Each week in our e-newsletter, we share the art, media, campaigns, and information that inspires us at the Alliance in our work for Sustainability, Health, Equity and Kindness. We hope you enjoy these recommendations below. You can find a full archive of our newsletters with more written about these recommendations on our blog page under the Newsletters category.

We welcome your suggestions, creations and submissions at info@afors.org. They may be shared in our e-Newsletter, social media, website, blogs, presentations and possible publications.

A special thanks to each of the contributors for their generosity in sharing their creative works. We hope you will follow the links provided to learn more about these creators and support their work. 

Contents

Art

Black and white line painting of two figures in an embrace, with a small red heart overlapping the two figures.
"Unconditional Love" by Ellen Schillace, www.ellenschillace.org
Skin of Dust
By James Lenfestey
Flying over the great knobby spine of the country,
rising up snow-capped and drifting,
I see her skin of dust.
 
And for the ten or twenty minutes
it takes to pass over, I can believe
in the curvature below, that it is
natural, growing and sloughing
as it always has, like the old reptiles.
 
 
James Lenfestey, from Earth in Anger: 25 Poems of Love and Despair (Red Dragonfly Press, © 2012) 
Drawing of an angel on the pavement where George Floyd died, at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, MN. Photo by Terry Gips.

Homesick

Andrea Gibson
FACE IT
By Marc Shillace
What was
Was what it was
 
What could have been
Obviously
Could not have been
Or it would have been.
 
What is
Is only for a moment
 
ONCE WE WERE PREY
By James Lenfestey
Spooked like
horses, glass-eyed
at some sharp sound,
bolting toward the heedless cliff.
 
Once we slept in trees
where snakes uncoiled toward us
from a higher branch.
 
Now we are predators,
and nothing living we find
can frighten us, but
 
carpenter ants, termites,
angry bees, and the sun
rising every morning
 
James Lenfestey from his Earth in Anger: 25 Poems of Love and Despair (Red Dragonfly Press, © 2012)
Mathematician Katherine Johnson drawn as a cat
"Caterine Johnson" by Helen Glover
Special thanks to Alliance Intern Helen Glover for her whimsical yet significant ode to the African-American scientist who did the hand calculations to send astronauts into space.
 
 
Vital Balance
By Roslye Ultan
Surrounded in an electromagnetic field of energy
 
I stretch my arms up high and hold my breath
Releasing a flow of air bending down
 
In repeated pattern the flow of air expands
Each breath measured to master relationships
 
Between a physical, mindful and spiritual
Interplay of movement and meditation
 
Painting of a green field with colorful flowers in the foreground, gold-painted buildings in the background, and a bright blue sky.
Lighter Footprint by Tracy Marie Oliver
When we work together, we are an amazing species.
 
 
 
A cartoon showing a shark labeled "climate change" hunting a fish labeled "racism", chasing a fish labeled "pandemic", chasing Uncle Sam.
Special thanks to Disney Imagineer Chris Runco
Photo of a sunrise over a lake

Good afternoon from the lake

Special thanks to Craig Neal for photo and quote:
“Poetry is an operation capable of changing the world, and poetic activity is revolutionary by nature, it’s also a spiritual exercise and a method of internal liberation.”
~Octavio Paz in his book The Boy and Lyre
Special thanks to Alliance Intern Helen Glover for her piece for International Tiger Day
A comic showing a duck wearing a red baseball cap labeled "unvaxxed" swimming unware while a shark labeled "Delta Variant" swims toward it from under the water.
Sitting Duck
Thanks to Cartoonist J. D. Crowe
Photograph of a tall grass prairie with purple, yellow, and white flowers on a sunny day.
Tall Grass Prairie
Submitted by Cary Richman
Drawing of a bee hive in front of a collection of colorful flowers, honeycomb, and honeybees.
Special thanks to Alliance Intern Helen Glover for her World Honeybee Day artwork

The Thief at the Door

By Karen I. Shragg

The thief at the door
Is knocking
But deaf ears respond
Excuses mount
Tethered to fatally flawed notions
That altruism will work
That consumption will be voluntarily eschewed
That an equitable Earth is in store for anyone…
Comic: Two crows perch on the arm of a scarecrow while they look at a man spraying pesticides on a field of corn. One of the crows points to the man and says "Psst! That one's the real scarecrow."
by Rohan Chakravarty, greenhumour.com
Photo of Mingus Mill in the Greta Smoky Mountains. A channel of running water runs underneath wooden beams.
Alliance Intern Brock Munsterteiger’s photo of Mingus Mill, the largest gristmill in the Great Smoky Mountains.
A photograph of a Native American person placed on the wall of a small building as a mural. On the person's face is written the words: "I am the change, industrialization, pollution, drought, water, air, earth, fake snow, co2.
I Am the Change
Chip is a photographer, public artist, activist and physician who’s worked on the Navajo nation since 1987. He coordinates the Painted Desert Project – which manifests as a constellation of murals across the Navajo Nation painted by artists from all over the rez & world. He’s a member of the Justseeds Artists Co-operative. Photo by Kit Kercheval.
Multimedia artwork by Gregory Euclid showing a wooded scene.
What I Found at the Falls What Cautions Release on the Land
Euclid stated about his work pictured above: “I wanted to create a scene which contained culturally accepted scenes of beauty, vistas… along with what I witnessed on a daily basis, the general pollution of humans.” 
A mural painted underneath a chain link fence of a line of Mexican Americans reluctantly boarding aa train while a man in a fancy suit and pockets full of cash pushes them onwards. A hand on the left hand of the mural holds a document labeled "Eighteen Unsigned Treaties". Underneath the mural is written the words: "500,000 Mexican Americans Deported."
Photo by Mark Reyes
Great Wall of Los Angeles
The mural tells LA’s history from pre-historic times to the 1950s, illustrating how LA was built by immigrants and people of color. It spans over a half mile of wall and is still a work in progress. It is nationally recognized as a critical piece of art history and a revolutionary treatment of LA’s history. – Lillie Therieau
Comic of an older man in a suit labeled "Boomers" holding out a burning and melting Earth to a couple children, labeled "Gen-Z". The caption reads: "Here you go, kids - she's all yours!"
Special thanks to Disney Imagineer Chris Runco
A life-like face of a woman almost completely submerged in water.
Photo by REUTERS/ Vincent West

Bihar by Ruben Orozco

This fiberglass sculpture is a life-like depiction of a drowning girl in Bilbao’s Nervion River. “Bihar” means Tomorrow in Basque. The goal of the installation is to inspire debate around sustainability. The artist wants people to know that “their actions can sink us or keep us afloat”.
A wooden structure with clear round containers holding a variety of organic and synthetic items.

Spectras by Kate Casanova

“I create abstract sculptures that evoke hybrid bodies–bodies that defy categories such as human/ nonhuman, organic/synthetic, and self/other. I use materials such as fungi, bioplastics, video and industrial materials to create abstract forms that bulge beyond…” read the rest of Kate Casanova’s bio
A sculpture made of found objects, with the central piece designed to look like a face.
Wikimedia Commons

Sculputre by Uri Eliaz

This and other quirky sculptures by Israeli artist Uri Eliaz are created from objects he found exclusively in the ocean. He’s also a painter who foregoes typical canvasses and paints on delivery bags, old doors and even large canister lids.
Close-up photograph of a yellow rose.

Ode To Georgia O’Keeffe
By Rubin Latz

Painting of the ocean as woman, with a tear dropping down her eye.

Yamima (“Sea Mother” in Hebrew) by Tina Spiro

Tina Spiro’s work provides “symbolic portrayals of existential issues such as the rapid degradation of the sea…”
A sculpture of a person with angel wings holding out their hands, made completely of metal blades.

Photo by Anne Langley

The Knife Angel

The Knife Angel is a traveling sculpture made of 100,000 seized blades by artist Alfie Bradley and the British Ironwork Center. It’s a catalyst for turning the tide on violent behavior and a victim memorial.
Photograph of a sunrise over a field in Sonoma County, with air balloons floating in the sky.

Sonoma Sunrise
Photo by Sustainability Partner Susan Loesch

Susan is an intrepid CA photographer who captures scenes of wonder and joy in nature, animals, people and still life.
 

May Good Spirits Guide Us

By Louis Alemayehu
Artist, activist, and multi-cultural spiritual elder

May Good Spirits Guide us through these dangerous days…
 
Across the autumn sky,
the wild geese call out while leaving
above the bare arms of trees
the warmth is dying in the air
arising like ghost from the chilled waters.
 
Bare branches like twisted fingers
scratch toward the sky.
Abruptly the song of darkening days falls upon the land
and the last echo of some voice wanders off
and dies in the distance…
 Read the poem.
Colorful holiday lights reflected in a dark wet street.

Midnight Walk in the Rain

Holiday tree lights reflected on the pavement. Photo by Terry Gips.

In the City There is No Night

By Jennifer Winterstein

In the city there is no night.
The cloudy skies glow, an aftershock to the nuclear explosion of waking.

Shadows become withdrawn
in a mock day dream.
In the city there is no night.

Time unwinds into
streamlined ribbons
entwining lives into cars, bedsheets, music, work, silence-

Every sound is amplified
without the cacophony of daylight.

In the city there is no night.
The cloudless skies offer no
secrets, starless its jaws
open and the world falls
tumbling into its belly.

Sleep invades us all; dreams
and death in the unknown Linger.
Where we cannot see.

Music

  • What's Going On by Marvin Gaye. It's as relevant a social justice statement today as 50 years ago.
  • No More Pipe Line Blues (On This Land Where We Belong) composed and produced by Larry Long. This song powerfully captures the fight to oppose the introduction of the Line Three Pipeline through Minnesota while calling for environmental justice for lands sacred to indigenous people. Be sure to check out the documentary music video circling the world. #StopLineThree
  • I Can't Breathe by H.E.R. won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 2020. It is a protest song H.E.R. wrote in response to police brutality and killings of Black people.
  • Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 49th Grammy Awards.
  • Changes (feat. Talent) by 2Pac was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards and 1999 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Editing in a Video & Best Rap Video.
  • Love the One You're With by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. After some of the heavy selections we've shared, we thought a lighter summer song would be nice. Written by Stephen Stills, he recounted in 1981: "It's a good times song, just a bit of fun."
  • Elegy for the Arctic by Ludovico Einaudi. Ludovico Einaudi performed this piano solo on a platform in front of a glacier in the Arctic in partnership with Greenpeace to raise awareness of climate change and the Save the Arctic campaign. Check out the video for Elegy for the Arctic.
  • The Joke by Brandi Carlile, a song she wrote “for people that feel under-represented, unloved or illegal.” It won the Grammys for Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance in 2019.
  • We are the World, performed by Alive & Kickin MN and Stages Theater Company during the Covid-19 pandemic. This song originally was written as a 1985 charity single to raise money for Africa and was performed at the famous Live Aid concert that year. Enjoy this song of hope for the world, the 8th best-selling physical single of all time (20 million+).
  • Manifest by Andrew Bird. In an interview about the song, Bird explained: "The idea was that I’d lay out the whole issue of climate change in a way that we maybe haven’t thought of it before. Like, what’s the afterlife of energy? Where’s it coming from? Things that have died millions of years ago are buried underground and compressed and fossilized—there’s still life energy in that thing and we pull it out of the ground and put it into a combustion engine and it escapes out the tailpipe like a ghost and gets trapped in the atmosphere."
  • Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life) by Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno is the anthem for the Anti-Communist movement in Cuba. Released this year by Cuban musicians who live in Miami and Cuba, the inspiring lyrics are being chanted and sung in the streets in the latest protests against decades of oppression.
  • Back to the Earth by Jason Mraz, featured in the Netflix original documentary Kiss the Ground, about regenerative agriculture. The inspiring, feel-good tune has the feel of an instant classic and is jaunty and uplifting.
  • Only so Much Oil in the Ground by Tower of Power. The band wrote the song in response to a 1971 oil spill in theSan Francisco Bay caused by two tankers colliding. Co-founder Emilio Castillo recalls the news showing seagulls covered in oil and how they were to trying to be rescued
  • Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. The lyrics were inspired by a trip to Hawaii where Mitchell was heartbroken at the sight of parking lots as far as the eye could see.
  • Down to Earth by Peter Gabriel. Theme song of Wall-E. Transfixing, positive and upbeat, a song about the importance of responsibility and sustainability in the ever-changing and magical planet we all call home.
  • Love Song to the Earth is a powerful and moving collaboration featuring many big names, including Jon Bon Jovi , Sheryl Crow, Sean Paul, Paul McCartney and more! As part of #BuildBackFossilFree from April 2-9, 2021, 350 Madison released a remastered dance video featuring footage of the Indigenous-led resistance to Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands pipeline. It is an important reminder that crucial action is still necessary.
  • Be the Rain by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. It's inspiring, powerful and 9 minutes long, as it touches on a number of important issues like consumerism, politics, oil and pollution that remain to this day.
  • Don't Go Near the Water by The Beach Boys. This '71 song from the album "Surf's Up" has a different message than most by the artists, advising people to be concerned about water for ecological & environmental reasons. It brought a focus to water pollution, which continues today. 
  • The Rising by Bruce Springsteen. This is Bruce Springsteen's unforgettable anthem in remembrance of the first responders heroically rushing up the Twin Towers on 9/11.
  • The Greatest by James Blunt. Enjoy this positive and uplifting hit from acclaimed singer/songwriter, James Blunt. The Greatest explores the tumultuous times we are facing and reminds us that we are all in this together, featuring frontline workers' important mission to guide us through.
  • Almost like Praying by Lin Manuel Miranda and various Hispanic musicians. It was written to promote awareness and support relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
  • La Vida es Un Carnaval by Celia Cruz, an Afro-Cuban-American singer from the 20th century known as the Queen of Salsa, a song about celebrating the beauty & joy of life.
  • With Arms Outstretched by Rilo Kiley is a heartwarming song that reminds us of the power of self advocacy in our relationships with ourselves and others & the importance of community in reaching our individual goals. 
  • The Trees Are All Gone by Roger McGuinn ('91) reminds us of the long road ahead addressing climate change, as the lyrics follow similar struggles we still face today.
  • Hands All Over by Soundgarden is a powerful song that explores the troublesome, innate human tendency to overuse and ruin things better left alone.
  • Save Our Planet Earth by Jimmy Cliff was the rousing theme song he first sang at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio. It's still relevant today.
  • Freedom by Jon Batiste is a vibrant, colorful and uplifting funky tune, sure to boost your mood any day of the week.
  • Sun Is Still Shining '69 by The Moody Blues is a hypnotic, transcendental tune about Earth's centrality to humanity.
  • Viva La Vida by Coldplay. Learn the transformative story of Coldplay's hit Viva La Vida from lead singer Chris Martin. We can stop ruling the world and instead, live with it - all of us and all of Creation.
  • WHY by Annie Lennox is a profound and riveting performance that she sang in 2008 to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. Sadly, the question she asks is all too relevant in 2021 as we celebrate World AIDS Day December 1st.
  • Rain on the Scarecrow by John Mellencamp was an ode to days gone by for family farms when it was released in 1985. This powerful song still raises important questions today as to what farming practices are best.
  • Pray Well with Others by Rabbi Joe Laur is a great gift for the winter season and these times as he explores all spiritual traditions so we can live well with others!

What to Watch

Greta Thunberg - A Year to Save the World

Greta Thunberg - A Year to Save the World

The streaming Hulu documentary, Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World follows her year calling world leaders to action.

Seaspiracy

Seaspiracy

After watching this Netflix documentary, you'll never see our oceans, the seafood industry, the fish shrimp and other seafood products you may eat, our governments, and even nonprofit" dolphin safe" and "sustainable seafood" labels the same again.

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

This powerful, just-released Amazon Prime 10-part American historical drama by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins explores the violent roots of racism and imagines an alternate history where the escape route for slaves is a literal underground network of train tunnels.

Tomorrow film poster showing four people walking on a grassy hill, the last person holding a video camera. It has the tagline: "Take Concrete Steps to A Sustainable Future" and a quote from the Hollywood Reporter saying: "Required Viewing."

Tomorrow

Some environmental documentaries are heavy on problems and light on solutions, but Tomorrow is an upbeat, globetrotting search for everyday sustainability innovators, urban gardeners and renewable energy enthusiasts. Available on streaming services and their website.

Happy

The documentary Happy (on Amazon Prime) explores the mechanisms and complexities inherent in our emotions from multiple diverse global perspectives.

Boiling Point

This docu-series from BET premiered in February and explores ways to affect positive change in relation to police reform.

Disrupt and Dismantle

A new six-part investigative documentary series from BET "about the recurring injustice black people face in America and how we can rally our community to affect positive change."

6 Days in May

A WCCO production premiering May 28th, 2021 that recounts what happened the 6 days following George Floyd's murder in May 2020 from WCCO's own reporters who covered the story.

Title Card: Actualizing Equity in Environmental and Climate Justice: Exploring a Just Transition in Minnesota

Actualizing Equity in Environmental and Climate Justice

Check out the Alliance TC's one hour 20 minute video, featuring our very first intern, Sam Grant, now head of MN350.org and former Board member Robert Blake. Envisioned by the Climate Justice Alliance, Just Transition is a framework focused on building economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative one.

LN3: Seven Teachings of the Anishinaabe In Resistance

Watch this 38 minute documentary to learn more about the efforts behind stopping Line Three and the ambitious undertaking to stop fossil fuel expansion and encourage real energy security.

Dirty Money

Dirty Money

Check out the Netflix Docuseries "Dirty Money", season 2, episode 4: Dirty Gold. Behind the huge quantities of gold flowing into the United States each year lies a tangled web of money laundering, illegal mining and environmental destruction.

Before the Flood

Check out the 2016 90 minute National Geographic documentary Before The Flood following Leonardo DiCaprio's activism on climate and possible solutions. Available on Disney+.

Kiss the Ground

A 2020 Netflix Documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson and featuring many more big names from the entertainment industry. It explores the"new, old approach" of regenerative agriculture and its interconnected solutions to the problems raised by the planet's water supply and climate change.

US Youth Poet Laureate, Alexandra Huynh on CBS This Morning

Huynh has powerful messages about equality, climate change and her Vietnamese identity, as well as the importance of uplifting the voices of others. The 19 year old is a rising freshman at Stanford where she'll be studying engineering because she wants to create a world of sustainability from the ground up.

You Gotta Meet Misha featuring Alliance President Terry Gips

Enjoy this fun, impromptu 17 minute interview of AlliancePresident Terry Gips by colorful Misha Estrin for his show,You Gotta Meet Misha broadcast, discussing the latest developments with sustainability and the Alliance.

The title card for The Turning Point, with the text: A film by Steve Cutts, Music by Wantaways. It shows a grey scene with an elephant sitting on a bench at a bus stop reading the newspaper, surrounded by litter on the ground.

The Turning Point

Creative, compelling, haunting and harrowing. A depiction of reversed roles in which humanity is at stake in the all too familiar precarious world of affluenza, environmental destruction and climate change.

The title card for "headspace: Guide to Meditation, a Netflix Original Series." It shows an animated pink figure reaching it's hands upward, surrounded by colorful squiggles, lines, and shapes.

headspace: Guide to Meditation

Netflix's Headspace Guide to Meditation offers 20 minute episodes that explain and examine the benefits of meditation and specific ways you can jump start a practice tailored to your specific needs, presented in amazing animation. 

A banner showing the top of a document, with the words "vinyl chloride, carried to the brain, and circulation of blood to" visible in a faded typeface. "Confidential" is stamped in the top left corner in red. "Trade Secrets: a Moyers Report" is stamped in the top right corner.

Trade Secrets

A two-hour PBS special report from 2001 on how chemical companies have collaborated to keep from American workers and the American public the full truth about the impact of chemicals on health and safety.

Forks Over Knives film poster, showing a hand gripping a fork.

Forks over Knives

Forks over Knives examines the personal health benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet as a means to mitigate and reverse health complications and disease. It exposes industry ties to food science and healthcare while relying on data-driven facts for easy life changes you can make today.

Inclusivi-TALKS Sustainability: A podcast about Creativity, Health, Equity, and Kindness. Host: Lory Myren-Manbeck. Guest Host: Abigail Mathew. Guest: Myron Lowe, Transformational Strategist and Executive Leadership Coach

InclusiviTalks Sustainability podcast

This weekly podcast is a partnership with Inclusivi-Tee and the Alliance. Check out the episode with Alliance Leadership Team member Myron Lowe addressing race and equity, co-hosted by Alliance board member Lori Myren-Manbeck and intern Abby Mathew.

Latino Americans: The 500 Year Legacy That Reshaped A Nation

Latino Americans

Explore the PBS documentary, Latino Americans and discover the powerful journey and influence of what is now the largest minority group in the US and their extraordinary, centuries long impact on North America.

Late Night Comedy's Climate Night

Eight comedians coordinated their talk shows to feature content related to climate activism during Climate Week NYC (September 20-26). Check out a few clips showcasing big names like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah and More! 

Facebook Whistleblower on 60 Minutes

This 60 Minutes interview with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is shocking! She recently testified before Congress, revealing that FB knew about the toxic effects of Instagram on teenagers, as well as FB's algorithm that favors hate speech and misinformation, which drive more engagement and profit for FB.

The Corporation

This 2 hour, 24 minute appalling documentary from 2003 explores how a corporation is seen as an individual under the 14th amendment. It reveals how the corporation as an individual acts like a psychopath according to the DSM-V criteria and explores the history of corporations' human rights implications and violations.

The Creepy Line movie poster, showing a silhouette of a pair of hands holding puppet strings over a laptop with the silhouettes of a variety of people.

The Creepy Line

The Creepy Line is an interesting probe into the world of Facebook and Google. The findings are disturbing, including the tech giants' vast power to influence public opinion. Based in facts, driven by data and revolving around first hand accounts, this 2018 documentary is as timely as ever to reference surrounding recent events. 

Seat at the Table title card with diverse images of people and nature set into the letters, and a man standing behind a fold-up chair.

Seat at the Table

How the Climate Crisis Affects Us All, the first episode of "Seat at the Table" by Jack Harries, explores rising sea levels and what can be done. This is one of five recent popular docs on climate supported by YouTube.

The Power of Kindness

Lady Gaga's 30-minute special, The Power of Kindness, examines 11 young people's unique struggles surrounding mental health and kindness as it relates to ourselves, others, the community and the future. 

Title card for Gather: The fight to revitalize our native foodways," showing an older native woman and young girl gathering plants in a field.

Gather

To gain a different perspective on "Thanksgiving", watch Netflix's Gather, which explores food sovereignty, Indigenous American identities and movements that aim to heal the wounds of colonialism.

Title card for True Cost: Who Pays The Price For Our Clothing. Three people stand with shopping bags over their heads and full shopping bags at their feet.

True Cost

Before you buy any more clothing for the holidays, please watch The True Cost, a groundbreaking documentary exposing the untold story of the human and environmental costs of our fast fashion.

Bitter Chocolate

Bitter Chocolate, an episode of Netflix’s series, Rotten, explores a troubled industry reliant on unethical sourcing, which denies instances of modern day slavery. It also examines up and coming companies which seek to tackle these issues and provide sustainable alternatives.

Title card for Our Planet on Netflix, showing a shark underwater.

Our Planet

Check out the breathtaking Nextflix documentary series, Our Planet which examines how climate change threatens all life on Earth.

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd NBC Logo

Special January 6th Edition of Meet the Press

In recognition of the first anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection and coup attempt at the US Capitol, we recommend watching the powerful and haunting 47-minute NBC Special Jan 6 Edition of Meet the Press covering all aspects of threats to democracy that are just coming to light.