Online Zoom Forum: Eco-anxiety, Ecological Grief, and Solastalgia:
Individual, Collective, and Intergenerational Perspectives.
Date: Wednesday 25 May 2022.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 10 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair: Ali Newell.
Bio: Ali Newell is recently retired from being Associate Chaplain at Edinburgh University where she led ecospirituality courses, mindfulness, and nature courses and ran interfaith pilgrimages for peace.
Speakers:
Dr Nadine Andrews:
Title: Threat perception and the necessity of grief.
Description: I will offer a bio-psycho-social-spiritual overview of climate and ecological distress, drawing on research, experience of working with this distress myself and with others, and my Taoist and Druidry practice.
Bio: Dr Nadine Andrews is former chair of Climate Psychology Alliance Scotland, a visiting researcher at the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, and works as a social researcher in the Scottish Government currently leading the research on Scotland's Climate Citizens' Assembly. Nadine is also a mindfulness and nature connection coach/trainer, and a qualified Mountain Leader. Ultimately, her work is concerned with supporting people and organisations to live in more harmonious relationship with nature.
Website cultureprobe.co.uk
Twitter @cultureprobe
Jonathan Baxter:
Title: Grief Is Not Enough.
Description: I will offer a personal reflection on climate grief and suggest a regenerative reading of grief as stupidity: 'The stupid heart that will not learn / The everywhere of grief' (George Barker).
Bio: Jonathan Baxter is an ‘artist and …’. He works across disciplines – both art and non-art related – using psychoanalytic methodologies and performative practices to variously open up, challenge, and propose what is. Since 2009 Jonathan has combined the roles of artist, curator, and peer-educator to deliver a series of participatory art projects that address issues of socio-political and ecological concern.
Websites jonathanbaxter.me
Olga Bloemen:
Description: "How can you leave your heart open to such a vast, pervasive sadness?"
- From the poem 'The Last Good Days' by Lynn Ungar in her 2012 collection 'Bread and Other Miracles'.
During the forum Olga will use poetry (her own and others') to reflect on both grief and hope, and what this extraordinary time is asking from us.
Bio: Olga Bloemen is interested in how we can support each other to act collectively in this time of multiple crises, and with hope and imagination. She's a grassroots trainer and facilitator with Tripod, supporting groups and movements working for social and ecological justice in Scotland. She also runs workshops that combine the Work That Reconnects, eco-spirituality, storywork, and creative writing. Last year she helped to organise the Pilgrimage for COP26, a walk and a learning journey from Dunbar to Glasgow to build a community of witness and resistance committed to climate justice in the lead-up to COP26. She's also involved with Grassroots2Global and the environmental steering group of the Salisbury Centre in Edinburgh. She's an occasional poet and storyteller, and tends to agree with Mary Oliver: “There is only one question: How to love this world.”
Christy Logan:
Title: Mind-altering experiences, game-changing theories, and the impact of being community orientated.
Description: Christy describes immersive experiences in nature as a child that opened her eyes to the beauty of nature and the importance of not only being amidst nature and preserving nature – but how the notion of conquering it should always include the former two. She stretches the timeline to detail how her growing concern towards current models of economic systems began and the biggest issues she sees as her generation's problems. She shares her optimism in how such concerns can be the catalyst to pursuing small powerful acts of community driven eco activism.
Bio: Christy Logan was born in Edinburgh. She has studied many introductory courses in college and last year she finally began her academic career at Heriot Watt University. Christy is an active member in many left wing and community orientated projects. She is vegan and plays guitar in a Grrrl Riot punk band called Dear Srrrz that intends to smash the patriarchal capitalism system and encourage everyone to ride their bikes to promote a safer, cleaner, and healthier environment.
Eva Schonveld:
Description: Climate grief is a simple term which touches a complex reality. When we see climate change as just one outward manifestation of a set of cultural beliefs that separate us from ourselves, from one another and from the wider ecosystems we’re part of, our grief has a wider context - and calls for deeper, more diverse, and more radical action than simply taking action on climate change.
Bio: Eva Schonveld is a climate activist, writer, and process designer and facilitator. She is co-founder of Heartpolitics which exists to address the interconnected social and environmental threats that arise from dividing humans from the wider ecology, and from dividing our minds from our hearts, which is currently working on a fractal Grassroots to Global process which aims to connect open-hearted listening and creative culture re-design with collective decision making processes that enable meaningful change.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Donation. For a Registration Form:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
(for late inquiries on the day, then email, do not phone.
If you book on the day of the event you will be emailed the Zoom sign-in details 1-2 hours before the event).