There is simply no way to look at the environment, our earth, and walk away with a happy face. Global warming is no longer a hypothesis or a warning: It is the weekly news of catastrophe. Ocean and air temperatures are rising; storms are intensifying. There is widespread melting of snow and ice, rising sea levels and longer and more intense droughts.
Half of the world’s tropical forests have been lost. Productive land is turning into desert and there is widespread soil erosion. We are losing freshwater sources, marine fisheries and the richness of biodiversity. Our politicians whistle past the ecological graveyard, too afraid to view the coming chaos. Our habitat is in danger, and the denial of what is happening to the very foundations of life reveals a strong, unconscious, suicidal spirituality at the heart of global capitalism.
It is hard to have hope these days. But hope is exactly what we need in order to feed our creative imaginations. Hope is what fuels our courage and inspires our actions. Many of us find hope within our spiritual traditions. We drink from wellsprings of compassion knowing that we are part of creation. We know that it is our responsibility to partner with the earth for the care of all its creatures.
This coming week an inspiring, truth-telling, hope-filled artistic one-woman production comes to town. In her show “Leaps and Bounds,” Tevyn East will use storytelling, movement, music, poetry and song to weave together a powerful portrayal of the essence of our deepening ecological and economic crises. Yet hope has the last word.
Accessing the transformative power of art, the show is a compelling response to our current ecological and economic crises. With foot-stomping songs, playful humor, daring dance sequences and vulnerable honesty, this show draws the audience along, ultimately articulating a hope that we can all share a seat at the table, and give back to the earth what the Creator has given us.
It is a show rooted in the particular tradition of an evolutionary, progressive Christianity but, true to that tradition, it is open and celebratory of all traditions rooted in compassion and care.
“Leaps and Bounds” will be performed Thursday, Oct. 4 at University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 43rd St., at 7 p.m. It will also be performed at Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium, Seattle University Campus Walk on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
While in town, Tevyn will also host a workshop, “Movement as Spiritual Practice” on Saturday, Oct. 6 at
10 a.m. On Sunday, Oct. 7 at 10:30 a.m., she will perform the sermon “Blood on the Cedars,” which addresses the imperial conquest of nature, connecting the feral theatricality of the Hebrew prophets to contemporary resistance movements. Both events will be held at University Temple United Methodist Church.