Image: Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Garden Book, 2019
What kind of education is needed to take care of the climate and to put climate justice into place? Working at the intersection of art and ecology in Berlin, we must acknowledge that western colonial knowledge systems dominate the climate discourse and the education system. Experimenting with the format of public collective readings, Between Us and Nature runs an emergent process of knowledge exchanges outside of the academy.
Most importantly, “theory” isn’t just for academics; it’s for everyone.
And so, the story of maple sugar gets told to (some of) our kids almost from birth.
“Theory” within this context is generated from the ground up and its power stems
from its living resonance within individuals and collectives.
The shared quotes by Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, are an invitation to read together from her work “Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation.”
She learned to trust herself, her family and her community.
She learned the sheer joy of discovery.
She learned how to interact with the spirit of the maple.
She learned both from the land and with the land.
Join us with Klima Klasse at Ernst-Reuter-Platz to engage with political and ethical dimensions of storytelling and to have a conversation about questions of access to public space, to education, to climate movements, to theory and art.
Between Us and Nature is an ongoing reading club that chooses texts related to natural sciences, art, anthropology, postcolonialism and the (post)anthropocene from a eco-feminist perspective. Attendees read passages together out loud, and share experiences and thoughts about the nature they live in. Looking beyond disciplines, the group creates a space to learn from and with bacteria, algae, fungi, soil and multinaturalist narratives.
NOTE the TIME: We start at 18:30 CEST. We have 2 hours of reading together.
Come and join us with an open mind here:
What: The Reading Club is in English language
Where: Mittelinsel vom Ernst-Reuter-Platz, Berlin
When: Wednesday 9th of August, 2023 18:30 CEST (sharp!)
Hosts: Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, artist, and Sina Ribak, researcher for ecologies and the arts
In collaboration with Zabriskie Buchladen für Kultur und Natur, Klasse Klima, DRAUSSENSTADT, BHROX bauhaus reuse, UdK Berlin, TU Berlin, Kiosk of Solidarity
References: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2014): Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2014, pp. 1-25. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Image: Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Garden Book, 2019