Adaptation. Mitigation. Justice.
Marisol Cortez In Spring of 2012, at the tail end of my time teaching in Lawrence, Kansas, I had the privilege of attending the Rights of Mother Earth Conference at Haskell Indian Nations University. I’d found my way to Haskell via the Wetlands Preservation Organization, where I fought alongside Haskell […]
We are excited to present Deceleration’s first foray into DIY publishing—an avian-themed poetry zine called Words for Birds 2020: Poetics for Pandemics. Read it here … with two bonus features for our online readers. Marisol Cortez When the pandemic nixed Words for Birds, an annual workshop and reading held at […]
Deceleration‘s third broadcast for the Covid-19 era in San Antonio includes a healing plant walk with Human Path founder and director Sam Coffman … conversation with Ceiba Ili about the recovery of indigenous identity (and great musical offerings) … and reveals the City of San Antonio’s continued harassment of birds […]
“I speak for this river carrying the stillborn, the dying — this water that quenches the thirst of bosque, mergansers, warblers, and ash-throated flycatchers.” At Deceleration, we’re big fans of poetry that connects people to the land, to the air, to the spirits of our deeply intertwined families, this dance […]
Marisol Cortez As Día de los Muertos approaches – bedecking local H-E-Bs in all manner of commercialized Latinidad – another familiar ritual begins in the far northern reaches of the hemisphere. Like glacier melt rolling downhill to join with rivers and eventually oceans, a tributary of monarchs moves slowly southward […]
Bird-dispersing chemical warfare comes to the Westside’s little Aztlan, our ‘place of herons.’ Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series. Click here for part one, a dispatch from Brackenridge Park. Marisol Cortez Roosting together on a mid-March Sunday evening, the birds of Bird Island sound collectively at times […]
How the slow attention of local women exposed an institutional war on the birds of San Antonio. Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series. Read part two, “Place of Herons,” here. Marisol Cortez In 1962, Rachel Carson—government scientist, nature writer, breast cancer non-survivor, and queer woman on […]
Outrage Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Bill That Would Hit Pipeline Protestors With Up to 10 Years in Prison Jake Johnson/Common Dreams Sparking outcry from indigenous tribes and environmental groups, the Texas state Senate on Monday passed industry-backed Republican legislation that would hit pipeline protestors with a third-degree felony and up to ten […]
In South Korea on Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its long-awaited special report on 1.5C. The IPCC is a body of scientists and economists – first convened by the United Nations (UN) in 1988 – which periodically produces summaries of the “scientific basis of climate change, […]
In the wake of hurricanes like Florence, the U.S. government pays to dump truckloads of sand onto eroding beaches, in a cycle that is said to harm ecosystems and disproportionately benefit the rich. Lisa Song and Al Shaw Pro Publica As lawmakers consider disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane […]
Voices of the Waters brings together songs and stories from indigenous voices and works from environmental artists and activists to honor the Sacred Texas Springs. Readers from Stone in Steam/Roca en el Río and Kalpulli Ameyaltonal Tejaztlan will share their words, including Mobi Warren, Kamala Platt, Darby Riley, Marisol Cortez, […]
Indigenous communities carry work of slain environmental activist Berta Cacéres’ forward by defending nature and health care in Honduras. Jeff Abbott On March 2, hundreds gathered in Honduras to commemorate the life and work of the renowned Honduran activist Berta Cáceres on the second anniversary of her assassination. Carrying torches, […]