-up of the semester’s activities and an offering to ourselves and the Earth, facilitated by Olivia Woldemikael

 
*Throughout the event, there will be a collaborative collage making station, where folks may share their imaginings of and for collective planetary existences.

Presented by the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School for Social Research and The New School.

Ligia A. Arguilez

Event Speaker

Mustafa Saifuddin

Event Speaker

Dana Burton

Faculty

Event Speaker

Olivia Woldemikael

Postdoctoral Fellow