e171 kimberly skye richards - dept of utopian arts & letters

• One of the roles that artists play within the poly crisis is supporting us through processes of unnumbing. Sometimes we might describe it like a re-tuning of our senses through listening. All of that is about undermining the ways that we are taught to master ourselves, to not show emotions, to disconnect our heads from our bodies so that we work more efficiently within the capitalist paradigm. 

I first met Kimberly Skye Richards, also known as Kim Richards, while doing a conscient podcast soundwalk on November 1, 2021 in Trout Lake Park in Vancouver.

I invite you to listen to e76 kim richards – seeding a green new theatre in canada, where we talk about the role of theatre in the climate emergency and in particular ‘what kind of plays that already exist in Canadian theatre history about environmental issues’. This intrigued me then, and still does today. We tend to have short memories and yet art has a very. long. tail. 

I got to know and appreciate Kim when we were both members of the Mission Circle of SCALE, the Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency. We also have regular exchanges about education and learning such as the Facing Human Wrongs course which we took together as a cohort of artists in 2022.

• One of the many important teachings within Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures’ (GTDF) work is learning from what is currently dying and applying them so that we don't just continuously repeat these mistakes. … Being open and talking about what isn't working or what traps we're falling into is so instructive. We can also learn a lot from listening to our friends and colleagues tell us their stories.

During our second conscient conversation we focused on climate arts education and the recent launching of the Department of Utopian Arts and Letters, of which Kim is the librarian. It's a series of free courses and lots of fun. 

We also talked about the importance of self care for activist and artists and how the arts contribute to healing and resilience:

• One of the most important roles for the arts in climate work for me right now is creating the time to develop, maintain or begin somatic, movement, sound or writing practices. 

At the end of the episode I practiced saying ‘thank you to my guest’ with a gentle up-tone of emotional gratitude, like New York Times journalists do on The Daily podcast:

• Well, Kim, thank you very much.

I’m still working on it… 

Kim’s reading suggestions are worlds ending and engaging multispecies experiences:

• Flightways : life and loss at the edge of extinction by Tom Van Dooren
• Undrowned : black feminist lessons from marine mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
• I want a better catastrophe by Andrew Boyd

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). 

It’s my way to give back.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish free ‘a calm presence' Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on July 8, 2025