FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ on Art & Migration Know No Borders/85
“Caterpillar in Chrysalis” (2013) by Favianna Rodriguez
This week we are thrilled to have Favianna Rodriguez on the show. Favianna Rodriguez is a transdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and activist based in Oakland, California. Her work and collaborative initiatives address migration, economic inequality, gender justice, and ecology. Favianna leads art interventions around the U.S. at the intersection of art, social justice and cultural equity. In 2016, she received the Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship for her work around mass incarceration. In 2017, she was awarded an Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity for work around racial justice and climate change.
“The freedom of butterflies invite an entirely different reaction. They help us see that all living things move, we have always been moving since the beginning of time. Migrants are in line with what human beings have been doing for years, the punishment of this is a result of dominant culture.”
Favianna Rodriguez
Favianna invites us to explore the wisdom of nature and Earth relations as a lense through which to envision an alternative to the current immigration crisis. As climate change advances, the consequence of human migration will only become more pressing, Favianna invites us to explore the freedom in recognizing this beyond the extractive economical box.
The United States has created an ecological disruption to the entire planet, and we have a grave responsibility to move beyond extraction. As the destruction of our Earth continues to feed political instability, we will continue to see the impending migration of human beings. The effects of our collective greed are coming to a head at this time. What are we going to do in this time? What is the role of art now? Favianna stands in the heat of this fire and guides us to explore the intersection between culture, economy, climate change and pleasure activism.
♫ Music includes "Obsidiana", "Tzk'at” and "Reina del Caos" by Rebeca Lane.
For The Wild Podcast is an anthology of the Anthropocene; focused on land-based protection, co-liberation and intersectional storytelling rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth and consumerism.