Benjamin Freud

Background

About Benjamin Freud

We live in liminal times, between the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Sixth Mass Extinction. Times that ask us to be response-able when faced with converging crises, where the fate of human civilization and the lives of billions in the more-than-human world are at risk. Times when what got us here might not be enough to get us out. We might become attentive to different stories, stories with new plots, protagonists, settings, and arcs. Stories that are both new and ancient: new because they move away from dominant paradigms and power structures, yet ancient because they are anchored in 3.8 billion years of life’s entanglement with life and the planet. Stories that help us re-member that we are all considered guests on this Earth. These times of unprecedented acceleration toward uncertainties ask us to respond differently—often in ways that we have not yet imagined—to our local and global contexts. The quality of our responses will shape our relationships and influence the trajectories of our societies. To explore new possibilities, the old maps that guided us are no longer useful for navigating today’s shifting landscapes. Instead, we draw new maps from the stories we write, tell, and hear. These new stories integrate form and movement as we co-create them with each other and the land. Each protagonist, challenge, and arc is a landmark, providing each of us with a map unique to us, but drawn with the community. With our new maps we go forth together, guided by our ethics and nourished by our humility, openness and commitment to more thriving presents and futures on the planet. We might co-create these stories together—with human and other-than-human kin—to world thriving worlds. Stories told through the spoken and written words, through image and sound, through the textured and the hidden. There are as many ways to tell these stories as there are to receive them. What matters is doing both with humility, openness and a commitment to more thriving presents and futures on the planet.