The World We Have

In class this past Sunday, we opened with a poem from Geneen Marie Haugen called Trail Sign and continued to share what it is that we’re learning from our plant and animal teachers (Job 12:7-10). We reflected on a variety of concepts and themes from Leah Thomas’s book, The Intersectional Environmentalist, including intersectionality, white environmentalism, environmental racism, and environmental justice. Some of the questions we discussed were:

• What was it like to be here, in the Twin Cities, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd?
• What kind of responses emerged at Hennepin related to raising awareness about and just actions toward racial justice?
• If we were to do a racial justice audit of Hennepin, what do you think would emerge?
• How might our yearlong focus on hope for creation in a climate changed world intersect with Hennepin’s efforts to work for racial justice?  

We closed with a poem from “populist poet” Pesha Gertler called The Healing Time.