Poems for Resilient and Equitable Cities

04/06/18 • 42 min

Local Phoenix poets including Kimberly Koerth, Jacob Friedman, Rashaad Thomas, and Anna Flores read original poetry about Resilience, Equity, and Diversity (RED) in cities as part of the UREx La RED Poetry Competition. The first half of the episode features the poems, the poets' inspirations, and what the poets hoped the audience would take away by listening to it. The second half of the episode features a discussion with several of the poets on the power of poetry as a tool for making our cities more resilient and equitable places to live. If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

Previous Episode

Wetlands as Green Infrastructure in Valdivia, Chile

What is ‘green’ infrastructure? What can it do for my city? Why am I definitely way more excited to learn about it than I am more traditional forms of infrastructure? Stephen Elser and Jason Sauer answer all of these questions in this episode, and focus on green infrastructure in the form of wetlands in the city of Valdivia, Chile. They talk to local sustainability consortium leader, Cristóbal Lamarca of Activa Valdivia, and local wetlands researcher, Ignacio Rodríguez of the Centro de Humedales Río Cruces (translated: the Río Cruces Center of Wetlands), about how the wetlands imbue Valdivia a unique urban character, increase the city’s biodiversity, provide recreational space, and are a form of infrastructure that people rally around. ... You can learn more about Activa Valdivia at their website (http://www.activavaldivia.cl) or on Twitter (@ActivaValdivia). ... You can learn more about the Centro de Humedales Río Cruces at their website (http://www.cehum.org) or on Twitter (@centrohumedales). ... If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

Next Episode

Defining Resilience

We hear the term used all over the place: in music, on TV, in books– but what IS resilience? In this episode, we discuss resilience from the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) perspective. To understand what resilience means from this perspective, we interviewed urban resilience experts from each of these three disciplines. Dr. Nancy Grimm is a professor of ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) and a co-director of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN). Dr. Marta Berbes is a postdoctoral fellow in the UREx SRN. Dr. Dan Eisenberg received his PhD in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at ASU and he studies resilience and network science.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.