rekindling the fire
Six Week Online Program
$425
April 30 - June 4
Sundays
12pm-2pm PST
(3pm-5pm EST)
Rekindling the Fire
Restoring the Soul
of Climate Activism
Who is this for?
This program offers a path forward for those who have struggled with the stagnation of the climate movement. After years and decades of trying the same tactics, we are burnt out, and ready to try something new. This requires taking a step back, and stepping outside, remembering what we fight for and why, and stepping back in with a new perspective.
Why this course?
Climate change is an existential crisis. It has to do with the ways we relate to each other and the living world. Responding to this crisis requires a shift in perspective. In the words of the poet Robinson Jeffers, “We must uncenter our minds from ourselves. We must dehumanize our views a little.”
In this time of transition, we are rewriting the story of what it means to be human, reevaluating what success and happiness are, and turning to the wild living world for guidance as we move forward. Much has been missing from the narrative around climate change, and it is time to fill in those gaps.
In this course, Slater and Alec will guide the group through a process of coming to terms with our shared reality. We will hold a safe space for participants to be vulnerable, to grieve and tell their stories, to reignite the spark that first drew them to this work, and to leave with a community of fellow humans who will shift the narrative of climate change and what it means to be an activist.
What to expect:
Safe space for deep discussion and vulnerability
Invitations to connect with the land and wild beings
Practices for inner work of rewilding the self
Exploring a more interconnected way of responding to the climate crisis
FACILITATORS
Alec Loorz
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Slater Jewell-Kemker
ALEC LOORZ is a writer, photographer, burnt out activist, and wild storyteller. He has spent years in apprenticeship with wild spaces, and those on the edge, and he is deeply drawn by the mystery of the living earth.
Alec’s early background was as a public speaker and youth climate activist. Throughout his teens he spoke to over 500,000 people at schools, environmental events, UN conferences, and many other venues. He organized the international “iMatter March” and was the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the US government on behalf of the atmosphere and our future, the first of its kind.
By age 18, Alec was burnt out, and he left the world of climate activism entirely. He ended up living in Olympia, Washington for five years, and there fell in love with the shorelines, rivers, mountains, and edgelands of the Pacific Northwest. He was gifted a collection of significant encounters with animals and other wildnesses (along with nearly a million photos), and his work has since became about sharing these stories, and seeking out and listening to other places in transition.
In 2021, Alec moved to Canada to unite with his partner, Slater Jewell-Kemker. They are now happily married and making a life for themselves on a farm in Southern Ontario. They are building community, watching a food forest grow, and falling in love ever more deeply with the fields and woods and rivers and edgelands and gardens around them, and all their co-inhabitants.
SLATER JEWELL-KEMKER
Youngest ever Resident of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre Directors Lab, Slater has been making films since she was six. An award-winning filmmaker and climate activist, Slater has been featured in Forbes twice and selected by the Hollywood Reporter as one of 15 filmmakers under 30 to watch. Her feature documentary following the rise of the global youth climate movement “Youth Unstoppable” is a Water Bear Original and has screened at hundreds of film festivals around the world. She is an accomplished speaker and is frequently invited to speak on film and climate change panels to represent the voice of youth.
A filmmaker by trade, Slater is also an impassioned weaver, permaculture gardener and food forest steward, with her sights on becoming a fibre farmer and educator of slow living. She lives in a tiny house with her husband Alec Loorz in Southern Ontario.