What would a river say if they could speak with human words?
As part of the Talking Wings Collective, Blake Lavia participated in the TEDx Tupper Lake. With the fellow artist and life companion Tzintzun Aguilar Izzo, Lavia challenged the audience to see the world through the perspective of other living organisms. This talk wanted to inspire people to rethink the human relationships with nature and expand human understanding of what it means to be part of a community.
Blake Lavia presented, as part of Talking Rivers, Inc., at the Natural Habitat Adventure’s Daily Dose of Nature Webinar. The talk verged around tales from the perspectives of rivers, whales, fish, and eels, and the concept of “Rights of Nature.”
In this interview with the Adirondack Explorer, Blake Lavia & Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo talk about how to give a voice to nature through citizen science, art, storytelling, and lawmaking.
Throughout history, scholars, writers, artists, and activists have looked beyond the dominant cultural attitudes of their era to reevaluate the way we organize our relationship with the natural world. The “Romantic Revolt” of Emerson and Thoreau, the conservation ethic of Gifford Pinchot, John Muir’s passion for wilderness preservation, and Rachel Carson’s ecocentric critique of scientific progress have pushed the boundaries of environmental stewardship and continue to inform more contemporary commitments to sustainability and environmental and social justice. These environmental values, among others, have equally influenced the trajectory of conservation, preservation, and stewardship in the Adirondacks. As one of the nation’s first “Forever Wild” nature preserves, Adirondack Park stands as a foundational achievement of environmental preservation, but the work is far from finished. The challenge of climate change has only brought greater urgency to the critical work of protecting biodiversity and promoting ecological stability. Blake Lavia presented alongside a panel of artists, storytellers, students, and teachers, exploring the ways we might reimagine Adirondack stewardship–incorporating ecocentric and rights of nature perspectives–and discuss the socio-economic barriers that have historically prevented underrepresented communities from engaging in these conversations. The panel was organized and hosted by the Adirondack Exprience Museum.
A recording from Save Our Great Salt Lake of the Rights of Nature Webinar on May 4th, 2023 . The panelists were Grant Wilson (Director of the Earth Law Center) and Blake Lavia & Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo from Talking Rivers, Inc.
Interview with Larger, Freer and More Loving about the ways that art, land, and environment intersect, especially the role that art plays in activism for the land and our environments
How do we, humans, make decisions as members of a watershed or ecosystem? How do we make decisions as part of Nature? In this webinar hosted by the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, Blake Lavia together with Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo from Talking Rivers presented the “Listening to Nature Toolkit,” an interactive tool for individuals and organizations to make decisions that honor the rights and voice of Nature. The Listening to Nature Toolkit aims to bring an ecocentric perspective to the forefront of all environmental discussions.
Blake Lavia was part of a conversation with the Asian American Herald.