The lives of billions of people living in places already too hot for human habitation hinge on the actions of wealthy nations like ours to drawdown on greenhouse gasses immediately. The lives of 4000 Siberian Cranes hang by a thread, threatened by human destruction of their habitat. All life on earth is threatened by the toxic blend of capitalism, colonialism, and anthropogenic climate change that has ravaged our earth-home. The pandemic has added another layer to the challenge of connection. Horseshoe crabs are bled for biomedical testing to develop vaccines. Poetics of Repair invites participants to make medicine together, to fold sacred objects for our ancestors (of all species), to mend relationships with our beloved kin and our Mother Earth. The series of poems incorporates instructions for folding cranes and canoes, a practice that can awaken each of us to our interbeing with earth, sky, flora and fauna. As we fold, we become more and more connected with what we make together, until the boundary between our “self” and what we make dissolves. We are, and have always been, co-creating each other and our pluriverses. If we could all awaken to this reality—that caring of individual self is the same as caring for “other” beings, we might collectively put an end to the devastation of climate change, and co-arise as a multi-species whole. Poetics of Repair is a participatory installation that concoct a medicine of decolonial love to mend our ravaged world.
JuPong will offer a live, on-line workshop and community performance on the first three Fridays in April (in solidarity with Fridays for Future: https://fridaysforfuture.org/) that includes a guided meditation, poetry reading and paperfolding lesson. Those interested in contributing paper cranes, canoes and/or horseshoe crabs for the installation may purchase joss paper* at Tran’s World Food Market in Hadley, and mail or drop off folded objects to be incorporated in the installation. Updates on the development of the installation can be viewed on JuPong’s website at www.juponglin.net. On Earth Day, April 22, 2021, JuPong will host a virtual tour of the co-created installation and a Story Circle and discussion about climate justice.
*Canoes can be folded with the joss paper as is, slightly rectangular shape. Cranes need to start with a square sheet. You may need to trim an edge of the sheets of paper to make them square.
