On this week’s episode, we explore the importance of place and placemaking with guest Teju Adisa-Farrar. Teju begins this conversation by sharing how the exploration of human geographies encourages us to think about and reclaim our understanding of the environment, community and power. How have spaces been historically weaponized against us? How can we remake our shared places so that they are in alignment with our values?

As we live and breathe and go about our day to day, we inevitably contribute to power relations including who has power and how this impacts place. This week we explore the entry points and ripple effects of gentrification with Teju. We discuss how gentrification originates through the calculated and supremacist devaluation of place, its environmental impacts, and urbanization and urban futures in response to climate and economic migration and changes.

Teju is a Jamaican-American writer, poet and geographer. Her work centers on climate and environmental justice, adaptive responses, ecological resilience and cultural equity. To date, Teju has done projects in Israel/Palestine, Denmark, Panama, the USA, Botswana, and several more on human-nature relationships, urban exclusion, inclusive activism and alternative geographies. She has worked with small and large nonprofits, and is currently an independent consultant with environmental organizations, sustainable companies and Black cultural institutions. In 2019 Slow Factory named her one of their People of the Year for their Hidden Figures of the Climate Change Movement series. Teju supports artists, activists, collectives and initiatives who are mapping / making alternative futures.

Amidst these heavy topics, Teju asks us to reflect on “what it looks like to live in communities that actually feel like communities” and how these relationships are necessary for our collective continuity. We invite you to listen in on this episode as we explore remapping and remaking, cultivating empathy for land, species and place and the function of language. Teju provokes us to ponder on all the possibilities that are present at this very moment.

♫ Music by Jason Marsalis, Kermit Ruffins & Irvin Mayfield, Rebirth Brass Band

Episode References

Positionality Statement

Nipsey Hussle's Geographies: remapping the hood & opportunities for Black Space by Teju Adisa-Farrar

How ‘Freeway Revolts’ Helped Create the People’s Environmental Law

“There is no separate survival” -Nadia Nadesan

Love Is The Message by Yussef Dayes X Alfa Mist feat. Mansur Brown & Rocco Paladino

Teju’s Recommendations

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Soil, Not Oil by Vandana Shiva

Demonic Grounds by Katherine McKittrick

Take Action

“Support alternative initiatives that already exist, even if they are not perfect. You can learn more by following organizations and collectives like: New Economy Coalition, Culture Hack Labs, Sustainable Brooklyn, etc.” -Teju Adisa-Farrar

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