IA Hubbub

Episode 3: Interdependence

In episodes 1 and 2 of the IA Hubbub, we heard about projects happening in IA’s own backyard in the Yolo bioregion where UC Davis is located. In this episode, we travel further afield to IA member institutions Michigan State University (or MSU), where Jessica Stokes and Michael Stokes run the HIVES research lab which examines issues at the intersections of disability, ecology, and access, and to University of Southern California (USC) where Hannah Michael Flynn and Leslie Dinkin started the Fifty-One Miles project about the LA River with support from USC’s Arts in Action program. Both the HIVES Research Lab [https://behives.org/] and the Fifty-One Miles [https://fiftyonemiles.com/] project are excellent examples of Imagining America’s focus on arts-oriented community-engaged scholarship that cuts across institutional hierarchies, and expands our understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependence that drives our multispecies worlds. Special thanks to Ameen Lofti for providing original music for this series. This episode was edited and produced by Anuj Vaidya. For further resources about the people and places mentioned on this episode, please visit the IA Hubbub portal [https://imaginingamerica.org/ia-hubbub-ep-3-interdependence/] on our website.

Episode 2: Abundance

The second episode of the IA Hubbub returns to the Tending and Gathering Garden, an eco-cultural site in the Yolo bioregion (where UC Davis is located) at the forefront of hands-on, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational learning that weaves together native and non-native communities, and university and community contexts.  While the previous episode shone a spotlight on cultural fire, in this episode we follow stories of water. For Wintun/Maidu culture-bearer, naturalist, storyteller, and visual artist Diana Almendariz, fire and water are two sides of the same ecology. These are interwoven themes in her paintings and in her collaborations with other wetland knowledge keepers, scientists, and ecologists. Through these multiple strategies, she teaches about the interconnectedness of the wetland ecosystem in the Yolo bioregion. Featuring interviews with Diana and with UC Davis entomologist Geoffrey Attardo, this episode takes us on a wide-ranging journey through Diana’s visual art practice, her collaboration with Geoffrey around wetland restoration, and how her image-making practice is informed by her work as a naturalist. Special thanks to Ameen Lofti for providing original music for this series, and to Mootens Productions for providing the image of Diana with her painting. This episode was edited and produced by Anuj Vaidya. For further resources about the people and places mentioned on this episode, please visit the IA Hubbub portal [https://imaginingamerica.org/ia-hubbub-ep-2-abundance/] on our website.

Episode 1: Cultural Fire

The first episode of IA Hubbub looks at a visionary collaboration happening in IA's own backyard, at the Tending and Gathering Garden, a now-defunct gravel mining site that has been transformed through the efforts of a determined collective of Native American practitioners, in collaboration with University of California faculty, graduate students, and staff from across the region. Featuring the voices of Diana Almendariz (Wintun/Maidu cultural practitioner, naturalist, and visual artist), Beth Rose Middleton Manning (Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis), and Jacquelyn Ross (Pomo/Coast Miwok cultural practitioner, and Assistant Director of Outreach in Undergraduate Admissions at UC Davis), the episode introduces listeners to this important eco-cultural site, which also offers a successful model for university-community partnerships.  Special thanks to Juliette Beck (YoloSol Collective [http://yolosol.org]) for contributions to this episode, to Ameen Lofti for providing original music for this series, and to Diana Almendariz for providing the image of the TGG. This episode was edited and produced by Anuj Vaidya. For further resources about the people and places mentioned on this episode, please visit the IA Hubbub portal [https://imaginingamerica.org/ep-1-stories-from-the-tending-and-gathering-garden/] on our website.