Disability justice and ecojustice are rarely considered together but are in constant conversation in our world. Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice, combining poetry and the lyrical essay, doesn’t contain just one point of view but encompasses dialectical perspectives which often exist in contradiction to each other. A disabled person is in need of plastic cups and concerned about the overwhelming plastic in our ecosystems. Ortiz expands on and complicates who is seen as an environmentalist and what being in relationship with the land can look like.
This book is an offering to explore the spiritual question of how to witness. It serves as a companion to those also grappling with the difficult and often unanswerable questions posed by climate change in the borderlands. By exploring the ways body, mind, and cultures both clash with and long for ecojustice, Rituals for Climate Change offers an often-overlooked perspective on climate-grief, interdependence, and resilience. Disabled people know how to adapt to a world that is ever changing without considering them.
About the Author
Naomi Ortiz is a poet, writer, and visual artist whose intersectional work focuses on self-care for activists, disability justice, climate action, and relationship with place. They are the author of Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice (Reclamation Press), a nonfiction book that delves into self-care tools and strategies for diverse communities. Ortiz is a Border Narrative Grant awardee for their multidisciplinary project “Complicating Conversations.” They are a 2022 Disability Futures Fellow and a Zoeglossia Poetry Fellow whose poems have been nominated for “Best of the Internet” and listed on Entropy’s “Best of 2020-2021: Favorite Poems Published Online.” Ortiz emphasizes interdependence, inclusion, and spiritual growth in their talks, workshops, poetry, and writing. Ortiz first performed their poetry at the 2004 Inaugural Disability Pride Parade in Chicago and has continued at events across the country. As a Disabled Mestizx living in the Arizona US/Mexico borderlands, they are passionate about organizing with the Southern Arizona Community Care Collective/Colectivo de Beinestar Comunitario.
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