2023-615-E-Arts Commission-Liza Wolff-Francis-2023-24 Arts Grant

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Project/Program Summary Narratives of climate change often place it as an apocalyptic threat to life on Earth, but it is also an opportunity for social change. Poetry can be an accessible tool that speaks out against the continued destruction of the planet and further oppression of marginalized people. The paintings of Nerys Levy address the polar ice melting as a direct result of climate change. Through ekphrastic work, the project we are proposing includes writing poetry inspired by Levy’s paintings of the Arctic and Antarctic. W e propose that Levy’s paintings will be hung in a local arts space. Eno Arts Mill has said we can use their space, but if it's not available, other options are: Peel, Chapel Hill Public Library, Orange County Public Library, Carrboro Century Center, The ArtsCenter. Carrboro’s Poet Laureate Liza W olff-Francis and Chapel Hill’s Poet Laureate Cortland Gilliam will each write poems responding to the pieces as will a group of ten local high school students. Gilliam and W olff-Francis have connections to these spaces. W olff-Francis, Gilliam, and Levy will facilitate a workshop with ten students who will be recruited from area high schools to write about the climate crisis. Levy will talk about her experiences working in both the Arctic and Antarctic (Levy is one of very few painters who have ever worked in the Antarctic). Students will be given information about how the crisis impacts polar regions and consequently the rest of Earth; from this, a discussion will be facilitated. The workshop will directly address issues of and movements toward climate justice. Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color are among the most vulnerable to the adverse consequences of environmental crises and are invisibilized in their advocacy for solutions proposed to remedy them. The relevance and significance of race to the education and framing of environmental sustainability efforts will be illuminated in this project as will action and hope. From the conversation, W olff-Francis and Gilliam will take participants on an ekphrastic poetry journey through various ways to respond to art during their two-hour workshop. Eco-ekphrastic poetry may be written as a warning, an educational tool, a lament, suggesting solutions, as a call for action, and for holding hope. It may be used to mitigate climate anxiety and grief, to motivate people to take action, and as an empowerment tool. In the workshop, after the conversation about the climate crisis, Arctic, Antarctic, and ekphrastic poetry, youth poets will be prompted to write. Their poems will be shared in the group and a week later, posted beside Levy’s art at a gallery event where Gilliam and W olff- Francis will host a reading of the pieces they wrote interspersed with youth reading their poems. The importance of having youth voices and marginalized voices in conversations about the climate crisis will be emphasized. The reading and show will be open to all community members and will be a space where people can reflect in a meaningful way through visual art and poetry, on the Arctic, Antarctic, art, and the climate crisis. DocuSign Envelope ID: FC5FFA2D-685C-4B93-BE20-4DA20E469B1B