Earthbound: Restorying Ecology at Perdu

On 30 November, Perdu organizes an evening address the relations between social and climate justice through the lens of storytelling and imaginative practices.

Doors open: 19:30
Start: 20:00
Entrance: 9 / 6 Euro (discount)
Programme in English

With: Roberto Callisaya, Chihiro Geuzebroek, Talissa Soto & Genner Llanes-Ortiz

For more information, see their website.

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We are faced with the harsh realities of climate change: sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting, forests are burning, bees are going extinct and climate refugees are in search of safety. Though the acknowledgement of our current state of ecological crisis is imperative to initiate action and change, its extent can leave us with a sense of elusiveness. Climate disruption may seem remote to some – and indeed hits those who are marginalized first and worst.

While we might ultimately be ‘in this together’, we are certainly not equally affected by climate change. We have to understand the entanglement of ecological destruction with persisting colonial structures of land theft and forced displacement. An awareness of the different ways in which one may be ecologically, culturally and historically bound to the earth is essential in the reimagining, re-storying and reshaping of our relationship with land and the natural world.

During this evening we will address the relations between social and climate justice through the lens of storytelling and imaginative practices. We aim to unite voices that are dedicated to finding a language that not only speaks about this struggle but activates change. What role can poetry play in times like these?

A programme on decolonial ecopoetry with Roberto Callisaya, Chihiro Geuzebroek, Talissa Soto and Genner Llanes-Ortiz.

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Roberto Callisaya is a musician, composer, bamboo flute maker, dancer, educator and storyteller of indigenous Aymara heritage. Roberto has passed on stories of his ancestors at Het Klokhuis, Tropenmuseum Amsterdam, Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, and Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde Leiden amongst other places and has performed in several countries in South-, Middle-, and North America and Europe as part of the musical groups Markasata, Wiñayataqui, Raices de Peru, Markahuasi del Peru and Live Expressión. He is the founder of the musical group Yatiyaña, which aims to promote Andes culture within the Netherlands. At Perdu Roberto will perform a ritual on ‘suma qamaña’ or ‘living well with the earth’.

Chihiro Geuzebroek (1983) is an activist filmmaker born and raised in Amsterdam. She founded her own production company Ventana Media and went on to direct her first feature film Radical Friends, which was released in 2014. Chihiro has filmed and produced for Fossil Free Culture direct action performances at the Van Gogh Museum and made several videos for the Code Rood Climate Action Collective. She regularly gives talks and workshops in the Netherlands and abroad on climate and class, climate and decolonization and on environmental racism. She recently was the campaign manager for political party Amsterdam BIJ1, delivering the party its first seat in the Amsterdam municipality. Chihiro writes songs and performs poetry and spoken word in extension to her activism.

Talissa Soto (1993) is an activist, trainer and poet working on climate justice activism and intersectional, decolonial movement building. In college, she was involved with student organizing around racial and climate justice, (anti-)police brutality, and migrant rights. She completed her Master’s in sociology at the University of Amsterdam with a focus on migration, and wrote her thesis on intersectionality praxis. For the past two years, she has been active in various feminist and climate justice collectives in the Netherlands. She has written poetry on (her) queerness and relation(ships) for some years, and has recently begun to perform her more political pieces. Talissa sees poetry and spoken word as a powerful tool to translate trauma and anger into a springboard for radical action and healing.

Genner Llanes-Ortiz is a Maya scholar from Yucatán, México, with a PhD in Social Anthropology from Sussex University (UK). He is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Archaeology, and a member of the Centre for Indigenous America Studies, both in Leiden University (NL). His research looks at Indigenous knowledge in intercultural education, and Indigenous artistic forms in relation to cultural and language revitalization, anti-racism and epistemic decolonization. He has worked in Royal Holloway University of London and CIESAS Mexico and has developed collaborative research with NGOs and Indigenous organizations in Mexico, Ecuador, Belize and Guatemala.