As we enter what is predicted to be another of the hottest summers on record amid a changing climate, we turn our attention toward dreaming better. This summer we’ll be talking about UUtopias in our summer worship series and engaging reading and discussion in this new “climate utopian” genre of science fiction called Solarpunk, as well as moral imagination in non-fiction and movement organizing. Have fun reading, if you feel so moved, and look for discussion groups in July and August!
Here is a good article describing the genre. Here is the collaboratively written SolarPunk Manifesto. And here are some of the works inspiring us this summer:
Fiction
- A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers and its sequel A Prayer for the Crown Shy
- Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers, a short story collection edited by Sarena Ulibari
- Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction edited by Joshua Whitehead
Digital Zines
- From Banks and Tanks to Cooperation and Caring: A Strategic Framework for a Just Transition
- Ministry of Imagination Manifesto
- Solarpunk Magazine
Non-Fiction
- Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin
- Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec
- Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need by Sasha Costanza-Chock
Picture Books
- What We’ll Build: Plans for Our Together Future by Oliver Jeffers
- Begin Again: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go — Our Human Story. So Far by Oliver Jeffers
- Maybe by Kobi Yamada
- Why Not? By Kobi Yamada
- The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
See you in church,
Rev. Molly