Changing gallery
Credit: Ricardo Gomez, Unsplash
Viewing this image metaphorically as
the luminosity of Self shining
through the thinning bars of self
In this conception of Advaita Vedanta, an ancient Indian philosophy of non-dualism, there is a distinction between the uppercase "Self" and the lowercase "self." The lowercase "self" is our everyday, superficial identity. It is the ego, our personal anxieties, and the rigid boundaries that make us feel separate and isolated from the rest of the world, much like the dark, dense, obscuring branches of a thick forest.
The uppercase "Self," however, represents the ultimate Source of everything. It is the pure, infinite, and undivided consciousness that connects all of existence. When we quiet our minds and the rigid bars of our individual egos begin to thin, the radiant, universal light of the Self naturally shines through the absence as presence.
Advaita is a philosophy, not a religion, because non-duality supports all forms of spiritual seeking as well as atheism and foundational physics. The "Source” is capitalized here to express devotion to the Absolute but the term connotes perfectly in lowercase that all is one.
Just as the moonlight in the photo metaphorically reveals an infinite fundamental connection, the literal moon recently served as a way to reflect upon our shared existence.
Joyously awake in the vacuum of space
Reclaiming “woke”
The Artemis II (April 1–11, 2026) mission around the far side of the moon showed the dramatic contrast between the peace of space and a world embroiled in crises, including the wars in the Middle East.
During an interview, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman referred to the “fragile planet in the vacuum of space” that he was seeing, and his conclusion beautifully applies to the Ecollective’s conception of spiritual ecology:
“We’re very fortunate to live on planet earth... our purpose on the planet as humans is to find joy, to find the joy in lifting each other up by creating solutions together rather than destroying.”
Wiseman's emphasis on joy, mutual uplift, and cooperative problem-solving—most directly embodied by the bio-geo-diversity of his four-member crew (one Canadian, one woman, one black American, and a white American)—serves as a macrocosmic reminder of the authentically awakened (the original meaning of “woke”) aspect of spiritual ecology: diverse, inclusive, and equitable. After all, biodiversity is essential in environmental ecologies.
As a philosophy, DEI is a synthesis of the world’s great spiritual traditions and the archetypal insights of indigeneity. In the Artemis II example, the gender aspect (three men, one woman) and the racial aspect (three white people, one black person) still reflect the systemic algorithms of demographic skewing—in this case, women and black people being historically underrepresented in the STEM fields that feed aeronautics.
The Ecollective’s spiritual ecology approach compensates for these systemic imbalances by maintaining the flexibility to expand and contract: we can zoom out to contemplate the broad, cosmic implications of subjects like space exploration, while also focusing in on environmentalism from an inherent black and POC point of view.
Ultimately, a key parallel between the ancient wisdom of Advaita and the modern Artemis II experience is the realization of joy.
In Advaita Vedanta, the ultimate reality of the Source is described as sat-chit-ananda: Truth/Being, Consciousness, and bliss (or joy). This ananda is not a fleeting emotional high, but a boundless, foundational joy that naturally arises when we transcend the isolated "self" and recognize our unity with the "Self."
We saw a magnificent, global dimension of this ananda in the "moon joy" experienced by the Artemis II flight and ground crews as they viewed the celestial orb so closely. As described in a April 7, 2026 New York Times report, "Houston, We Have No Problem. But We Do Have a Lot of ‘Moon Joy,’" this wasn't just a technical triumph; it was a deeply spiritual, collective euphoria.
When Reid Wiseman speaks of finding joy in "lifting each other up," he is translating cosmic ananda into tangible, human action. It is the pure joy of the universe recognizing itself, shining brightly through the dark vacuum of space, and inviting us all to recognize that we ourselves are fundamentally and forever this witnessing light. Tat tvam asi.
The non-dual Advaita to Artemis rationale also reflects the racial identity case style of the Ecollective. We recognize that the identities "black," "brown," and "white" comprise a seamless continuum and encourage African descendants who do not know their original racial and (upper-case) ethnic identities to discover them through DNA testing.
In this way, our ethnic identities become specific while our generic racial (i.e., black, brown, white) identities are lowercase.
Regarding “Reclaiming ‘woke’”: In the black vernacular speech which created the original “woke” terminology, the term was an emphatic way of referring to some one who has exceptionally wise, admirable and humane qualities. This meaning was undermined by the MAGA movement and is being reclaimed here.
Artemis 11 flyby view of Earth from the far side of the moon. Credit: NASA
Artemis 11 crew Christina Hammock Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman
In April 2023, when NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced the Artemis 11 crew, he strongly emphasized the diversity aspect as can be seen in the video within this article about the announcement.
Credit: NASA
Community Bulletin Board
Have an environmentalist announcement? Send details in the message section of the form on our Contact page for the announcement to be listed on the bulletin board below.
Invitation to show in the changing gallery
This portal page changes regularly and we invite your contributions to this top section. We are looking for brief visual exploratory stories about the human-natural-spiritual world like “The flight of the guinea fowl” above. You can submit imagery and brief accompanying text via the message section of the form on our Contact page. If selected, we’ll design a format to fit your content.
Children of the Land: Soul Fire Farm’s Approach to Raising and Mentoring Young People
Live Online Course with Leah Penniman
DEC. 1 - 22, 2026
TUESDAYS 12 - 1:30 PM (PT)
In this live course, Leah Penniman invites participants into the teachings and stories of Soul Fire Farm, where young people are raised through shared responsibility, earth-based learning, and intergenerational cooperation. Grounded in Afro-Indigenous wisdom, the course offers caregivers and educators practical insights for nurturing children who are rooted, connected, and supported in discovering their unique paths. The course is sponsored by Bioneers. Register here.
Herban Cura offers knowledgeshares, immersions, and herbal remedies that it believes are fundamental to building and supporting our collective resilience.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | 5:00-7:00PM EST | Online, Herban Cura with guest Bitter Kalli will explore the ways black and indigenous people throughout the Americas have related to horses, and what those relationships can teach us about living collectively. From fugitive slaves escaping plantations on horseback to mounted protestors at the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, horses have played a central role in black and indigenous survival, land stewardship, and memory work.
Participants will engage with both archival and contemporary media as we discuss what horse-human relations can teach us about ways of being together with the land and with each other. What can we learn about labor solidarity from the histories of black farmers and their horses? What might we glean from the presence of horses in works by writers like Joy Priest and Natalie Diaz? The class will be a mix of presentation, discussion, and writing prompts, encouraging students to actively reflect on their relational and ecological practices. Visit this page for more information and to register for the program.
Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation book by Bitter Kalli
Drawing on their personal history as a former urban equestrian, black queer person, and child of Jamaican and Filipino immigrants, essayist and art critic Bitter Kalli contends in this book that the horse should be regarded as a critical source of power and identity in black life.
Shannon Lockhart McDole
Historic Anacostia Community environmental resourcefulness
In her new book, Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City, historian Kate Brown provide a history of urban food production. A striking example in the book is the Anacostia communuty in Washington, D.C. During the 1910s and 20s, black residents there faced systemic neglect from city planners who refused to provide basic infrastructure like sewers or garbage pickup. In response, these residents developed an impressively resourceful closed-loop ecosystem. They managed waste through innovative composting systems and pig farming, and engineered their own water filtration systems using roof runoff and gravel—effectively inventing sustainable urban living. As Brown notes, they “were doing all the things that would be considered green architecture today.”
Community
Bulletin Board
On March 4, 2026, Erika Galentin, executive director of the American Herbalists Guild, announced that Shannon Lockhart McDole has been appointed membership & education coordinator of the Guild.
Lockhart McDole is a folk herbalist, yoga instructor and light-worker. As a healer, her passion in life has become empowering others by helping them take responsibility for their personal health and well-being. Her work in herbalism extends beyond daily wellness, including emergency mobilization to connect people to the medicine and holistic health services needed during and after times of tragedy.
The American Herbalists Guild values the relationship between individual and environmental health and promotes clinical herbalism as a viable profession rooted in ethics, competency, diversity, and freedom of practice.
Experience the American landscape through a new perspective in Beronda L. Montgomery’s When Trees Testify. Part scientific exploration and part ancestral reclamation, this compelling narrative reveals how the histories of black Americans are rooted deep within the soil and branches of our most iconic flora. From the pecan trees domesticated by the expertise of enslaved Africans to the sycamores that served as silent sentinels on the path to freedom, Montgomery, an award-winning plant biologist, transforms these "material witnesses" into storytellers. It is a vibrant, soul-stirring look at black botanical mastery and a reminder that while the stories of the past are often hidden, the trees have always been listening—and now, they are finally answering.
134TH ANNUAL FARMERS CONFERENCE
Tuskegee University, February 19 - 20, 2026
Join us on campus for workshops, hands-on demonstrations, tours and a "Taste of the Black Belt". Let's Grow Stronger Together!
The Farmers Conference at Tuskegee University is often cited as the oldest event of its type in the nation. The first Farmers Conference, originally called the “Peoples Conference” was hosted on this historic campus on February 23, 1892. This conference exists today as a two-day educational forum that features tours, panel discussions, interactive demonstrations and concurrent workshops.
Marine scientist and climate activist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and her dance party DJ.
Down for the cause
True to her message of joy counteracting environmental gloom and doom scenarios, climate solutions activist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is celebrating the publication of the paperback edition of her What If We Get It Right book with a series of dance parties.
2026 Climate Dance Party Tour
April 14 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Botanic Garden
April 18 Monterey, CA – Monterey Bay Aquarium
April 21 New York, NY – American Museum of Natural History
April 24 San Diego, CA – Birch Aquarium at Scripps
April 25 Los Angeles, CA – La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
May 9 Freeport, ME – Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & Environment
Past annual events and deadlines.
If interested, mark your calendar for next year.
Black Birders Week Celebration
May 24-30, 2026 is National Black Birders Week. For more about the week’s founders and mission, visit their website.
J. Drew Lanham at the Adirondack Black Birders Celebration (May 30, 2026)
Dr. Lanham will be the featured guest for a conversation and lecture at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York, to close out National Black Birders Week. Program details are here.
Above: Taeya Boi-Doku, a Helene M Johnson fellow
The Black Girl Environmentalist’s 2026 Hazel M. Johnson Fellowship applications close February 14!
Team Black Girl Environmentalist is proud to continue growing the first and only climate internship pipeline created for and by Gen Z. Hear directly from the 2025 Hazel M. Johnson Fellowship Cohort as they reflect on what this experience meant to them - and why access to equitable, paid climate careers matters 🌍✊🏾
In partnership with organizations committed to justice-centered climate solutions, fellows receive:
✔️ $18+/hour wages
✔️ $5,000 living stipend
✔️ Weekly virtual professional development
✔️ Mentorship + a powerful cohort experience
GLF Africa 2026: Stewarding Our Rangelands
Dates: May 6–7, 2026 Location: Nairobi, Kenya (CIFOR-ICRAF Campus) & Online (Free to attend digitally)
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is hosting its major 2026 Africa conference with a dedicated focus on the continent's rangelands and pastoralist communities. Aligned with the UN's "International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists," this immense hybrid event will gather thousands of community leaders, scientists, and local land stewards.
This conference is especially relevant for those exploring the deep connections between cultural heritage and climate resilience. The agenda centers on how traditional pastoralist wisdom and Indigenous knowledge can be integrated with ecological science to restore degraded landscapes, protect biodiversity, and secure community land rights.
Catherine Coleman Flowers Wins 2026 Reed Award for Environmental Writing
Catherine Coleman Flower, MacArthur "genius" fellow and founding director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, has been named a winner of the 2026 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award.
Flowers was honored in the Book Category for he memoir and manifesto, Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which grants the award, recognized Holy Ground for its "unflinching look at the sanitation crisis in rural America and its inspiring call for systemic change."
This recognition cements Flowers' status not just as a leading activist, but as a vital literary voice in the canon of environmental justice. Her work continues to shine a light on the intersection of poverty, race, and climate resilience in the American South.
Opportunities for nature-inspired and environmental justice writing
Panorama journal’s "Reflections" theme seeks essays, poetry, and "new nature writing" from historically marginalized communities to discuss environmental and climate justice. Deadline March 10, 2026. For more info: panoramajournal.org/submissions/calls
Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short scripts, and visual art that explores the many complicated facets of the word environment and encourages submissions from from diverse voices and under-represented populations, including — but not limited to — international authors, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, those with disabilities, and the elderly. Submission for Fall 2026 issue is 2/1/26 – 3/17/26. For more info: https://flywayjournal.org/about/
The Dodge seeks fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and translation focused on the environment. We’re excited by a wide range of forms and approaches, including hybrid and experimental work. We especially seek creative works that imagine a just future for the planet. Given our focus on environmental justice, we’re eager to champion emerging and marginalized voices underrepresented in magazine publishing and eco-writing, including writers and artists who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, people who are trans, gender-nonconforming, and LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, women, and others. For more info: https://thedodge.submittable.com/submit
Ecotheo publishes poetry, prose and visual art explores questions of ecology and spirituality. For more info: https://www.ecotheo.org/submit
Terrain.org welcomes submissions in English (or translation) from around the world, and particularly Indigenous, Native, Black, Brown, and other historically marginalized and underrepresented voices. They pay $50 for all contributions. For more info: https://www.terrain.org/submit/
11th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference
March 18–22, 2026 Location: New Orleans, LA (The Jung Hotel) Theme: Legacy Rising: Charting Our Future at the Crossroads of Climate and Justice
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and the Bullard Center at Texas Southern University are convening for the national gathering of HBCU faculty, students, and climate professionals.
This year’s theme, "Legacy Rising," focuses on bridging academic research with on-the-ground environmental justice work. The agenda includes panels on community resilience, green jobs, and policy adaptation, along with a special "Youth Impact" track for high school students. It is a critical space for networking and building the next generation of black climate leadership.