Circles Session 8Nourish
Soil, food, water, sky—inseparable
The foundations of our aliveness
Collaborating with and supporting nature
Microbes, farmers, photosynthesis
🌱 Opening
Read “Notes from a Climate Victory Garden” (p. 293) to open.
💫 Check-in
Prompt: Share your name + a food that nourishes you. Then pass to someone else. (Circle leader should go first and model this.)
☀️ Discussion
Move through 3 generous questions, ensuring everyone has a chance to share:
Of the many “re-” words in Louise Maher-Johnson’s poem (Ayana’s mom!), is there one that reflects how you connect with Earth’s living systems? Why?
Which solution in this section captured your attention or imagination?
Where are you catching glimpses of a regenerative future, today?
📓 Journal Prompt
Offer the following journal prompt, for those who may want to reflect and write between this session and the next one:
How would you define “climate victory”?
🌙 Closing
Read 1 poem or quote from this section to close.
🔧 Workplace exploration
First, revisit the prompt from the last session.
Was anyone able to take up the workplace exploration prompt from our last session, about climate courage? What did you learn?
Then, offer this next prompt for exploration between this session and the next one.
Consider the “ecosystem” that your organization is part of, including suppliers, customers / clients, and partners. Are any of them tied to extractive industries? Has climate informed who your organization works with and how? Are the products and / or services you provide helping to address the climate crisis?
Supplementary materials
For those who may wish to read/watch/listen further — now or down the road — we’ve curated a short list of supplementary materials for each section of the anthology. They’re organized by contributor and marked by type. Please share these with your Circle.
Jane Zelikova | Twitter | Instagram | Website
🎧 Cleaning up the carbon mess, podcast episode, A Matter of Degrees, co-hosted by Leah Stokes and Katharine Wilkinson, 2020.
🎧 Why is soil carbon measurement so tricky? podcast episode, Reversing Climate Change, 2020.
📰 A new kind of climate leadership, op-ed, co-authored with Giana Amador, Scientific American, 2019.
Louise Maher-Johnson | Website
📰 Long live microbiomes!, blog post, co-authored with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Scientific American, 2019.
📰 Soil and seaweed: farming our way to a climate solution, blog post, co-authored with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Scientific American, 2018.
Emily Stengel | Twitter | Instagram | Website
🎧 Emily Stengel, co-founder and co-executive director of GreenWave, podcast episode, Bigger Than Us, 2020.
📺 Collaborating with the ocean is essential to addressing climate change and environmental justice, panel discussion with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jainey Bavishi, GreenBiz VERGE, 2020.
📰 Regenerative ocean farming toolkit, GreenWave.
Camille T. Dungy | Instagram | Website
📰 Surviving is the crux of celebration: an interview with Camille T. Dungy, interview, Los Angeles Review of Books, 2021.
📺 “Words for the Earth”: Camille Dungy shares environmental poems for Earth Day at CSU, poetry reading, 2020.
📖 Trophic Cascade, poetry collection, 2017.
📖 Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, edited poetry anthology, 2009.
Leah Penniman | Twitter | Instagram | Website
🎧 Earth: a primary source and relative, podcast episode, The Emergent Strategy Podcast, 2021.
📰 Soul Fire Farm’s Leah Penniman explains why food sovereignty is central in the fight for racial justice, interview, Vogue, 2020.
📺 Keynote, MOSES Organic Farming Conference, 2020.
📖 Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, book, 2018.
Sharon Olds | Twitter | Instagram | Website
📺 Ode to Dirt, poetry reading, 2019.
🎧 Odes to the *****, podcast episode, On Being, 2019.
📖 Odes, poetry collection, Sharon Olds, 2016.
Judith D. Schwartz | Twitter | Website
🎧 Finding the fertile soil of possibility, podcast episode, What Could Possibly Go Right? 2020.
📺 All we can regenerate, keynote, 2020.
📖 The Reindeer Chronicles: and Other Inspiring Stories of Working with Nature to Heal the Earth, book, 2020.
📖 Water in Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World, book, 2016.
Janisse Ray | Twitter | Website
📖 Red Lanterns: Poems, poetry collection, 2021.
📰 To talk about power is to talk about shame, interview, Southern Cultures, 2019.
📖 The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food, book, 2012.