CLIMAKAZE MIAMI HISTORY

Founded by Elizabeth Doud in collaboration with FUNDarte, and launched in April 2015, Climakaze Miami is a radical, fun and stimulating community building platform that mixes live performances, participatory conversations and excursions into green spaces in a thought provoking festival format focused on climate change issues and environmental justice.  Based in South Florida, the project brings together the climate-concerned arts community, educators, scientists, activists and climate champions in local government, plus a wide range of climate-concerned artist and citizens. 

The event design responds to the premise that the largest part of our citizenry lives in a state of dampened awareness about climate issues, and isn’t yet effectively able to connect cause to present circumstance to positive action for systems change.  While climate change is now a commonly identified idea, most people struggle with locating their agency as change-makers in response to the overwhelming crisis.   The arts—particularly live performance—is a vital tool that connects community to complex narratives about the state of our world today, activating our heart center and allowing us to sense in to needed action.  

Climakaze Miami activities deliver visionary, risk taking performances, dialogues and activities that are committed to positive change in the face of shared climate shift realities.  We are a multi-lingual event that interconnects the cultural crossroads of the Americas and geographically unique witnesses

CLIMAKAZE MIAMI 2018 - LIST OF ARTISTS, PERFORMANCES AND ACTIVITIES

CLIMAKAZE MIAMI 2017 - LIST OF ARTISTS, PERFORMANCES AND ACTIVITIES

climakaze miami 2016 - List of artists, partners and activities

climakaze miami 2015 - List of artists, partners and activities

PERFORMANCES and activities at a glance:

• Friday, April 20 / 5:30-9:00 p.m.— The Mermaid Tear Factory  performance and Earth Day Eco-Arts Gathering (MBBG)
• Saturday, April 21 / 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. – Bike-Dance-Swim "Triathlon" featuring dance leader Michelle Murray (Miami Beach) - Registration HERE  
• Saturday, April 21/ 8:30 p.m. – Las Áñez in Concert and Film Screening of ZENÚ by Claudio Marcotulli (Miami Dade County Auditorium) - Tickets HERE
• Sunday, April 22 / 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. - "Dear Climate" Creative Writing Lab (Miami Beach Botanical Garden) - Registration HERE
• Sunday, April 22 / 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. – The Mermaid Tear Factory performance (along Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach)

PROGRAM DETAILS:

"dear climate" creative writing intensive

Additional Info

All activities take place at the Miami Dade County Auditorium (2901 W Flagler St., Miami, FL 33135), the Miami Beach Botanical Garden (2000 Convention Center Dr. Miami Beach, FL 33139), and along Lincoln Road.

Performance admission for Saturday, April 21:  $25 Adults | $20 Seniors and Students with ID (Limited). A limited number of $5 performance tickets will be available for students ages 13-22 through: www.cultureshockmiami.com.

Creative writing intensives, artist talks and Bike-dance-swim triathlon are free of charge.  

• Creative Writing workshops requires pre-registration here.

• Bike-Dance-Swim "Triathlon" requires pre-registration here.

Advance purchase Tickets: Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com; by phone (800) 745-3000 and at the Miami Dade County Auditorium Box Office, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

"Dear Climate" Creative Writing Intensive - Sign Up Here!

REGISTER HERE

Check us out on the Facebook, so you can invite all of your friends (we are multi-species friendly!)

Highlights from Climakaze Miami 2017

May 5-7, 2017

Mid-Stage at Miami Dade County Auditorium (2901 W Flagler St., Miami, FL 33135)

Climakaze Miami 2017 featured the artistic expressions of two extraordinary women, Inez Barlatier and Moira Finucane, and  sponsored two free community eco-theater labs by the Superhero Clubhouse (NYC) that allowed participants from diverse backgrounds to experience theater making through a climate lens. 

FUNDarte's Climakaze Miami presented inspiring performance, AND conversations and workshops about the complex state of our world with old and new friends from Florida and elsewhere! 

PERFORMANCES

ECO-THEATER LABS

Additional Info

Performance admission:  $25 Adults| $40 Weekend Pass | $20 Seniors and Students with ID (Limited). A limited number of $5 performance tickets will be available for students ages 13-22 through: www.cultureshockmiami.com. 

Eco-Theater Labs are free of charge, but participants must register HERE.

Advance purchase Tickets: Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com; by phone (800) 745-3000 and at the Miami Dade County Auditorium Box Office, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

More about the artists

What are Eco-Theater Labs?  Come find out...

THE ECO-THEATER LAB is a creative workshop for artists and environmental experts to confront pressing questions about humanity's relationship to our planet through the lens of theater.  Produced by Siren Arts and facilitated by Jeremy Pickard of Superhero Clubhouse (NYC), the laboratories will take place in partnership with Florida International University’s (FIU) Eco-Humanities project at the Department of History and the Green School of International and Public Affairs, and in co-production with Climakaze Miami and FUNDarte, Inc.   These labs offer participants a creative way to grapple with real and hypothetical climate challenges in generative atmosphere that engages the hopeful imagination.  Artists are welcome, but you don't have to be an artist to participate!

How do I sign up?  RSVP HERE.

How long does the lab last?  6 hours (we will have refreshments and hearty snack available!)

What should I wear?  Come in comfortable clothes that you can move in.  We will work barefoot, or in socks.

Do I have to be an artist or a professional scientist to participate?  No, just come with curiosity, imagination and willingness to participate.

PURPOSE of the Lab
-to practice meaningful science-art collaboration
-to develop outreach and communication
-to create new work in a new way
-to better understand the value of cross-disciplinary approaches to confronting great environmental challenges in a fictional setting in order to offer this model to communities in the real world

STRUCTURE of the Lab
1. An informal "chalk talk" by an environmental scientist, including questions/conversation.
2. Creative exercises responding to the science and introduction of theatrical tools.
3. Groups work independently for 90 minutes, creating short performances.
4. Groups perform what they've made.
5. Response, evaluation and celebration.

DON'T WORRY...YOU'RE IN SAFE HANDS:  Superhero Clubhouse is a New York-based collective of artists and scientists working at the intersection of environmentalism and theater. They create fictional performances rooted in complex environmental questions, practice ecological production, and collaborate across disciplines and communities to enact a thriving society. They believe theater is an essential tool for evolving our consciousness in the face of global environmental crises. Superhero Clubhouse will adapt their Lab model http://www.superheroclubhouse.org/lab/, which offers participants an interactive way to confront pressing questions about humanity's relationship to our planet through the lens of theater.  

Labs are offered free of charge.  Capacity is limited.  Please select link below to sign up for one of two Eco-Theater Labs:

Register for the May 6th Laboratory – Lab features science talk by Dr. Cara Rockwell of Florida International University (FIU) (bio below).

Register for the May 7th Laboratory – Lab features science talk by Dr. Phillip Stoddard, Mayor of South Miami and FIU Faculty (bio below).

The Eco-Theater Labs will take place the historic Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center at 111 SW 5th Ave, Miami, FL 33130.  Directions here.

Siren Arts' production of Eco-Theater Labs is supported by the Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs' Community Grants program.  Other support comes from Fragile Habitat/Ecohumanities for Cities in Crisis: A Public Event Series Bringing Miami Together to Discuss Our Future, organized by the Department of History of the Green School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University, funded through the Humanities in the Public Square Initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Bios of guest Eco-Theater Labs' guest Scientists:

Cara Rockwell is a specialist in Tropical Forestry and Forest Resources and Conservation, and is on faculty at the Earth and Environment Department of Florida International University.  Her research integrates the disciplines of tropical ecology, agroforestry, and sustainable forest management within the context of neotropical smallholder and community-based systems. Her belief is that a cohesive approach to natural resource management research will have a positive impact on livelihood development as well as biodiversity conservation and environmental services. To-date, most of her research has been conducted in Southwestern Amazonia, principally in the Brazilian state of Acre and the Peruvian department of Madre de Dios. Drawing from her international field experiences, including Peace Corps experience in Paraguay, she is interested in mentoring students and allowing them to explore research opportunities in the field, both in South Florida and Latin America.

Mayor Phillip Stoddard was first elected to office in 2010 and is currently serving his fourth term as Mayor of South Miami.  In 2015, he was appointed by the White House to the Governance Coordinating Committee of the National Ocean Council where has developed national policy for sea level rise. In 2016, he was named by Politico Magazine to the Politico-50 for his blunt explanations of the economic consequences sea level rise, and was named the Green Municipal Official for 2016 by the Florida Green Building Coalition.  Dr. Philip K. Stoddard has been a professor of biology at Florida International University since 1992.  A big proponent of renewable energy, his house and car are powered by the sun.  Mayor Stoddard has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, National Geographic, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Stern, The Bond Buyer, NPR, PRI, BBC, MSNBC, and numerous documentaries, most recently National Geographic’s "Years of Living Dangerously". 

CLIMAKAZE MIAMI 2016 -  APRIL 22-24

Film Screening – This Changes Everything – The Movie

http://thefilm.thischangeseverything.org/about

Friday, April 22, 2016 - 8:00 p.m.

What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we’ll ever get to build a better world?  Filmed over 211 shoot days in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.

Climakaze Dialogue and Performance Marathon

Saturday, April 23, 2016 – 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.

Performance #1 – This World Made Itself by Miwa Matreyek

This World Made Itself is a multimedia live performance work combining projected animation and the artist's own shadow silhouette as she interacts with the fantastical world of the video, merging film and theater to create something that is its own kind of spectacle.  Created and performed by Los Angeles based artist Miwa Matreyek, This World Made Itself is a visually and musically-rich journey through the history of the earth, from the universe's epic beginnings to the complex world of humans. The piece is at once semi-scientific (like flipping through a children's encyclopedia), and emotional and dream-like, rich in surrealism, metaphor, and fantasy.

Performance #2 – Loup Garou by Nick Slie

Loup Garou is an environmental performance that uses the Cajun werewolf myth to explore the deep interconnectedness between land and culture in Louisiana. Conceived and performed by native Louisianan Nick Slie, it is part performance, part ritual, part howl to the world about southeast Louisiana’s plight.   Every half hour, Louisiana loses nearly a football field’s worth of coastal marshes to the Gulf of Mexico.  Land loss is ubiquitous, occurring even in interior areas.  Six major hurricanes in the last four years have exacerbated an already dire situation.  In Louisiana, so many cultural traditions and industries derive directly from relationship with the surrounding rich envirnonment.  What will become of those traditions as the land that nurtures them

Performance #3 – The Psychoanalysis of Climate Change by Xavier Cortada

The Psychoanalysis of Climate Change is a new performance experience conceived of by Miami’s own Xavier Cortada, current Artist-in-Residence at Florida International University’s School of Environment, Arts, Society & the College of Arts & Sciences, and College of Architecture + The Arts. The work exposes what often feels like an unnamed crisis of the human psyche around climate change and environmental collapse realizations--both in our consciousness and subconscious. 

Performance #4 - Luyanó Band

Luyano Band presents an evening of original music that blends projected images and their unique brand of World music.  Through their music, Luyano Band is looking for a way of unifying not only music styles and genders and instruments, but world ancestral wisdom legacy with contemporary life. By reaching a harmonious result on stage, them, it might be possible to create that same harmony as a community. The audiovisual experience they present is an exciting assault to the senses from the roots to contemporary, from East to West.

Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 9 a.m. -2 p.m.

Marine Nature Excursion to Biscayne Bay in collaboration with Earth Learning.

Support for Climakaze Miami 2016 was provided by diverse funders, including the Miami Dade County Auditorium, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council; Glassworks Multimedia, Romaldesign, The Miami Herald, and WDNA.

Climakaze Miami 2015 - April 10–12

 CLIMAKAZE PROGRAM

Three days of conversations and shows?  Are these people for real?  Yes.  We believe in the urgency and importance of this topic so much, that we want to dedicate enough time to weave community and deep communication around the ideas and perspectives of all participants, and really delve into what can move us to action.  The event will be designed as a single process that builds from the start of Day 1 through the closing beach party on Day 3. We are therefore asking participants to give themselves the important luxury of participating in the full three days. So join us for an exciting journey of exploration, relationship building and lots of fun!

Friday, April 10th

Climakaze Dialogues – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. At MDCA (includes lunch)

Evening Performance and Opening – 8 p.m.

8-minute manifesto – Peter Kulchyski

Polar Bear Fever – Antonio Salinas

Saturday, April 11th

Climakaze Dialogues and Excursion to the Everglades

Everglades National Park:  8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Evening Performance – 8 p.m.

8-minute manifesto – Local Miami Artivist

Preparation for the Obsolesence of the Y Chromosome - Michelle Ellsworth

Sunday, April 12th

Climakaze Dialogues – 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. (at MDCA)

Picnic at Beach – 3-6 p.m.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES AND ARTISTS

 Polar Bear Fever (La Fiebre del Oso Polar) is a one-man performance written by Antonio Salinas that incorporates dance, song, theater and video elements.  Characteristic of Salinas’ solo work, this multi-disciplinary piece is his latest creation, and focuses on the actions of human beings and their consequences for humans’ own well being.   Besides the charged and elegant choreography,  there are spare and striking visual elements, and poetic narrative text and song.  The piece explores the connection between humans and other live beings—vegatable and animal—with whom we share the planet, and tries to understand why, in spite of our genetic similarities, there is such a vast difference between the way that we behave, and the behavior of the nature that surrounds us. 

 Antonio Salinas is a Mexican dancer, choreographer and stage actor. He has studied and collaborated with Mexican and international artists, toured his solo work extensively, and has taught in a number of universities at home and abroad. He has collaborated as an actor, choreographer, dancer, interviewer, and playwright in various Mexican and international projects and organizations, and has authored a series of one-person shows which have been presented in festivals in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Germany, Spain and India.  He is well known for his humorous and visceral choreo-narratives that are so well embodied in his solo performance work.  He has won awards such as the San Luís 2006 Award for best play, Best Dancer at the XXVI Lila López International Festival of Dance, Best Monologue Actor by AMCT in 2005, and he was named one of the most important choreographers and one of the best dancers of Mexico by the Zona de Danza ballet studio and art center in 1999. 

Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome attempts to prepare (both on a micro and macro level) for the end of men.  Intended as a humorous look at the very real threat of species extinction on our planet, the work mourns and celebrates some of the eminent losses of our time.  Simultaneously committed to conservation and archival efforts, Ellsworth works in the tradition of folklorist Alan Lomax.  Using web technology, replacement apparatus (including a male gaze simulator), choreography (including reenactments of authentic man dances), and the latest data from the Whitehead Institute at MIT, this work investigates rumors about the implications of the Y Chromosome's reputed shrinkage.  Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome was commissioned by MCA Denver's Feminism + Co, Boulder Arts Commission, Boulder County Arts Alliance, and EcoArts Connection.

 Michelle Ellsworth is a dancer, choreographer, video maker, writer, cartoonist, and web designer. In her performances, Ellsworth combines dance with technology, humorously confronting issues such as biodiversity or problems with the shrinkage of the Y chromosome. Since 2007, she has created performable websites that exist as independent sites as well as live pieces. Ellsworth has performed at On the Boards, Seattle, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, and Dance Theater Workshop in New York. She has received commissions from DTW, DiverseWorks, Houston, National Performance Network, and the Miami-Dade College Department of Cultural Affairs.

Link to promo video: http://marinmedialab.com/michelle-ellsworth-preparation-for-the-obsolescence-of-the-y-chromosome/

Artist website:  www.michelleellsworth.com

8 MINUTE MANIFESTOS

These expressions are varied takes on the idea of the ‘manifesto’.  Limited to 8-minute bytes, each invited artist-participant will present their call to action, which will be interspersed within the weekend’s events as ‘bursts’ of feisty, poetic and diverse viewpoints.

FUNDarte is a multidisciplinary non-profit organization dedicated to producing, presenting, and promoting music, theater, dance, film and visual arts that speak to Miami’s diverse cultures, with a special emphasis on artists from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain.

ABOUT EARTH LEARNING

Earth Learning is growing a life-sustaining culture in our home, the Greater Everglades bioregion, as well as seeding life-sustaining strategies in bioregions throughout North America.  To be a catalyst in the transition toward a life-sustaining culture in the Greater Everglades Bioregion by: Creating Access to ecological movements as they unfold locally; Weaving Connection toward collective wisdom and a shared vision; Building Capacity via ecological learning experiences; and Growing Roots by inspiring and modeling local, eco-social ventures.  We are part of a global movement that is transitioning us toward an ecologically sustainable world. 

ABOUT THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AUDITORIUM

Miami-Dade County Auditorium opened its doors in 1951. It has a splendid history as one of South Florida’s premier performing arts centers. This popular multipurpose theatre features Art Deco Revival décor. It offers two dynamic presentation styles: a 2,372-seat theater that can host major dance, theatre and music performances; and a 250-seat black box theatre in which both the audience and performers share the stage of the auditorium, adapted into an innovative studio theatre for more intimate - and often cutting-edge - shows. In January 2012, the operation of Miami-Dade County Auditorium was transferred to the Department of Cultural Affairs, which hasa track record and reputation of innovation and artistic excellence.  Project and organizational support for

Support for Climakaze Miami comes in part from the Miami Dade County Auditorium, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council; Glassworks Multimedia, Romaldesign, The Miami Herald, and WDNA.