Nourishment
ARS POLITICA: HOW TO MAKE ART
By Laurie Ann Guerrero
-- an ode to the artists of San Antonio, Tejas
You must start small as our mothers were small,
our fathers, too, small.
In a pillowcase whip-stitched with roses
or in an old coffee can, collect your abuelos’
teeth; assure them you will not bury them
near the bones of the dog that froze
the winter that dogs froze.
Carry the teeth under your tongue.
Let them root there.
This is how you will learn to speak.
Be ready to cough up songs, corridos plucked first
by a revolutionary whose gunsmoke you wear in your hair.
The songs will be new in your throat. We are always
beginning. We are always beginning again.
You cannot be afraid to unhinge the jaw—
let the sun blister your mouth. Know thirst.
Cast your own eyes from their sockets like a confettied April
that you will know the bloom and battle of flowers.
Let your ribs draw across the ribs of another: el canto del violín.
Let your fingers dance: el guitarrón.
Needle or pen, brushed oil, machete or drum, leather,
cilantro, stomp—be patient in the tooling,
the weaving of experience one hundred, five hundred,
ten thousand years to here: love-making in the cotton and nopal,
battlelines and colorlines, birthing in the huts, in the casitas
under a grove of mesquite and huizache,
and, too, lynchings and genocide in the feathery strands
of our DNA that move our hands to do the work.
Trust your hands know the work
even if you do not know the work.
You do not speak for the dead.
The dead speak for you.
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Project updates
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🎨 Upcoming community event: Comics and climate emotions: A climate studio led by Madeleine Jubilee Saito
Join Madeleine Jubilee Saito, cartoonist and artist best-known for her meditative comics about climate and the sacred, for a one-hour workshop around art and climate emotions.
This free workshop will include drawing, but no prior skill is required. Questions? Reach out to info@allwecansave.earth.
Learn more + register →
- 🎉 Our little team is growing!
Last month, we were honored to welcome our new teammate, Amy Curtis, who joins the Project as learning lead.
Amy Curtis is a program manager, learning experience designer, and community builder who has been an essential collaborator on our Climate Wayfinding work. Previously, Amy was the director of learning experiences at Terra.do. Amy lives in New York City and loves books. She aspires to visit all 92 NYC public libraries.
More about our team →
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🗓 Save the date: A February community event
Next month, we’re excited to hold the first in a new series of climate wayfinding dialogues, hearing from established and emerging leaders about how they’ve found their way in climate work — more to come in next month’s newsletter!
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