Anthropause! Wait–where am I going with this one?

Ruhama Solomon, University of Denver (United States)

This Spoken word piece explores environmental peacebuilding through a lived, intersectional account of 2020, a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd and its effect on the US, and political repression in Ethiopia following the assassination of Oromo artist and activist Haacaaluu Hundeessaa. Rather than treating “the environment” as a distant or apolitical landscape, the work approaches it as a sociopolitical space shaped by race, power, law, and belonging. The poem moves between Minneapolis and Addis Ababa to examine how environmental harm, insecurity, and exclusion are experienced disproportionately amidst multi- scalar violence and restricted mobility. Pollution, policing, and protest are presented alongside moments of connection with non-human life during the so-called Anthropause, raising questions about who is allowed safety, rest, and access to nature in the age of the Anthropocene. In addition to performing a spoken word piece as part of the panel, this presentation will provide critical reflections on the use of poetry in environmental peacebuilding scholarship and practice, and will contribute to reimagining environmental peacebuilding by exploring how creative practice can help develop and amplify knowledge essential to more just and inclusive approaches to peacebuilding.