The Art of Climate Dialogue: Stories from Iowa

DeAn Kelly, also known as DK Just Human, is a Hiphop influencer and mentor. He is committed to producing positive Hiphop music and has 5 years of experience in community engagement, performance, and hosting workshops and events. DK is from Des Moines, Iowa and is here to inspire through the arts.

DK has engaged in work in Des Moines and Osceola, Iowa, the ancestral lands of the Báxoǰe or Ioway, Sauk, and Meskwaki;  the New Jersey Great Pine Barrens, the ancestral lands of the Lenape; and Arizona on the ancestral lands of the Navajo Nation.  

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Visit The EcoTheatre Lab's website at ecotheatrelab.com for links to DK's work and how to connect with him, the transcript for this episode, and more information about the podcast, production team, and The EcoTheatre Lab.

This podcast series is all about finding ways to talk about climate change with each other. The EcoTheatre Lab wants to also be in dialogue with our listeners!  Please let us know your thoughts on this episode through this brief feedback form (tinyurl.com/artofclimatedialogue)! 

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Thank you to our podcast funders:

Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy Emerging Leader Award and North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Graduate Student Grant.*

This podcast is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number GNC22-345. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Thank you to our podcast production team:

Vivian M. Cook - Producer, Host, and Editor

Rosie Marcu-Rowe - Editor

Moselle Nita Singh - Cover Artist

Omar de Kok-Mercado - Musician

Charissa Menefee, Taylor Sklenar, and Mary Swander - Consultants

Louie Jordan - Sound Technician

Ruth Rabinowitz was born in Michigan, raised in Arizona, and has lived for over 30 years in the Bay Area of California. Ruth designed a farmhouse and is now living on her land  in Southern Iowa. Ruth holds a BA in Art from University of California Santa Cruz, an Early Childhood Education Site Supervisor degree and PDC Permaculture Design Certificate. When Ruth was a young girl, her father, David, began purchasing farmland in the Midwest with an aim to pass these farms to his two daughters. Without being raised on a farm, aside from the urban one acre Arizona garden her family owned, Ruth stepped into the role as Farm Manager of the family land in Iowa and South Dakota in 2012. She learned the farm business and caring for farmland from soup to nuts primarily through studying the web, engaging with NRCS and FSA offices, and attending farm conferences and field days. Her art includes travel photography, portraiture, wheel and hand built ceramics, interior design and landscape design and installation.  Her  newest art form is wood farm signs, embellished with names of farm locations and carvings of the plants and animals that live on the farms.

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Ruth is a part of the following organizations: 

Practical Farmers of Iowa 

Women, Food and Agriculture Network 

Climate Land Leaders 

Xerces Society 

Pheasants Forever 

Iowa Farmers Union 

Environmental Defense Fund 

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From Oxbow Farms:

We acknowledge that Oxbow Farms is located on Indigenous Lands of the Ochethi Sakowin, Sauk, Meskawaki, Kaw, Wahpeton, Yanktonai and recognize the Indigenous peoples who have lived and continue to live on these lands.

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Visit The EcoTheatre Lab's website at ecotheatrelab.com for links to Ruth's work and how to connect with her, the transcript for this episode, and more information about the podcast, production team, and The EcoTheatre Lab.

This podcast series is all about finding ways to talk about climate change with each other. The EcoTheatre Lab wants to also be in dialogue with our listeners!  Please let us know your thoughts on this episode through this brief feedback form (tinyurl.com/artofclimatedialogue)! 

_______

Thank you to our podcast funders:

Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy Emerging Leader Award and North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Graduate Student Grant.*

This podcast is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number GNC22-345. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

_______

Thank you to our podcast production team:

Vivian M. Cook - Producer, Host, and Editor

Rosie Marcu-Rowe - Editor

Moselle Nita Singh - Cover Artist

Omar de Kok-Mercado - Musician

Charissa Menefee, Taylor Sklenar, and Mary Swander - Consultants

Omar de Kok-Mercado is a photographer, videographer, musician, researcher, and farmer. His technical expertise in soil microbiology and agroecology informs his creative practice. He incorporates this technical knowledge into the inner workings of his creations building sculptures that interact with the natural world. In a hyper-connected world stripped of mystery, his work reflects our innate curiosity and works to cultivate our sense of wonder. Whether that’s flying custom built drones through an oak savanna or simulating space time dynamics via video feedback generated through four foot autonomous kaleidoscopes, his work demonstrates it’s still a wild world ripe for exploration.

Omar lives on his farm with his wife and son, two dogs, two cats, and a herd of virtually fenced goats in rural Pilot Mound, Iowa, the ancestral homelands of the Ioway tribe, with Sauk and Fox tribes to the east and Omaha to the west. 

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Visit The EcoTheatre Lab's website at ecotheatrelab.com for links to Omar's work and how to connect with him, the transcript for this episode, and more information about the podcast, production team, and The EcoTheatre Lab.

Thank you to our podcast funders:

Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy Emerging Leader Award and North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Graduate Student Grant.*

This podcast is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number GNC22-345. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

_______

Thank you to our podcast production team:

Vivian M. Cook - Producer, Host, and Editor

Rosie Marcu-Rowe - Editor

Moselle Nita Singh - Cover Artist

Omar de Kok-Mercado - Musician

Charissa Menefee, Taylor Sklenar, and Mary Swander - Consultants

Louie Jordan - Sound Technician

In this episode, producer Vivian M. Cook, provides a summary of each of the thirteen interview episodes in The Art of Climate Dialogue: Stories from Iowa. She also discusses some of the themes that emerged throughout the series.

Feel free to listen to this episode if you're trying to get a sense of which episodes are of most interest to you, or if you're interested in an overview of the themes and recommendations explored by the series' interviewees.

However, this episode is not a necessary precursor to the rest of the series, and feel free to jump right in with the interview episodes!

Visit The EcoTheatre Lab's website at ecotheatrelab.com for all episodes, transcripts, and information about the podcast, production team, and The EcoTheatre Lab.

This podcast series is all about finding ways to talk about climate change with each other. The EcoTheatre Lab wants to also be in dialogue with our listeners!  Please let us know your thoughts on this episode through this brief feedback form (tinyurl.com/artofclimatedialogue)! 

_______

Thank you to our podcast funders:

Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy Emerging Leader Award and North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Graduate Student Grant.*

This podcast is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number GNC22-345. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Thank you to our podcast production team:

Vivian M. Cook - Producer, Host, and Editor

Taylor Sklenar - Introductory Episode Editor

Rosie Marcu-Rowe - Podcast Series Editor

Moselle Nita Singh - Cover Artist

Omar de Kok-Mercado - Musician

Charissa Menefee, Taylor Sklenar, and Mary Swander - Consultants