This April and May, New York Society Library and Guernica magazine are launching a speaker series titled Art and Activism in the Anthropocene. I’ll be moderating, which is a thrill and a honor. You can register for one or more of the events by contacting the Library Events Office at events@nysoclib.org or 212.288.6900 x230. Tickets are free but must be reserved!

In the meantime, just look at this line-up!

Art & Activism of the Anthropocene Series: Don’t Shoot the Messenger: The Challenging Narratives of Climate Change
Wednesday, April 11, 2018 – 6:30 PM
| Open to the public | Members’ Room | free of charge | advance registration required

William T. Vollmann is an award-winning novelist, journalist, war correspondent, and essayist whose latest two-volume project, Carbon Diaries, explores the causes of climate change.

Chantal Bilodeau is the artistic director of the Arctic Cycle, an organization dedicated to creating plays that foster dialogue about climate change. thearcticcycle.org

David Wallace-Wells writes about climate and society for New York magazine.

Art & Activism of the Anthropocene Series: Strange Reality: The Art and Activism of Transitional Environments
Thursday, April 19, 2018 – 6:30 PM
| Open to the public | Members’ Room | free of charge | advance registration required

Jeff VanderMeer is the author of the bestselling novel Borne and the Southern Reach Trilogy. His books have won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards.

Zaria Forman is an artist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post, and as part of Banksy’s Dismaland.

Gleb Raygorodetsky is a Research Affiliate with the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria and the author of Archipelago of Hope, a book that explores the effects of climate change on indigenous communities.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is an Indigenous leader from the Kankanaey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines and a UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Art & Activism of the Anthropocene Series: Imagining the Impossible: The Role of Art and Novels in Understanding Climate Change
Wednesday, May 9, 2018 – 6:30 PM
| Open to the public | Members’ Room | free of charge | advance registration required

Amitav Ghosh is the author of several novels including The Hungry Tide, and also of The Great Derangement, a work of nonfiction that questions whether literature is doing enough to imagine the effects of climate change.

Helen Phillips is the author of four books including Some Possible Solutions, a collection of short stories that imagine a future world wrecked by pollution and other environmental crises.

Nathan Kensinger is a photographer and filmmaker whose work explores environmental disaster zones, communities threatened by sea level rise, and other liminal spaces.

Image credit: A.R. Sinclair Photography