For The Wild

This week, in Part Two of our episode with brontë velez, we dive into the capacity for pleasure amidst times of great uncertainty and historical oppression. What does “pleasure in the apocalypse” mean? How might this conversation take on different meanings depending on whether we are talking about climate change as an abstraction versus the current lived experience of planetary uncertainty? As brontë defines it, pleasure is what makes us come alive, so how can we create a culture that is deeply attuned to our senses and directs our desire towards Earth and each other? By feeding our senses, how might we confront the isolation and industrialization of our bodies, while acknowledging the limitations of grief in that “suffering is not accountable to the Earth.”brontë velez (they/them) is guided by the call that “black wellness is the antithesis of state violence” (Mark Anthony Johnson). a black-latinx transdisciplinary artist and designer, they are currently moved and paused by the questions, “how can we allow as much room for god to flow through and between us as possible? what affirms the god of and between us? what is in the way? how can we decompose what interrupts our proximity to divinity? what ways can black feminist placemaking rooted in commemorative justice promote the memory of god, which is to say, love and freedom between us?”they relate to god as the moments of divine spacetime that remind us we are not separate, the moments that re-belong us to the earth. they encounter these questions in public theology, black prophetic tradition & environmental justice through their eco-social art praxis, serving as creative director for Lead to Life design collaborative, media director for Oakland-rooted farm and nursery Planting Justice, and quotidian black queer life ever-committed to humor & liberation, ever-marked by grief at the distance made between us and all of life.Part Two of brontë and Ayana’s ripe conversation explores topics including appropriating propaganda and memetics, reorienting ourselves away from the spectacle of terror, tending to erotic energy and sensual spaces, and the nuances around beauty and aesthetics in dominant culture. In closing, we are asked to assess our capacity and privilege and then grow ourselves to create pleasurable pathways, ensure accessibility to embodiment, and foster environments where people are in their senses.♫ Music by Jennifer Johns and members of the Thrive Choir and Jiordi Rosales on cello, recorded at the 2019 Lead to Life Oakland ceremony, a ceremony that melted weapons into the constellations above Oscar Grant the evening he was murdered. The event closed the annual Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy March, hosted by the Anti Police-Terror Project.Additional ♫ Music by Jeremy HarrisSupport the show

In Part One of this expansive conversation, Ayana and brontë delve into topics surrounding authentic expression, the distortion of feminine and masculine powers, beauty and aesthetics, queerness, dominatrix energy, and power as agency. Support the show

Heidi, Alicia and Ayana break through the limits imposed by dominant languages, and invite radical freedom of expression to enrich our unique identities, experiences, our relationships with each other and with the earth. Support the show

Raj and Ayana discuss cheapness in relation to the prison industrial complex, the invisibility of domestic labor and care work, the fallacies of fair trade, and the enclosure of the commons. As the commodification and devaluation of life plunges us deeper into ecological crisis, may we awaken to the truth that cheapness can’t last forever.Support the show

Ayana and Corey discuss the implications of southern pine beetle expansion, how forest structures will shift, the threat to native biodiversity, the importance of cold winters, and how, ultimately, forestry measures are not the solution to a transformation that is propelled by our own short-sightedness in choosing consumerism as the dominant expression of this culture.Support the show

Ayana and Pádraig explore the language of uncommon belonging; how we must learn from our shame and the danger of forgetting history, the life cycle of violence, the nature of colonial power, the poetic origins of violence embedded in policy, and how to confront the inheritance of privilege. Support the show

Support the show

This episode discusses man camps, resistance movements, the banking system and corporatocracy. Through strategy and story, we learn how to target the heart of petro-capitalism with our dollars, and reflect on how the end-goals of divestment must lead to a just transition.Support the show

Rachel and Roxanne share their experiences from the frontlines of resistance and call out the patriarchy and settler colonialism that underpins how we navigate issues of land, money, and resource extraction. Together, they discuss the complexity of jurisdictional issues on reservations, the need for free, prior, and informed consent, and potential paths towards justice, healing, and reconciliation.Support the show

Ayana and Donna’s conversation explores topics like the reclamation of truth and “situated knowledge,” the importance of mourning with others, the etymology of “Anthropocene,” the place of forgiveness in movement building, and the urgency of making non-natal kin. Support the show