Issue 27: Fall 2024

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Introduction to Issue 27 | Prospect

Reading these articles, I returned to the idea that these authors are offering us the prospect of seeing the conditions of our environment a little differently, widening our scope, and animating potentials for the future. They offer us the power of art, of language, of being present in a place, and of hope.

Image shows Big Stone Lake in the background, behind an unmown grassy hill, under a blue sky with cumulus clouds.

Big Stone Lake Stories: Crossing Borders

By Jonee Kulman Brigham. Earth Systems Journey is foremost a form of participatory public art and secondly an environmental education curriculum model. Big Stone Lake Stories is one of over a dozen applications of the Earth Systems Journey model. Each application is adapted to the specific people, place, and program where it occurs, and with each iteration new insights emerge.

Eight people in casual clothing are sitting and standing around large boulders in front of a cloudy sky. They are looking towards the camera, posed as for a casual picture.

Fluid Impressions: Connecting Data and Storytelling in Iowa’s Watersheds

By Eric Gidal, Munachim Amah, Javier Espinosa, Richard Frailing, Ellen Oliver, Clara Reynen, and Kaden St Onge. As we contend with the environmental degradation of our waters and the fragmenting of our communities that such degradation both exhibits and accelerates, we need to draw on the arts and the humanities as much as we do on hydrology, engineering, politics, and law.

Narmada Parikrama

By Vivek Ji. The waters of the Narmada River flow as though carrying a divine grace, ancient wisdom, and a sense of spirituality. This mystical river, known for its sanctity in India, has witnessed countless people embarking on a journey of devotion and introspection: the parikrama, a sacred circumambulation that spans the length of this majestic waterway.

The image features the cover of the book "All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis." The book is labeled as a national bestseller, with a quote from The New York Times at the top. The background includes a landscape with a cloudy sky and a ground covered in orange and green moss. Surrounding the book are illustrated flowers, including a red poppy and yellow blooms, adding a natural and vibrant touch to the scene.

All We Can Save

By Marceleen Mosher. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, is an anthology for anyone looking to turn away from the brink of disaster and toward a life-affirming future for all of Earth’s inhabitants. The collection brings forward the feminist voices of people at the forefront of the climate movement, weaving together creativity and science through essays, poems, and art that face the existential threat of climate change head-on while illuminating a way out of our current mess with energy, humility, and a spirit of collective action.

The image shows St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. The waterfall cascades over a wide dam, creating white water below. To the left, grassy areas and concrete structures are visible. A multi-arched bridge spans the river in the background, with trees lining its top. Tall buildings rise beyond the bridge under a partly cloudy sky, indicating a bright and sunny day.

Owámniyomni: Still We Gather

By Kachina Yeager, Shelley Buck, and Sage Yeager. Mni Wičoni. Water is life. For many of us, water truly is synonymous with life—and not only because human life as we understand it necessitates water for survival. For me, as a Dakota person who also happens to be a poet, I think of water as a type of lineage. I can use waterways as a map that transcends borders of nationhood, of spatial and temporal constraint. In this way, water is a map of not only my life, but all those lives interwoven into the same cycle of water.

Pike Island in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Minnesota River (left) and Mississippi River (right) confluence named Bdóte, “where two waters come together” in the Dakota language. Image courtesy of Laura Rockhold.

Do You Know Where You Are?

By Laura Rockhold. Over recent years I have been on a journey, one that has deepened my understanding of, and engagement with, the Indigenous names of the place I call home: Minnesota. As a writer, poet, and visual artist, much of my work explores themes of interconnectedness between the personal, ecological, universal, and spiritual; I have found naming to be one way of praising, participating, and communing with others and nature and even myself, as so much of who we are is rooted in language and place.