26 min listen
The Rainwater
FromAs She Rises
ratings:
Length:
36 minutes
Released:
May 29, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
The Sonoran Desert, situated at the bottom edge of Arizona, stretches out into the haze of a horizon, rippled with heat. It’s fed by thin tributaries of the river and, more often, watered by sparse rains. It’s a place that, in theory, could seem pretty inhospitable. But the Tohono O’odham nation has survived and thrived there, thanks in part to traditional agricultural practices that are more relevant than ever as a drought looms ahead. Tohono O’odham poet Ofelia Zepeda reads “Pulling Down the Clouds.” Her poem describes the treasured practice of Saguaro harvesting. It’s a practice Maria Francisco’s family has been taking part in for generations. Maria explains how the harvest is a celebration of rain. But now, climate change has caused the rains and monsoon seasons to shift, so the harvests are shifting too. Amy Juan is the manager of San Xavier Co-op Farm, an operation meant to revitalize traditional agricultural practices. They’re healing the ties to the past that have been severed by colonial practices, and mending the paths towards the future as the climate inevitably changes.For more:Support San Xavier Cooperative Farm at sanxaviercoop.orgYou can read Ofelia Zepeda’s poetry in “Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert” and “Jewed'l-hoi/Earth Movements, O'Odham Poems.” If you would like to learn more about Imagine5 and read some of their inspiring stories, please follow them on Instagram at @imagine5_official and sign up for their newsletter by visiting Imagine5.comAs She Rises is a Wonder Media Network production. Follow Wonder Media Network on Instagram and Twitter.
Released:
May 29, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (22)
The Tundra: In the land we know as Alaska, a poet considers a melting landscape also ablaze. What does it mean to live in a “sepia-toned” world, to be forced to distance your ties to your culture, and to truly understand that what happens to the land also happens to the people? “June really isn’t June anymore / is it?” In this episode, we visit the land currently known as Alaska. Joan Naviyuk Kane, Iñupiaq poet and scholar, joins us with the title poem of her collection “Hyperboreal” and her experience watching the landscape she grew up in change drastically because of climate change. Local activist Enei Begaye centers an Indigenized perspective as she works toward a more sustainable and just future for the native communities around her, and Siqiniq Maupin works to strengthen Iñupiaq cultural identity despite the poisonous grip of the oil and gas industry on her homeland. by As She Rises