Imagining a Future Beyond Climate Change: Lessons from the Haitian Revolution, with Sony Ton-Aime

Poet, author and former director of literary arts at Chautauqua, Sony discusses and reads from his debut poetry collection Konbit, accompanied by vivid imagery and music. The title of Ton-Aim’s book comes from Haitian Creole, where ‘konbit’ is a communal labor practice in which neighbors gather to plant, harvest, rebuild, or respond to sudden need. The poems braid the Haitian revolution with contemporary migration and ecological collapse linked to climate change, drawing parallels between a people who could only imagine a world beyond slavery but who nonetheless persevered until they achieved a better future, and people today who must imagine a better world beyond climate change. In this program Ton-Aime will explore three questions: (1) What does a better world beyond climate change look like? (2) What will it take to get there? And (3) what can each individual do to advance toward that future?