As the weeks of quarantine, lockdown, and shelter in place unfold into dense green almost-summer here in Seattle, other places, seasons, and most of all people have come into my senses as intense presences. This week’s prompts invite you to reflect on some of the places and people who you make queer ecologies with, and to connect with those people and see what stories or feelings you can evoke together.
As always, you can post your responses here. You can also join live next week for a virtual workshop, and share a response to any of the prompts! The free workshop is part of the UW Environmental Justice Workshop, and you need to sign up in advance.
Prompt # 8 Where is your field, lab, or study site? Describe what you see when you come here. How do you think the organisms or ecosystems you study are doing right now? Are they at risk of damage or extinction? Are they valued by society at large for their special qualities?
Prompt #9 How do you think about safety and access to the field or lab? How do you navigate racism, homophobia and trans phobia or/and ableism? What humans are you with in the field or lab? How do you try to disrupt settler colonialism hetropatriarchy etc. in your lab practice? Post a picture of your lab or field crew and / or make a sticker or button to make these practices visible, and post that!
Prompt #10 What ecologies were important to you as a child / teenager? Do you still live near these places? What role do wild places continue to play in your life as a queer person? Call up someone who shared this childhood landscape and talk to them about what it means to you now. Post a quote from you and from them and sketch or photo of the place.
Prompt # 11 Who has been an important collaborator or mentor in your field work? Call them up and talk about a place you have been in the field and what it meant to you both. Post an excerpt from your conversation or link to a recording.
F.R.E.S.H. Water Relations 