Queer Magic: Unicorns for Justice
LGBTQ2SIA+ communities have long had to imagine and innovate relentlessly in their struggles for dignity and equality. In the face of newly empowered homophobic reactionary forces, queer visionaries have been engaging in ever more social, cultural, political and artistic creativity, forging new paths in a dazzling variety of forms. In this session we will hear from three inspiring, impressive and remarkably diverse innovators: Taylor Brorby, essayist, poet, environmentalist and author of the extraordinary memoir, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land; Niko Alexandre, a Black Queer forester and co-creator of the Shelterwood Collective, dedicated to a vision of Queer and Indigenous land stewardship and Afro-Indigenous food systems; Ashara Ekundayo, a queer, Black feminist interdisciplinary curator, cultural theologian, maker and the Founder/Director at Artist As First Responder. Moderated by Kristin Rothballer, independent consultant and Senior Fellow at the Center for Whole Communities.
Crystal Ballroom, Hotel Shattuck Plaza
April 7th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Panelists
Ashara Ekundayo
Founder and Director
Artist As First Responder
Ashara Ekundayo is a queer, Black feminist interdisciplinary independent curator, visual artist and arts organizer whose creative practice is rooted in joy-informed pedagogies and the study and creation of Black archives, site-responsive ceremony, and artist-based strategies that illuminate the specific expertise of Black womxn of the African Diaspora. She is the founder/Director of Artist As First Responder, which serves as a platform to support creatives working to heal communities and save lives.
Nikola Alexandre
Co-Creator & Stewardship Lead
Shelterwood Collective
Nikola Alexandre, Co-Creator & Stewardship Lead of the Shelterwood Collective, is a Black queer forester with MA degrees in both Forestry and Business Administration from Yale who founded Conservation International’s Ecosystem Restoration Program. After attending a nature-based healing gathering following the Pulse massacre, Nikola committed his life to tending the earth and reclaiming land stewardship as a way of nurturing a future for the communities he belongs to, which led to his co-founding the Shelterwood Collective in Sonoma County.
Taylor Brorby
Fellow in Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice
Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah
Taylor Brorby, a Fellow in Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice at the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah, is an award-winning, widely published writer and poet as well as a contributing editor at North American Review who also serves on the editorial boards of Terrain.org and Hub City Press. Taylor regularly speaks around the country on issues related to extractive economies, queerness, disability, and climate change, and is the author of Boys and Oil: Growing up gay in a fractured land; Crude: Poems; Coming Alive: Action and Civil Disobedience; and co-editor of Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America.
Kristin Rothballer
Senior Fellow
Center for Whole Communities
Kristin Rothballer, a Senior Fellow of the Center for Whole Communities and a founding trustee of the Tyler Rigg Foundation, consults on strategy, programs, equity and organizational development for several nonprofits, foundations, and social and land-based enterprises. Kristin’s previous roles have included: Managing Director of the inclusive green economy nonprofit, Green for All; wilderness retreat leader for Ecology of Awakening; manager of earth-based retreat centers, including Bell Valley Retreat and Tunitas Creek Ranch; and Director of Programs at Bioneers. She also helped co-create the climate change-themed musical FIREROCK, and recently earned a Certificate in Spirituality and Social Change from Pacific School of Religion.
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