Responses to Climate Crisis and Emergencies

Taiwo Afolabi presented the conversation Responses to Climate Crisis and Emergencies livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Wednesday 26 July at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 7 p.m. EAT (Nairobi, UTC + 3).

Different art forms (such as theatre, film, visual arts, and social media) have often been used to communicate, educate, and promote climate justice issues. This episode offered the opportunity to hear stories of practitioners using their art forms in this era of climate emergency. We focused on theatre practices and digital art forms and ask guests to share their work and that of others from the continent.

With over a decade in the creative industry, Emma Blake Morsi is an award-winning multi-disciplinary arts producer, production and partnerships manager of Enviral, non-exec director of Rising Arts Agency and former Bristol City Council’s Culture Board member. A prolific storyteller, she predominantly works across film, photography, writing, design, events, and sound and has been training as a creative intersectional environmentalist following years in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Her research consisted of developing a sustainable circular system repurposing waste substances to experimental hybrid tools for inclusive nature-inspired experiences and producing inspiring environmentally-conscious AdGreen and Albert productions. With international projects and creative public engagement activations across the Middle East, the United States, Africa, and Europe, she challenges approaches to inclusion and innovation in the spaces she works, producing work that can be experienced by all but most importantly gives visibility to and engages those from marginalized groups.

Anna Maria Nabirye (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer working across visual arts, performance, fiction, documentary, theatre, screen, social practice, and fashion. Recent works include multimedia visual arts work Up In Arms, which centered conversations on the complexities of interracial friendship. Co-created with Annie Saunders, this social practice work forms an exhibition, three channel film, and performance, commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion and produced by Artsadmin. The Funnest Room in the House Afterword was an audio work commissioned for Whitstable Biennale 2022; after her original installation was destroyed by fire, the work combined documentary and myth as it explored Black British Kitchens as portals to ancestral homelands. Her social practice works include an ongoing collaboration with Metis Arts (the Barbican, Cambridge Junction, Wellcome Trust) exploring the intersection of climate disaster, life in London, and anti-racism. Other credits include Motherhoody (the Albany) and One Prick At A Time (King's College) with Jess Mabel Jones. Acting credits include the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Almeida Theatre, the Gate Theatre, Film4, BBC1, and BBC2. Nabirye is also an educator and director and has worked and created programs and workshops for Yale School of Drama, National Theatre Institute, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Half Moon YPT, and London Philharmonic Orchestra's Junior Artists. Nabirye co-directed and performed in Ruptures with Noorafshan Mirza and Brad Butler (London Film Fest/Home/Delfina Foundation). Other collaborations with Mirza and Butler include Everything For Everyone And Nothing For Us (Mirror City-Hayward), Hold Your Ground (FVU), and Deep State (FVU). Nabirye co-founded and runs Afri-Co-Lab, a creative community dreaming space in East Sussex. Commissions and collaborations include the Royal Court, V&A, SBC, Brighton Museum, Guest Projects, Eggtooth, Home Live Art and DLWP. She also runs sister company AfroRetro, an ethical upcycling label working with makers both local in Southeast England and Southern Uganda.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.