This Body of Land and Other News
Upcoming events and notes on revising This Body of Land
May 2- August 2nd Poetry of the Wild/St Louis Fusion
Poetry boxes will be installed in the Central West End and Grand Center Art district as well as the University of Missouri/St Louis campus. Twenty artists and poets from St Louis have been busy collaborating as well as numerous high school students from art charter schools for the latest Poetry of the Wild project, for more click here.
May 20th Cuban Independence Day celebration /Book presentation South Providence Community Library.
I’ll be reading and presenting from my new book, The Island Draws Me, based on my ongoing Cuba exploration as part of a program honoring Cuban Independence Day sponsored by Nuestro Raices. 5 pm,441 Prarie Ave., Providence, RI
July 28- August 1st, Schumacher College, Devon, UK This Body of Land/ An Introduction to Ecological Art with Ana Flores, Peter Randall -Page and Susan Derges
This month I’ve been revising a course I created called, This Body Of Land/ an Introduction to Ecological Art. I first taught the course at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004 and have taught it at numerous institutions since then. This summer it will be offered as a week-long intensive at Schumacher College in the U.K, a unique hub for sustainable living and education. Their short courses for professionals offer the practical skills and strategic thinking required to face the ecological, economic and social challenges of our times.
In spring cleaning, I happily rediscovered this German woodcut from the 15th century that I had used on the front page of my first syllabus for This Body of Land. For me, “Arteries” says everything about our bodies being a continuum of the natural world. Despite the disengagement many people feel today, I know some people I could metaphorically depict in this way. These friends and colleagues are naturalists, writers, farmers, master gardeners, conservationists, artists, and citizens who are deeply in tune with the natural world around them and stewards of their local geography. I’m sure you know some. I call them earth voices but they are all too rare.
My goal for this Body of Land’s is to reactivate and nourish this magnificent neural network we are born with- like that of the woodcut–it needs no electricity but does need fuller engagement with the natural world. The tools of art and ecological thinking can be instrumental in this re-awakening, I’ve seen it happen. This Body Of Land will be enhanced by the visits of two renown artists who are deeply engaged with the Devon ecology: Peter Randall- Page and Susan Derges. My week long course can be complimented with a dynamic course on creative community engagement the Art of Invitation. Each course can be taken solo and neither course requires participants to have any art background. If you share my interest in ecology and sustainable living I strongly recommend Schumacher, their innovative short courses are taught by leading international thinkers, activists and practitioners. After many years of reading the books of James Lovelock, David Orr,and Fritjof Capra I discovered that they taught periodically at Schumacher. One could take a two or three week intensive with them. In 2008 I had the opportunity to attend a course on sustainable design at Schumacher which was seminal for me. I’m honored to be going back to this inspiring community filled with many earth voices.