Altar to a Better Catastrophe – Two New Books about Facing Our Disrupted Future
June 4 - 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Two books, two climate leaders, one great evening
90MINUTES
LOCATION: Balance Arts Center
151 W 30th
fiction: Altar to an Erupting Sun A near-future story of one community facing climate disruption in the critical decade ahead. Rae Kelliher is a veteran environmental activist and pioneer in the death-with-dignity movement. Facing a diagnosis of terminal illness, she engages in a shocking suicide murder, taking the life of an oil company CEO for his role in delaying responses to climate disruption. Seven years later, Rae’s friends and family gather at her Vermont farm community to try to understand her violent exit and the rapid social transformations around them.
nonfiction: I Want a Better Catastrophe With global warming projected to rocket past the 1.5°C limit, lifelong activist Andrew Boyd is thrown into a crisis of hope, and off on a quest to learn how to live with the “impossible news” of our climate doom. He searches out eight leading climate thinkers — from collapse-psychologist Jamey Hecht to grassroots strategist adrienne maree brown, eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer — asking them: “Is it really the end of the world? and if so, now what?”
Andrew Boyd -is an author, humorist, and climate activist. He is currently CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign he co-founded to get the world to #ActInTime. He also co-created the grief-storytelling ritual the Climate Ribbon and led the 2000s era satirical campaign Billionaires for Bush. His previous books include Beautiful Trouble (OR Books, 2012) and Daily Afflictions (WW Norton, 1998). You can find him at andrewboyd.com.
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