Field Station 5

Welcome back to Field Station 5: a project which explores the geospatial politics of the human-centered era known as the Anthropocene through site-specific outposts & in-depth analysis to instigate who, what, when, and how we're (re)defining "the human." 

In this season, the field station finds itself stationed in Berlin, Germany the country which leads the EU in taking in migrants and has shaped the conversation on the EU’s so-called migrant crisis of 2015. This season I sit down with artists, scholars, activists, data scientists, climate policy advisors, and migration researchers to understand what migration means to this section of the global north. 

MIGRATION: PERSPECTIVES ON DISPLACEMENT IN THE ANTHROPOCENE.

Abbéy Odunlami sits down with "Cooperation Jackson" members to discuss sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership. 

"Cooperation Jackson" is laying the foundation to establish a network of co-ops and initiatives, including housing, daycare, construction, Freedom Farms urban farming, and a community land trust right here in Jackson, Mississippi. 

Abbéy Odunlami talks with Dr. J.T. Roane (Dept. Africana Studies, Arizona State Univ.) about plantation economies' spatial politics and considers the connection between faith and environmentalism. Dr. Roane discusses the Christian theologies of dominion and stewardship and unpacks his concept of "dark agoras" or Black urbanism's ecological underpinnings. 

Jared Richardson and Dr. Justin Hosbey (Dept. Anthropology, Emory Univ.) grapple with neoliberalism's effects on Black communities within New Orleans. As a cultural anthropologist, Dr. Hosbey discusses how he uses the charter-school system as a new and unsuspecting lens to examine the connection between privatized education and ecological catastrophes produced by Hurricane Katrina petrochemical companies. In addition to critiquing different forms of labor, Dr. Hosbey also reveals his scholarly influences.

Abbéy Odunlami & Jared Richardson talk with Dr. Chelsea Frazier (Dept. English, Cornell Univ.) about the importance of Black feminism's political and artistic engagements with environmentalism. From a carefully curated archive of film, twentieth and twenty-first-century literature, and Black visual culture. Chelsea  Frazier explains how Black femme subjects and their artistic production literally and figuratively re-engineer popular understandings of ecology and reframe art historical narratives around race and materialism.

Abbéy Odunlami and Jared Richardson introduce their research projects and discuss Field Station 5's broader themes of race, spatial politics, and toxicity. The two scholars also discuss the overall mission of HKW and joint efforts within the Mississippi Delta.