Monday, April 10-Friday, April 14, 2023
During this week HDS students, faculty, and staff will join the university in celebrating Earth Month by responding to the urgency of the climate crisis. The goal of this week is to provide HDS and the Harvard community at-large with opportunities to build connections, activate their passion around environmental justice, and understand the critical role that religion, spirituality, and the Divinity School play in the conversation around climate.
Themes for Climate Week: Witness and Activation
The overarching goal for this week is centered around witness and activation. Each day has a theme that leads us collectively to activation and radical reimagination:
Day 1: Witnessing Self
Day 2: Witnessing One Another
Day 3: Witnessing Hope
Day 4: Witnessing Creation
Day 5: Witnessing Action
Each day's activities are meant to encourage people to be changed by the experience and develop experiential forms of engagement in all sessions.
Climate Justice Week Opening Ceremony: Community Ritual of Song and Resistance
Monday, April 10, 2023, 6:30-7:30 pm
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
The opening ceremony for HDS Climate Justice Week will ground our community through ritual as we come together for a week dedicated to the work of climate justice. We will witness ourselves by reflecting on what we need and what we are able to offer.
Climate Justice as Racial Justice: Student Panel
James Room East, Swartz Hall
This panel will present an opportunity to learn from the critical work being done by students to advance justice through analysis, reflection, and action at the intersection of race and climate. Mayra Rivera, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies, will offer an opening address.
Panelists
- Phil Scholer, MTS '24
- Tracey Robertson Carter, HDS Special Student
- Nathan Samayo, MDiv '23
- Eve Woldemikael, MDiv '24
Moderator
- Aliyah Collins, MDiv '23
Participants will be invited into the conversation.
Climate Common Read: Fire Salon
(HDS community only)
Tuesday, April 11, 2022, 6:30-7:30 pm
HDS Terrace
HDS community members are invited to an outdoor fireside chat HDS Writer-in-Residence Terry Tempest Williams, facilitator Maya Pace, MTS ‘23, and writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit on the book Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, co-edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young-Lutunatabua.
“Stories Are Cages, Stories Are Wings—So What Stories Do We Tell About Climate?”
Terry Tempest Williams in conversation with Rebecca Solnit
Wednesday, April 12, 6:30 pm
Memorial Church, Harvard Yard
Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit will join HDS Writer-in-Residence Terry Tempest Williams in a conversation on the power of storytelling as it relates to climate change.
Art and Activism Workshop with Angelo Baca
Braun Room, Swartz Hall
Stories and storytelling are tools we can all use to confront the challenges of climate change. Angelo Baca, a cultural activist, scholar, and filmmaker will lead participants through a 90-minute workshop on the power of art in activism.
Climate Justice Open Mic Night
Thursday, April 13, 6:30-8 pm
Braun Room, Swartz Hall
Where there is art, there is inspiration and space to collectively crack open. Join us for a night of spoken word, music, and community.
Light refreshments will be served.
Sign up to present a piece at this community event.
Religious Literacy and Climate Justice
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
How does religion shape the political, social, and economic systems that have contributed to climate collapse, in both explicit and embedded ways? How can a critical understanding of religion help us reimagine and develop effective responses to climate collapse?
RPL Fellows with expertise in policy, environmental science, Native and Indigenous rights, and education will discuss the ways religious and spiritual literacy can enhance policy and scientific efforts to understand the drivers of climate collapse and advance climate justice.
Panelists
- Cynthia Wilson: RPL Native and Indigenous Rights Fellow
- Teresa Cavazos Cohn: RPL Climate Justice Fellow
- Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart: RPL Government Fellow
Moderator
- Sarabinh Levy-Brightman: RPL Education Fellow
Please note that the room has been changed from Sperry Room, Swartz Hall to Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall.
Lunch break with activities and information sharing
Friday April 14, 11 am
HDS Green and Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
After a three-year break, HDS is conducting its annual trash audit, which documents how much of our trash is correctly and incorrectly disposed of. Is recycling with recycling? Compost with compost? HDS has held the distinction of "most accurate" at Harvard University, as well as having held more audits than any other School. Rob Gogan, Harvard’s recycling and waste manager who retired in October, will be joining us to help lead this audit.
Come and participate anytime between 11am and 1pm! You can sort with us or just watch and ask questions. For more information, contact Leslie MacPherson.
A photography exhibit by HDS alum Dan Wells, MDiv '22, will also be on display in the Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall. Wells's exhibit will feature images of hope—images that show the beauty of our world even during the climate crisis.
Keynote Conversation: Examining the Religious and Spiritual Implications of Climate Change
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
What role does religion play in the movement for climate justice? How can religious communities serve as sites of organizing and activism? Panelists will discuss these questions through the lenses of religious literacy, climate grief, climate ministry, and practices to guide communities through the perils of climate catastrophe. Join us for the HDS Climate Justice Week keynote conversation.
Featuring:
- Terry Tempest Williams, HDS Writer-in-Residence
- Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church and the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, MDiv '08, PhD '13
- Rev. Vernon K. Walker, Program Director of Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW)
- Anna Del Castillo, MDiv '21, Climate Justice Researcher for Religion and Public Life
Climate Justice Week Closing Ceremony: Where do we go from here?
Friday April 14, 1-1:30 pm
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
Ending as we began, the closing ceremony for HDS Climate Justice Week will ground our community through ritual as we reflect upon what we learned during this week dedicated to the work of climate justice. We will witness action as we answer this critical question: where do we go from here?
Organizing committee:
Committee Chair: Anna Del Castillo, RPL Climate Justice Researcher, HDS MDiv ‘21
Committee members:
- Anna Mudd, Program Coordinator, Religious Literacy Project
- Susie Hayward, Associate Director, Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative (RLPI)
- Terry Tempest Williams, HDS Writer-in-Residence, and Founder, The Constellation Project
Student committee members:
- Maya Pace, MTS ‘23
- John Gehman, MTS ‘24
- Ameerah Ahmad, MDIV ‘24
- Aliyah Collins, MDIV ‘23