CREATIVE DIRECTION
I sometimes dream that I’m Mozart conducting The Magic Flute. Instead of holding the baton on the podium, I orchestrate shows, classrooms, and climate actions. And I love to sing in all of these settings…
As children, my sister and I loved to put on shows, the most memorable of which was “The Dragonfly and the Milkweed,” a ballet set to Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suit Suites. We choreographed our parts, painted a giant backdrop, made our costumes and props, painted our faces, and made programs which we handed to our audience of neighbors and family members. The thread of this early obsession with production has wound its way through the many classrooms I’ve taught in and into my climate organizing work.
Floods and Fires
When our climate group needed a way to engage kids of all ages at actions, I first thought of two giant parachutes, inviting for large groups and easy to tote on the subway. But how could kids’ play also communicate how precious and precarious their futures are? I decided to paint them with beautiful but menacing flames and floodwater. At countless protests and direct actions, from DC to Albany, children frolic and sing as painted fires and floods engulf their play—a message to legislators, fossil fuel executives, the media, and the public about the futures we must protect.
When Climate Families NYC was helping plan the largest anti fossil fuels march to date, we decided to go for a dinosaur theme for a more playful take on the evils of fossil fuels. Over the course of a month, I organized a community art build where families could construct their own dinosaur costumes, first painting large sheets of butcher paper and then assembling swatches of patterned paper into dino hats and tails which they then wore in a massive and festive parade through the streets of Manhattan.
March to End Fossil Fuels
Songbook
Singing together has long been a medium for organizing and social change. To give participants of all ages a way in to singing together I put together a printable, foldable Climate Families Songbook with illustrations kids could color and lyrics that were child-centric. Leading songs and dances in any context has always been a delight but with a megaphone it’s…megafun.
