Please join The Commonwealth Club of California and UC Berkeley’s Townsend Center for the Humanities for the second in a series of dialogues on catastrophe, storytelling and the present

Please join The Commonwealth Club of California and UC Berkeley’s Townsend Center for the Humanities for the second in a series of dialogues on catastrophe, storytelling and the present moment. In “Climate Change and Sacred Groves,” Townsend Center scholar Sugata Ray will meet with visual artist Ranu Mukherjee to investigate the relationship between the natural world and the sacred realm, especially as it has developed in India over the last several centuries of civilization and the rise of the Anthropocene era.

In his most recent book, Climate Change and the Art of Devotion, Sugata shows how a site-specific and ecologically grounded theology emerged in northern India in the wake of the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550–1850), an epoch marked by climatic catastrophes across the globe. His interests dovetail in unexpected and compelling ways with Ranu’s visionary and captivating recent work, which positions the banyan tree as a meeting point between ecology and culture. Their conversation will be an opportunity for viewers to contemplate and rethink the role of art as it relates to contemporary concerns around climate, disease, human flourishing and the sacred.

Sugata Ray is associate professor of South and Southeast Asian art in the History of Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley. His research and writing focus on climate change and the visual arts from the 1500s onward. Ray is the author of Climate Change and the Art of Devotion: Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550–1850 (2019); Water Histories of South Asia: The Materiality of Liquescence (2019; coedited); and Ecologies, Aesthetics, and Histories of Art (forthcoming; coedited).

Ranu Mukherjee is a visual artist who makes paintings, animations and large-scale installations. Her current work focuses on shifting senses of ecology, non-human agency, diaspora, migration and transnational feminist experience. Her most recent installation was presented at the ecologically focused 2019 Karachi Biennale; she has exhibited solo at the San Jose Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Asian Art Museum, and the de Young Museum. She is an associate professor in graduate fine art at the California College of the Arts. Mukherjee is represented by Gallery Wendi Norris.

NOTES
Artwork from The Met (in public domain): "Krishna and Balarama by a River: Page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of Lord Vishnu)"

Part one in this series, “The Book of Exodus,” can be viewed here


-Subscribe for more Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/commonwealthclub
-Upcoming events: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events
-Become a Member: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/membership

-Donate Now: https://support.commonwealthclub.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=298
-Text DONATE to: 415-329-4231
-Watch & Listen https://www.commonwealthclub.org/watch-listen
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonwealthclub/
-Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cwclub/
-Twitter https://twitter.com/cwclub

Cree Elder A.J. Felix at The Turtle Lodge

Cree Elder A.J. Felix speaks and shares a song at the Turtle Lodge Central House of Knowledge - March 19, 2020 | At the ceremonial launching

Cree Elder A.J. Felix at The Turtle Lodge

Cree Elder A.J. Felix speaks and shares a song at the Turtle Lodge Central House of Knowledge - March 19, 2020 | At the ceremonial launching of "Wahbanung - The Resurgence of a People: Clearing the Path for Our Survival"

This song is for sharing:

"Wake up, my Grandson!
Wake up, my Granddaughter!

Your children are hurting.
Wake up!

Your children don’t even know how to pray.
Wake up!

Your grandchildren are not learning good things!
Wake up!

Your people are not even getting along, they don’t even visit each other.
Wake up!

The old people are not looking after each other. They’re not visiting. They’re not acknowledging each other.
Wake up!

Wake up, my Grandson!
Wake up, my Granddaughter!

We’re not sharing anything with each other, we’re stingy.
Wake up!

How can we be blessed? We’re not sharing.
How can we be healthy? We’re not even kin. We’re not even being relative to each other. We’re not even visiting our sisters and our brothers.
Wake up!

You’re not even telling your Mum, “I love you!”
You’re not even telling your Dad, “I love you!”
Wake up!

You’re not practicing your spirituality that the Creator, Lord God, had given you. The humility that you’re supposed to have. You’re not practicing it.
Wake up."

Four Gifts Elder A.J. Felix Gives Away

1. Pray. Not a long prayer, a short prayer. Make it to the point.

2. When you pray, Cry. Mean it. Mean your prayer, which means have tears. If you want it bad enough, you’ll cry. And the spirit world, the whole universe, when you cry, will stop and listen to you.

3. Never go around trying to buy luck. Never go around trying to buy something that will hurt someone else. Don’t go around trying to buy success. You don’t know what you're buying and you don’t know from whom you’re buying. You can hurt your home, you can hurt yourself, you can hurt your family, by buying.

4. Now that you are a praying person, a crying person, watchful of your life and your lifestyle, you’re going to be successful. You’re going to be okay. Your home is going to be alright. You’re not going to have fear, you’re not going to be scared, because you’re doing these first two, three things, and doing them well. The last thing is – now that you’re ok, be humble. Don’t go around boasting because you’re ok. Share your wealth, share your food, share what little you’ve got, with those who really need it bad. And you’ll be ok. You'll be successful.


www.turtlelodge.org
The Turtle Lodge on Facebook

An introduction by Lisa Emilia Svensson, Ambassador for Ocean, Seas, and Fresh Water.

Displaying 10 videos of 27 matching videos containing any of the terms
LORD+NICHOLAS+STERN

1  2  3