Monday Monologues at Parks Library will feature “Conversations with the Earth,” a series of performances by three campus groups celebrating Earth Day on Monday. In conjunction with the Office of Sustainability’s Earth Day event, members of the creative writing and environment program and the EcoTheatre Lab will showcase original writing and climate comedies, respectively.
Graduate students from the MFA in creative writing and environment will read original works inspired by Mother Earth:

• Kelli Fitzpatrick will present flash fiction about ocean pollution
• Shalini Singh will read eco-poetry about caves and underground narratives
• Mariana Castro Azpíroz will present creative nonfiction about climate change narratives
• Geneva Toland will share poems about climate change and relationship with land

The EcoTheatre Lab will also perform two climate comedies, written for the international Climate Change Theatre Action initiative: “The Polar Bears” by Nicolas Billon and “The Climes They Are A’ Changin’,” written by MFA in creative writing and environment playwrights Summer Awad, Jessi Brock and A’Ja Lyons.

Castro Azpíroz, a graduate student in English (creative writing and environment), also helped organize the event.

“We have fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and then from the EcoTheatre Lab, it’s drama, so that’s the four genres that [creative writing and environment] covers. And there’s also going to be some music, so it’s really varied,” Castro Azpíroz said.

In her reading, Castro Azpíroz will detail how people talk about climate change, and she said she thinks it’s more helpful to shift the current discourse surrounding climate change to a more hopeful perspective.

“Of course, we want to have all the real information out there, but the way that we communicate really changes if people feel paralyzed because it produces anxiety, or if instead they feel inspired, then they want to engage in climate action,” Castro Azpíroz said. “That’s kind of the thing that I try to do with my writing, and hopefully having some people listen to me [at] Parks Library will also help the community feel differently about climate change.”

Castro Azpíroz also said she wanted people to engage with Monday’s performances and events as a contribution to Earth Day and to the community.

“Earth Day is a celebration of the Earth, but [most importantly] it builds community and builds relationships with other people and with the Earth in healthier and more sustainable ways,” Castro Azpíroz said. “I think that’s at the heart of it.”

More information about the upcoming Monday Monologues performances and Earth Day event can be found on the library website.