Anchor Projects
Projects led by BEL Principal Investigators
Storied Seeds Rio
Mapping African diasporic foodways to support climate literacy in Rio de Janeiro
This project aims to support youth in urban quilombos (home to descendants of Africans who escaped slavery) in Rio de Janeiro to map cultural foodways as a method of climate adaptation. The project will help urban quilombola youth bring together modern climate data science with their cultural foodways to work towards a more just and sustainable food system. Through community mapping convenings and workshops with Rio based organizations working at the intersections of agriculture, climate adaptation, and quilombola community development, the project will support quilombola youth in developing critical, community-driven climate and food literacies. The project will result in a series of immersive and interactive “storied seeds” maps that highlight stories connecting African Diasporic foodways and climate literacies. These maps will contribute to existing efforts in Rio to build both virtual and material spaces that foreground intergenerational learning, cultural preservation and development, ecological wellbeing, and creativity.
Affiliated Projects
Projects affiliated with BEL Members
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Sow: A Climate Screenplay
ASSTAN CISSE and OREOLUWA BADAKI
Sow is a 30 minute science fiction series written by Asstan and Dr. O, and developed in collaboration with youth participants in the Food Justice Writing Group. Sow follows the story of Ada, who is part of a group of orphans sent to become food cultivators on a new planet. Along the journey, she finds that she can time travel in her dreams and that her destiny is tied to the powerful okra seed. With the help of her friends, Ada must unlock the mystery of her past in order to reveal a hidden conspiracy that threatens all of their futures. Sow was a finalist in the 2024 Hollywood Climate Summit Pitchfest. Sow is part of an ongoing inquiry into the methodological and pedagogical possibilities of writing-for-performance (that is, writing that is meant to be embodied or performed on the stage or screen) for climate change education. It explores how to engage scientific, speculative and collaborative learning around issues of environmental and ecological justice.
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Raised by This Place: Participatory Theater with Preschool Children
KATIE GARCIA
Katie Garcia's research investigates how participatory theater can foster preschoolers' reimagining of their connection to the land within the context of a university-based lab school. Focusing on children aged 4–5, this initiative integrates embodied learning and ecological consciousness through interactive activities like storytelling, movement, and improvisation. Utilizing techniques like Image Theatre and embodied storytelling, Katie explores how children’s natural sense of play and imagination can be harnessed to deepen their ecological awareness and foster collective reflection. This project showcases the potential of theater as a pedagogical tool for cultivating ecological mindfulness and spirituality in educational settings. It provides insights for educators and researchers alike into the profound ways participatory theater can inspire children’s joy, creativity, and connection to the natural world. -
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River of Life: Breath
TENZIN LEE
Breath is an investigation into the visual manifestation of transforming afflictive emotions into wisdom for cultural and ancestral healing and liberation. Breath is an intrapersonal project to find how to convey the atmospheric tone of expressing emotions and thoughts without words. How can these visual mediums help to be the reset button of previous generations and generations ahead of me? How can the visual mediums help with finding the language of color to further process emotions and the stories behind them and express feelings related to the subtle body and mind? Breath is a visual art project that arose while undoing the conditioned understanding of the body from the Western scientific lens in K-12 education and re-learning the body in relationship to the land. We associate artifacts with memories, symbolism, lineage, history, wellness, and more. The Breath project includes painting on a home artifact to investigate the process, art, storytelling, life, and/or transformation of emotions.
