Podcast Episode Details

e87 kendra fanconi – on the artist brigade, ben okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief & reauthoring the world

---

Season 3 Episode 87

---

• 'We are all artists of the Anthropocene. We inherently are because this is the world that we're living in right now. There's no other world. We were down earlier at Robert's Creek (BC) and it's a salmon bearing stream. I think of it like we're artists in the Anthropocene, like fish would be in the ocean: the water is all around us and the Anthropocene is all around us. I think it may be what Ben Okri is tasking us with is: can you describe the water? It's all we know, but we need to be able to look from this moment now into the future and maybe that's the job of artists. We're the visionaries, we can see the future and we can envision it in different ways. I think he speaks to that too at the end of the article about saying part of why we need to talk about the times we're in now is in relationship to a future, whatever that future looks like. And I do spend a lot of time trying to negotiate my belief in the future.'

Kendra Fanconi, Robert's Creek, BC 2021

My 2nd conversation with theatre artist and art + climate activist Kendra Fanconi in Robert’s Creek, BC about the ‘Artist Brigade’, Ben Okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief & reauthoring the world, with excerpts from e43 haley, e30 maggs & é37 lebeau.

Robert’s Creek is on the ancient and unceded territory of the shishalh Nation.  The shishalh people call Robert’s Creek xwesam.  

I’ve known Kendra for many years, first through her work with Radix Theatre then as an arts and environment advocate in the community, notably through The Only Animal company, which she co-founded with Eric Rhys Miller in 2005 and which has created over 30 shows  that ‘take theatre places it has never gone before’. I’ve always admired Kendra’s vision, her calm demeanour, her strategic mind, and deep commitment to environment issues, as you’ll hear on our conversation, which recorded in her kitchen in Robert’s Creek, BC. 

My goal with this series of second conversations is to go deeper into issues from our initial conversation, to hear updates on their work as well as their vision for the future. 

Kendra gave me an update on the ‘Artists Brigade’ project, her perspectives Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri’s call to action Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days article, ecological restoration, the work of death doula and climate grief advisor Corey Mathews (Hardeman), the impact of eco-anxiety and about reauthoring the world, including excerpts from e43 haley, e30 maggs & é37 lebeau.

Links mentioned during our conversation :

• Jason DeCaires Taylor (coral reef work)
• Alana Mitchell
• Greenhouse (two-day climate intensive for Artist Brigade)
• David Suzuki Foundation

I was also moved by this quote from my conversation with Kendra:

I think the climate movement is full of love and care. Those are the people who get involved. Even though we have this sort of vision of the angry activists. I think at the heart of it, it's about care and love. And so, I found that definition of climate grief and the link of love and loss to

---

Published on 4 years, 1 month ago