About this meditation series
Meditation for Climate Activists and the Climate-Conscious is a two-year, monthly meditation series led by trans* poet, artist, and meditation teacher Anaïs G. Duplan. “We are in dire need of heightened attention and action around the climate crisis, particularly the way it manifests as environmental racism. By engaging in collective breath work and tending with delicate urgency to our inner worlds, climate activists can both build an inner resilience and tap into an energetic harmony with the earth in order to support their efforts at addressing these life threatening issues.”
This meditation course will center embodied wisdom around ecojustice, racial justice, and mindfulness. Anaïs will lead participants through a series of meditative postures, exercises, and knowledge sharing/production, guided by scholars and practitioners studied in these disciplines.
Through the series, the Center for the Humanities hopes to
enact and advance new forms of creative, activist, and scholarly care
that more effectively supports the people and organizations leading on
the frontlines of climate change.
Schedule:
This 60-min monthly online meditation series hosted by Anaïs G. Duplan will take place every month from April to July, 2024. The guided meditation sessions will be recorded and the video and audio recordings will be available here for anyone who who would like to follow along and participate in the practice. The guided meditation sessions will reflect on the four virtues of the Brahamavihara:
- April: loving-kindness or benevolence (mettā)
- May: compassion (karuṇā)
- June: empathetic joy (muditā)
- July: equanimity (upekkhā)
Starting in Fall 2024, this online monthly meditation series will be open for people and organizations leading and working on the frontlines of climate change activism. Check back on this page for more information, including the schedule and how to participate.
Meditation Teacher:
Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist. He is the author of the book I NEED MUSIC; Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture; Take This Stallion; and the chapbook, Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus.
He was a 2017-2019 joint Public Programs fellow at the MoMA and the
Studio Museum in Harlem, and in 2021 received a Marian Goodman
fellowship from Independent Curators International for his research on
Black experimental documentary. In 2016, he founded the Center for
Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color,
based at Iowa City’s artist-run organization Public Space One. He is the
recipient of the 2021 QUEER|ART|PRIZE for Recent Work, and a 2022
Whiting Award in Nonfiction. Duplan is a professor of postcolonial
literature at Bennington College, and has taught poetry at The New
School, Columbia University, and Sarah Lawrence College, and others.
Visit his website here for more information.
This meditation series is organized by the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center in collaboration with the NYC Climate Justice Hub, and Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative generously supported by Engaging the Senses Foundation.
