WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.990 --> 00:00:02.327 align:middle line:90% I've been thinking. 00:00:02.327 --> 00:00:03.660 align:middle line:90% I'm going to read one more poem. 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:06.960 align:middle line:84% But I've been thinking about my role 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:10.290 align:middle line:84% in this conversation as a Black woman, 00:00:10.290 --> 00:00:14.160 align:middle line:84% and now as a Black mother, and as a figure that has been, 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:18.690 align:middle line:84% for the majority of our tradition 00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:23.250 align:middle line:84% of environmental writing, essentially invisible. 00:00:23.250 --> 00:00:24.450 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:26.760 align:middle line:84% Like, the voices of people of color 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:31.560 align:middle line:84% in general, and the voices of women, 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:34.560 align:middle line:84% and the concerns that women have has not 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:37.710 align:middle line:84% been part of the canon of environmental literature. 00:00:37.710 --> 00:00:40.440 align:middle line:90% This is changing, I will say. 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:43.912 align:middle line:84% There is some really fantastic work out there now. 00:00:43.912 --> 00:00:45.870 align:middle line:84% Lauret Savoy, who I mentioned in the beginning, 00:00:45.870 --> 00:00:48.870 align:middle line:84% has this wonderful new book of essays 00:00:48.870 --> 00:00:52.470 align:middle line:84% called "Trace," among the other books that are out there. 00:00:52.470 --> 00:00:56.670 align:middle line:84% But it's changing, like, in the last five to 10 years changing. 00:00:56.670 --> 00:00:58.490 align:middle line:90% Like, this is how recent it is. 00:00:58.490 --> 00:01:00.990 align:middle line:84% And so I think one of the things that happens in my writing, 00:01:00.990 --> 00:01:02.657 align:middle line:84% like even in this talk where I was like, 00:01:02.657 --> 00:01:05.850 align:middle line:84% let's talk about Micronesia, let's talk about this community 00:01:05.850 --> 00:01:09.480 align:middle line:84% in Louisiana of Creole and Cajun people, 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:11.690 align:middle line:90% and Indigenous community. 00:01:11.690 --> 00:01:12.190 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:01:12.190 --> 00:01:15.060 align:middle line:84% Like, let's talk about other people. 00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:17.880 align:middle line:84% Of those people who are affected in the low lying 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:23.030 align:middle line:84% coastal regions, who gets government relief? 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:24.330 align:middle line:90% Who doesn't? 00:01:24.330 --> 00:01:28.430 align:middle line:84% Whose lives get changed and devastated? 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:30.380 align:middle line:84% I think this is part of why I get so choked up 00:01:30.380 --> 00:01:33.718 align:middle line:84% when I'm thinking about this younger generation who's 00:01:33.718 --> 00:01:35.510 align:middle line:84% going to have to deal with this giant mess. 00:01:35.510 --> 00:01:37.670 align:middle line:84% And I'm honestly kind of surprised by myself. 00:01:37.670 --> 00:01:40.340 align:middle line:84% Like, I am apparently not aligning with the younger 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:42.290 align:middle line:90% generation anymore. 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:43.235 align:middle line:90% When did that happen? 00:01:43.235 --> 00:01:50.510 align:middle line:90% 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:52.330 align:middle line:84% Can I still be on your generation? 00:01:52.330 --> 00:01:52.830 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:56.930 align:middle line:90% 00:01:56.930 --> 00:02:02.660 align:middle line:84% I just feel like the more the stories, 00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:06.710 align:middle line:84% the more that the narratives are conveyed, 00:02:06.710 --> 00:02:09.590 align:middle line:84% the more that the poems are spoken, 00:02:09.590 --> 00:02:11.270 align:middle line:84% the more that the stories are told, 00:02:11.270 --> 00:02:14.390 align:middle line:84% the more that the essays are written that write 00:02:14.390 --> 00:02:21.050 align:middle line:84% about a diversified response to the world that we live in, 00:02:21.050 --> 00:02:23.600 align:middle line:84% and the changes that are made in the world that we live in, 00:02:23.600 --> 00:02:26.910 align:middle line:84% the different ways we love and live in this world, 00:02:26.910 --> 00:02:31.370 align:middle line:84% those conversations need to be out there, and a lot of them. 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:32.000 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.040 align:middle line:84% Because if we do not see the people who 00:02:34.040 --> 00:02:37.280 align:middle line:84% are affected by these changes, and the different ways that we 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:40.400 align:middle line:84% are affected by these changes, we don't see. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:41.280 align:middle line:90% We're blind. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:44.520 align:middle line:84% And when we're blind, we can't do anything to change. 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:48.255 align:middle line:84% So this last poem, it's my bee poem. 00:02:48.255 --> 00:02:50.780 align:middle line:90% 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:53.270 align:middle line:90% I'm allergic to bees. 00:02:53.270 --> 00:02:55.940 align:middle line:90% I can't afford epipens anymore. 00:02:55.940 --> 00:02:58.940 align:middle line:84% I am still pulling up all that landscape fabric and rock 00:02:58.940 --> 00:03:02.420 align:middle line:84% and planting native flowers in my yard. 00:03:02.420 --> 00:03:04.430 align:middle line:84% So if something happens to me, you all 00:03:04.430 --> 00:03:07.685 align:middle line:84% were here to know that I gave myself to the bees. 00:03:07.685 --> 00:03:11.540 align:middle line:90% 00:03:11.540 --> 00:03:15.590 align:middle line:84% Frequently asked question number six. 00:03:15.590 --> 00:03:18.260 align:middle line:84% Do you have big plans for her first birthday? 00:03:18.260 --> 00:03:21.120 align:middle line:90% 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:25.020 align:middle line:90% Tomorrow this will all be over. 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:29.820 align:middle line:84% She will take a step, and the tide that fills the tide pools 00:03:29.820 --> 00:03:32.040 align:middle line:90% will come in. 00:03:32.040 --> 00:03:35.670 align:middle line:84% The last crop of almonds in the world 00:03:35.670 --> 00:03:44.450 align:middle line:84% must begin as nothing but 1,000, 1,000 minuscule blossoms. 00:03:44.450 --> 00:03:49.160 align:middle line:84% I have loved every cell of her body, 00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:54.980 align:middle line:84% from the time I could count them until now. 00:03:54.980 --> 00:04:03.310 align:middle line:84% Why hurry her progress when each day is as gorgeous as the last? 00:04:03.310 --> 00:04:11.410 align:middle line:84% She will take a step, and the beekeeper will plant his hives 00:04:11.410 --> 00:04:13.630 align:middle line:90% in the orchard. 00:04:13.630 --> 00:04:14.215 align:middle line:90% Walk away. 00:04:14.215 --> 00:04:16.760 align:middle line:90% 00:04:16.760 --> 00:04:20.060 align:middle line:84% That's just my dream, that there's still orchards, 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:26.810 align:middle line:84% there's still hives, and there's still those crazy men and women 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:29.660 align:middle line:90% who keep the bees. 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:37.105 align:middle line:84% It's dangerous, odd work, and we need it. 00:04:37.105 --> 00:04:38.480 align:middle line:84% It's what we all got to be doing. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:40.813 align:middle line:84% We've all just got to be doing this dangerous, odd work. 00:04:40.813 --> 00:04:43.320 align:middle line:90% 00:04:43.320 --> 00:04:45.420 align:middle line:90% Those are my poems. 00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:48.080 align:middle line:84% I'm supposed to answer questions now.