
Speaking
For the past nine years, the most important project in my life has been an environmental humanities initiative called Music & the Earth International. I founded this initiative after spending several years in the academic world(s) of human geography and environmental politics, and the activist world(s) of interfaith climate activism and community arts. Out of these experiences emerged an insight which changed my life forever: The connections between music and the Earth, while being a key pillar of human history, are typically overlooked by both environmental activists and contemporary musicians— but, be that as it may, it is possible to celebrate and write music which restores our deep connections to the more-than-human world. I would argue that the same can be said of the role of music in the vegan movement. I have therefore prepared a talk which celebrates the potential, deep power of certain kinds of music to support and nourish vegan and plant-based lifestyles around the world. This talk draws upon the insights that have come from my own composition of vegan jazz, as well as my studies and experiences of multicultural solidarities in the past and present.