Songs From the Extraction Zones: A Symposium & Exhibition on Fracking in New Mexico

SONGS FROM THE EXTRACTION ZONES: A SYMPOSIUM & EXHIBITION ON FRACKING IN NEW MEXICO

Panel Discussion and Exhibition Opening: Friday April 28th, 6-9PM    |    Panel Discussion: 7-8:15PM

Exhibition Dates: April 28th through May 5th | Viewing Hours 9-5PM Monday- Friday

Join us for a compelling evening, as we launch an exhibition of works in dialogue with climate justice and fossil fuel resistance, followed by a panel discussion with notable New Mexico anti-fracking advocates and organizers. The multi-media exhibit includes SFAI Water Rights residents and local artists whose work addresses the escalating threats and impacts of fossil fuel extraction on human communities and the natural world, and speaks to the considerable and growing resistance to injustices of extraction practices.

In a panel discussion moderated by New Mexico Story Power, audience members will have the opportunity to hear firsthand from frontline organizers how fracking is affecting communities in the state, what can be done to help amplify issues, and how to organize and mobilize for positive change. Our panel of incredible speakers include:

Eleanor Bravo of Food & Water Watch
Mike Eisenfeld of San Juan Citizens Alliance
Miya King-Flaherty of Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
Mariel Nanasi of New Energy Economy
Kendra Pinto of the Navajo Nation
Rebecca Sobel of WildEarth Guardians
Daniel Tso of the Navajo Nation

Artists, performers, writers, and makers are asked questions that will also be posed to advocates in the panel discussion: How do we call attention to crisis, how do we ‘make the invisible visible’? How can we combat such a powerful force as the fossil fuel industry, and how can we maintain necessary hope, and stamina, in these challenging times? How do we organize, and best mobilize as communities? As we develop more effective tactics, what do these steps forward look and feel like? Songs from the Extraction Zones is by Asha Canalos, SFAI ‘Water Rights’ Resident/Co-editor of New Mexico Story Power, and The Santa Fe Art Institute.

MEET YOUR PANELISTS

Eleanor Bravo heads up Food & Water Watch’s national campaign to oppose fuel pipelines and other fracking infrastructure. She travels to pipeline sites, offers guidance and materials to local groups trying to keep their homes safe from the dangers of the oil and gas industry. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico,  Eleanor works with FWW organizers helping with intrastate and interstate strategies. She oversees special projects regarding pipeline issues. With more than 30 years of experience as a social activist and political organizer, she managed the top performing field office in the nation during the 2008 presidential campaign to elect Barack Obama. As an independent filmmaker, her crew was instrumental in creating work which helped expose and prohibit the building of the proposed coal burning Desert Rock Power Plant in the four corners area of New Mexico. She also contributed her efforts toward the repeal of the death penalty there. In 2010, Eleanor was the county field director for the gubernatorial election campaign. A longtime proponent of a woman’s right to choose, she remains active in the struggle for equal rights for women. She is a certified mediator/facilitator specializing in divorce & child custody, environmental issues and alternative dispute resolution in the workplace.

Mike Eisenfeld works for the San Juan Citizens Alliance in northwestern New Mexico. He currently serves as the organization’s Energy and Climate Program Manager and has worked with San Juan Citizens Alliance on environmental and energy issues for 11 years at community, regional, and national levels. Mr. Eisenfeld’s program work includes oil and gas, coal, air quality, water, and uranium in a region heavily impacted by energy development (including decades of oil and gas hydraulic fracturing) and complicated jurisdictional oversight on Federal, State, Tribal, and private lands. He specializes in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act (CAA), and Federal Land Policy & Management Act (FLPMA) regulatory compliance. Prior to working for San Juan Citizens Alliance, Mr. Eisenfeld had 11 years of experience as a Project Manager/Environmental Consultant in the southwestern United States managing and supervising multi-disciplinary teams. Mr. Eisenfeld has a M.A. in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver and a B.A. in History from Bates College.

Miya King-Flaherty is the Public Lands Fellow at the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, and is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work is focused on educating people about the effects of fracking in the Northwestern region of the state. Miya works extensively with different communities in the four-corners region to build grassroots support to resist the harmful impacts of fracking on communities. She campaigns on environmental issues related to oil and gas development near Chaco Culture National Historic Park, and is currently working with the Frack Off Greater Chaco campaign to stop fracking in Greater Chaco.

Mariel Nanasi is the Executive Director and President of New Energy Economy. A civil rights and criminal defense attorney, she is licensed to practice in both the state and federal courts. Legal cases she has won and settled have been featured in the major media, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, and on many television stations, including a documentary, “End of the Nightstick,” on PBS. When Mariel realized the urgency of climate change, she came to work for New Energy Economy as the senior policy advisor. Two years later, she was asked to serve as executive director. A zealous organizer, Mariel’s can-do spirit is infectious. As comfortable with complex policy and legal challenges as on-the-ground organizing, she easily connects with the public, including young Hispanic artists, firefighters on the front lines, acequia caretakers, grassroots Native leaders, funders, and legislators. Mariel lectures on climate change and environmental justice at conferences and college classrooms and her essay, A Future Without Coal: In New Mexico Supreme Court, Again, can be read at this link.

Kendra Pinto is a community organizer from the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation, and is a witness, storyteller, and educator illuminating the fossil fuel industry’s impacts on lives, communities, and the environment. She participated in the 2016 Save Our Public Lands Tour, which traveled to Philadelphia, PA, for the Clean Energy Revolution March and Summit. She has also been involved in appealing directly to the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. to halt fracking infrastructure on Native Lands, and has traveled to Standing Rock to participate in solidarity actions. Kendra’s first-hand account of the July 2016 explosion and fire of 36 oil tanks in Nageezi, NM, was published in The Huffington Post.

Rebecca Sobel is the Senior Climate and Energy Campaigner at WildEarth Guardians in Santa Fe, NM. Originally from Philadelphia, Rebecca feels blessed to call the Southwest her home. Rebecca has extensive organizing experience working with national and grassroots groups including Greenpeace and 350.org. Rebecca started with WildEarth Guardians in 2007 as the Grassroots Director.  After some time away, as Principal of the campaigning firm “Action Oriented” and a stint as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, Rebecca returned to Guardians in 2016 to continue building our climate justice campaigns.

Daniel Tso is a community leader and activist from the Navajo Nation. Tso served on the Navajo Nation Council from 1986 to 1995, and has continued to serve his community on multiple fronts, becoming a staunch advocate for anti-fracking campaigns in New Mexico. He holds a degree in Agricultural Science from New Mexico State University, and is additionally a gifted map-maker, documenting the encroachment of the oil and gas industry on federal, public, and tribal lands in the state. Daniel Tso is a well-known speaker on extraction issues, both in New Mexico as well as nationally.