It has taken me a long time to work up the courage to post this. And even now as I’m writing this, I understand the anxiety that accompanies revealing a project that you love to the world. But it seems fitting to finally post this as Hurricane Dorian makes its way towards us in Florida, while I also manage the anxiety that inevitably comes with preparing for a storm while waiting on more information.
In July, I attended a Digital Storytelling Workshop at StoryCenter in Berkeley, CA. And it was an incredible experience. The women that I met and worked with for three days and their courageous, inspiring stories- it was more than I anticipated in the best way possible. Our facilitators were patient, thoughtful, and they helped me take the story I wanted to tell in a direction that I was not expecting. I had no intention of placing myself within my narrative. But as the story came together throughout the workshop, I realized it would be difficult to uncouple myself from it.
My story was inspired by The Water Will Come by Jeff Goddell. In his initial pages, he outlines an apocalyptic scenario for a hurricane battered Miami. I find myself turning to this book when I feel gaslighted about our future. It helps to orient me when I’m feeling like I’m an alarmist and maybe everything will work out. My motivation in telling this story in the way that I did was so we could think about all the warning signs we’ve had as a society to make real change. All the missed opportunities to meaningfully address climate change. How many opportunities will we miss? How many lives do we have to lose? What do we have to lose in order for us to realize we are in a crisis?
I also wanted to express that there is still time. That we can do something about it. That we have a voice. And our voices together are loud. So please, raise your voice at your local climate strike on September 20th. Voices will be raised all across the globe that day. So be LOUD.
Thank you for watching “All the Times we Didn’t Listen.”
Nadia A. Seeteram 