By: ARTHUR ALCOFF age 13
“The climate crisis is a crisis of imagination,” says social scientist and performance artist Yumi Rodriguez when talking about the Climate Imaginarium, where she works as a community organizer.
The Climate Imaginarium is a cozy house on Governors Island with haikus and art about climate change on the walls. In the house, they are developing a production studio, a laboratory and a collaborative space for, in their words, “learning, performance, exhibition, and engagement with the public.”
The Climate Imaginarium evolved from the Climate Imaginations Network at the Columbia Climate School. Founded by Joshua Nodiff, the Climate Imaginarium opened its doors on May 18 with the purpose of cultivating a community of arts and culture organizations and climate storytellers.
A climate storyteller is someone who uses the arts to tell a story that speaks out against the climate crisis — for example, a photographer, filmmaker, poet, playwright or an author, like Sarah Hermes Griesbach, who is writing a novel called The Fruit of the Tree, about a special tree — anyone who eats its fruit becomes enlightened and in sync with nature. Sarah is also part of the NYC Climate Writers Collective, which is hosting workshops at the Climate Imaginarium house.
The Climate Imaginarium house is located at 406A Comfort Road, open to everybody Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last day of the season is Nov. 3. Upcoming events include the cacao bean ceremony on Sept. 8 “to appreciate and consecrate the sacred medicinal properties and origins of ceremonial cacao. Music can be involved if anyone has an instrument or a song to share.”
The mission of the Climate Imaginarium is to plant seeds of change and provide people a path to an alternate future. “Humans are creatures of habit, and we are harming ourselves,” says Rodriguez, describing the toll of man-made climate change. Climate change has resulted in glaciers melting, wildfires and extreme heat. Scientists warn it’s only going to get worse from here if we don’t change our ways. Rodriguez says that oftentimes facts alone aren’t enough “to get an emotional response that motivates people to navigate different options.”
