S3E8 The Power of Artivism: Art for Dignity and for the Planet | Thiago Mundano Power, People and Planet

Episode 1, a conversation with Christopher Roman, pt 1/2. Christopher Roman is an award-winning professional dancer and choreographer based in Frankfurt, Germany. He has served as Associate Artisitic Director of the Forsythe Company in Frankfurt, Artistic Director of Dance ON in Berlin, and is at the beginning stages of building a SALT Company, a "multi-faceted" resource for dancers. In part one of our conversation, we discuss the worth of a moving body, and what would be required to effect change in the dance world in order for dancers to garner agency over their own bodies and the politics at play in the world of performing arts.

2019

In this introductory episode, I lay out the core idea of regenerative artivism and the scope of the podcast. Speaking from southern California with my attention grounded in East Asia, I reflect on how art, care, and collective imagination help communities confront social and environmental injustice and craft/cultivate more livable futures in damaged places. Using the image of a threatened valley and the community-organized Meinung Yellow Butterfly Festival (美濃黃蝶祭), I introduce regeneration as an ongoing practice rather than a single victory. I explain why Season 1 focuses on women artivists in the greater China region and why their often-overlooked work in creeks, kitchens, schools, villages, and resettlement sites matters for environmental thinking. I situate the podcast in relation to my own long-term field research and to the limits of academic writing, framing the series as a slow, seminar-like space for listening, critical reflection, and grounded imagination. The episode closes with an invitation to consider a place that matters to you, the damages it has absorbed, and the quiet forms of care already at work there. Keywords regenerative artivism; regenerative aesthetics, socially engaged art; environmental art; ecofeminism; environmental humanities; Asia, East Asia; Greater China; community art; environmental justice; social justice; regeneration; care; multispecies relations; public pedagogy; art and ecology; women artivists Key References Demos, T. J. Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016. ECOARTASIA. Digital Archive of Chinese Socially and Ecologically Engaged Art. https://ecoartasia.net/. Gablik, Suzi. The Reenchantment of Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1991. Haraway, Donna J. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016. Kester, Grant H. The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. Lerner, Steve. Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011. Puig de la Bellacasa, María. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. Wang, Meiqin. "Ecology, Environmental Art, and Sustainable Community Building: The Meinung Yellow Butterfly Festival as a Case of Environmental Activism in Taiwan." International Journal of Social Sustainability in Economic, Social, and Cultural Context 19, no. 2 (2023): 75–101. Wang, Meiqin. Socially Engaged Art in Contemporary China: Voices from Below. London: Routledge, 2019. Wang, Meiqin, ed. Socially Engaged Public Art in East Asia. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2022.

2026

Artivism in Motion In this episode of The Butterfly Effect Podcast, we explore how undocumented and marginalized artists use art, fashion, and performance as powerful forms of political expression. We'll discuss how creativity becomes a tool for visibility, resistance, and storytelling, and how integrating artistic practices into our daily lives can deepen our advocacy. From reclaiming identity through style to using movement and performance to challenge dominant narratives, this episode offers thoughtful insight into art's transformative role in social change.

2025

Can beauty become the backbone of a social movement? In this episode of Power, People & Planet, I sit down with artist and artivist Shilo Shiv Suleman to explore how art, beauty, and fearless imagination turn fear into love, trauma into healing, and streets into living canvases of resistance. From building an "army of fearless" women reclaiming public space, to creating climate monuments with frontline and Indigenous communities, we talk about: How beauty can save us and help us heal, Why rebellion and imagination are essential political tools, What it means to root climate action in wonder, magic realism, and ancient wisdom, How art and culture are powering a new wave of global, feminist, decolonial movements.

2025

Feeling at all freaked out by the state of the world at the moment? Wondering what you can do about it? Join Kumi Naidoo, the veteran social and environmental justice campaigner, to tackle some of the biggest issues of our time. In each episode Kumi is joined by activists, artists and community leaders who are dismantling our broken system - and building something better in its place. Hear their stories. Learn what has kept them fighting. Find out how we all can make a difference.Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

2021

“We need to centre care, care in the widest sense of the word, as we try to rebuild in this post COVID era.”Aruna Rao is a feminist, an activist, and the co-founder of Gender At Work, an international network dedicated to building new cultures of equality and inclusion.In a passionate and wide-ranging conversation that opens with Aruna’s rendition of the spiritual Wade in the Water, Kumi and Aruna explore hope, fear, Black Lives Matter, intersectionality and structural change. They ask whether we have been failed by the institutions that were set up to protect us – the police, social services, the UN, development charities and aid agencies – and whether it’s better to try to change them from within, or tear them down and start again?This episode was recorded on Juneteenth 2021, a date that celebrates African American culture and the end of slavery – as well as the first Juneteenth to be recognised as a US federal holiday.----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition,...

2021

“Due to COVID 19 people have been questioning their basic contract. Is this government protecting me, and are these politicians doing what they claim to do, which is to look after us and to protect our health?” Once a British diplomat and now self proclaimed 'gentle anarchist', Carne Ross describes how solving today’s problems starts with shedding our assumptions about what works and what is possible. Drawing inspiration from diverse movements and places - the ancient Greeks, the philosophy of anarchy, and a Brazilian city - Ross reveals practical steps for re-imagining democracies so that they are capable of tackling the biggest challenges of our times. ----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.orgCarne Ross on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carnerossCarne's website: http://www.carneross.comIndependent Diplomat: https://independentdiplomat.org-----------------------Learn more...

2021

"There's nothing like watching the home that you live in being demolished by bulldozers to make you politically conscious."Growing up in Cape Town's District 6 in the 1970s, Tasneem experienced racial segregation, forced eviction and discrimination first hand. Her anti-apartheid activism eventually took her into politics, serving as a provincial environment minister in South Africa’s post-apartheid ANC government. As a radical minister within a conservative bureaucracy, Tasneem fought to connect environmental issues to poverty and development.Since then, Tasneem has served as WWF's head of global climate policy, going behind the scenes as head of delegation at the Paris Climate Talks, and now leads the Climate Action Network – the planet’s largest coalition for climate justice.----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.orgClimate Action Network website: https://climatenetwork...

2021

"Health is a public good. So if we have a market system that's not working for the public good, then that needs to change."Dr Tolullah Oni is a public health physician and urban epidemiologist. She grew up in Lagos and today is a Clinical Senior Research associate with the University of Cambridge as well as an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. She is also Founder of UrbanBetter, an Africa-led, youth-privileged, science-based and equity-centred learning collaborative designing health and sustainability in cities.In this episode, Tolullah explains the deeper structural issues that surround public health, how cities can play an important role in health, and the failures the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed in our systems. ----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.orgTolullah on Twitter: @DrTolullahUrbanBetter website: https://urbanbetter.science/--------...

2021

“Understanding that actually power lies inherent in us. It’s the responsibility and the rights and the beauties and the power to actually change society from within and outside.”Ashish Kothari is an Indian green activist, scholar and co-founder of the Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group. He has served as chair of Greenpeace India, on the board of Greenpeace International and has been active with a number of people’s movements. He has also been part of the Indian government’s Environmental Appraisal Committee and other government initiatives. In this episode, Kumi and Ashish discuss alternatives to how societies can govern themselves, the need for radical ecological democracy and how activists can fight back against increasingly hostile governments.----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.orgAshish Kothari on Twitter: @chikikothariKalpavriksh website: https://kalpavriksh....

2021

“The social contracts can always be negotiated. I think our responsibility actually is to be constantly negotiating what that social contract looks like. How we relate to each other. How we live with one another.”Dr Amara Enyia is a community organizer, lawyer and political strategist. A former candidate for Mayor of Chicago, she is currently the managing director of Diaspora Rising, an advocacy hub dedicated to strengthening the bonds amongst members of the global Black family.In this conversation, Kumi and Amara take an in-depth look at the relationship between cities and their residents, the intersection between environmental & urban justice issues, and what it means to be an organiser and activist on both local and international levels.----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.orgDr Amara Enyia on Twitter: @AmaraEnyiaAmara's website: https://amaraenyia.comDiaspora Rising...

2021

“There are no prisons big enough for ideas. They can’t put our ideas behind bars. Your movement and what you work for will always be bigger than you.”Disha Ravi is an Indian climate and environmental activist. She is a founder and active member of Fridays For Future India with a focus on “MAPA” (most affected people and areas). Her arrest and detention by the Indian government in February of 2021 was met with widespread international condemnation. In conversation with Kumi, Disha shares her perspective as a youth climate leader from the Global South. She explains what it means to be part of a movement that is bigger than oneself, how the climate struggle differs between rich and poor countries, and speaks passionately about what brings her inspiration and keeps her fighting.----------------------Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.orgDisha on Twitter: @disharaviiDisha on Instagram: @dishara...

2021