PechaKucha Night Asheville returns!

We’re back, in an online, livestream format for another evening of fascinating presentations from the most creative and interesting people in and beyond Asheville, all following the beautifully simple PechaKucha 20x20 format: 20 images, shown for 20 seconds each.

We are teaming up with The Collider, here in "Climate City," to look beyond the crisis — to explore climate and environmental justice through a variety of lenses, including art, humor, race, gender and faith.

Donations from this event will benefit the
North Carolina Environmental Justice Network

NCEJN is a grassroots, people of color-led coalition of community organizations and their supporters who work with low income communities and people of color on issues of climate, environmental, racial, and social injustice.

The Collider is a nonprofit network of member businesses, organizations, academic institutions, and individuals advancing climate solutions so that all can mitigate, adapt, and thrive in a changing world.

Register for v25 livestream: 09/25/2020

OUR PROGRAM THIS EVENING:

ANNE WAPLE & DEKE ARNDT

Helping people do good for the planet and their communities while doing well in their institutions and businesses may be a tall order in our current climate challenge, but that’s what motivates Dr. Anne Waple. As a climate scientist for 25 years – in government, nonprofits, and now private practice – Anne believes passionately that when we just focus on problems, we rarely actually solve them. Driving positive, big, lasting global change starts when we ask questions about the world we want and then have fun making it happen. Co-authoring Earth’s Next Chapter is a job and an opportunity for all of us, and Anne’s goal is to help us figure out a chapter that makes us want to turn the page.

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Deke Arndt is the Chief of Climatic Sciences & Services Division at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) in Asheville, NC. He was previously the Chief of NCEI's Climate Monitoring Branch. He has served as co-lead editor of the American Meteorological Society's annual State of the Climate report, and co-chairs the US Global Change Research Program's Interagency Indicators Working Group.

SCOTT HARDIN-NIERI

Scott is partner, dad, spiritual director, pastor, and sojourner. He is the Director of the Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina and Associate Minister of Green Chalice of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Prior to living in North Carolina, Scott and his family served in the vulnerable cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica. There he learned how to climb Fig Strangler trees, spot Two-toed Sloths, call like a Mot Mot, and listen to people, God, and nature in new ways.

SASHA MITCHELL

Sasha Mitchell has been researching family history since age 14. What started as a curiosity has led to a deep study and understanding the journeys of of 1000's of African American families from days of enslavement to the present day in communities from Virigina, Alabama, and North Carolina to her present home in Asheville, NC. A mother of three nearly grown sons, and a foster mom, Sasha's hobbies range from genealogy to sewing and hand embroidery, to making miniatures!

NANCY LOWE

Nancy has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her art with science themes has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the US and in Europe. She worked for many years in research labs on pollination biology, microbial symbionts of insects, and large-scale ecology. For the last two decades, she has focused on art-science collaborations and other creative projects that enhance public understanding of science. See https://asif.center.

INTERMISSION (5 MINUTES)

NAEEMA MUHAMMAD

Naeema, a resident of Rocky Mount, NC, has been Organizing Co-Director with NCEJN since 2013. Married for 52 years, she has 3 children, 10 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren. Naeema has worked on two major grants, serving as a community organizer dealing with waste from industrial hog operations. She co-authored publications for the New Solutions Health Journal and serves on the NC Department of Environmental Quality Secretary’s Environmental Justice & Equity Advisory Board.

ZEV FRIEDMAN

Zev’s social activist parents reared him on tofu and challah in a patch of kudzu in Sylva, North Carolina. In late November 2016, after 13 years working as a Permaculture educator and consultant, Zev began developing Co-operate WNC as a regional mutual aid network transforming social and economic barriers to climate resilience through regenerative community power, cooperative economics and mutual aid culture. Zev lives and works at Earthaven Ecovillage in Rutherford County.

DAYNA REGGERO