Caring for Complexity (PART 3): A Tree Tender and an Artist Talk Maintenance (With Aviva Rahmani + Marcus Ferreira)

PART THREE: AVIVA RAHMANI + MARCUS FERREIRA

What does it mean to maintain something? How do we practice long-term care for the natural world?

Connected by their urgent efforts to tend to the environment, lawyer and Philadelphia-local Marcus Ferreira and eco-artist Aviva Rahmani talk about their varied approaches to eco-activism. Though they work at very different scales — Ferreira walks the streets of South Philly with pruners in his pocket and Rahmani writes symphonies for forests — they are both deeply attuned to the need for ecological restoration. In this conversation, we discuss the necessity of long-term thought, and the effects of planting and maintaining a single tree.

In part three of the conversation, Aviva and Marcus come together to define their terms, discuss the power of a single tree, and to brainstorm potential project ideas.

Music for this episode was created specifically for this conversation, with Marcus' and Aviva's work in mind, by Philly improv musician Matt Engle.

Check out our website to read more about the guests, and follow their collaborations together.

Thank you to technical director Eric Carbonara at NadaSoundStudio, and to the Center for Humanities at Temple University for supporting this podcast.