Take Heart Book Launch | June 2022
Earth’s weary lovers are tired, perplexed and battered from all directions. Their hearts have so often been broken. It’s hard to go on, but it is morally impossible to quit. How do Earth’s protectors find the heart to continue the struggle?
To this question, environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore and Canadian artist Bob Haverluck bring us 22 life-affirming essays and drawings in their book “Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth's Weary Lovers.” Their entwined art offers pluck, stubborn resolve and even some laughter to those who have for years been working for environmental sanity, social justice and ecological thriving.
In the virtual book launch event for “Take Heart,” author Kathleen Dean Moore and illustrator Bob Haverluck join in conversation about how to keep showing up and doing good work for the world. The book offers not another to-do list or empty promise of hope, but courage and deep and honest reasons to remember why the struggle matters.
Taking heart is not hope exactly, but maybe it’s courage. Not solutions to the planetary crisis, but some modest advice for the inevitable crisis of the heart. A rueful grin and gratitude to be part of this strange and necessary work for the endangered Earth.
You can view the full book launch here:
Spring Creek Project hosted this event online on June 1, 2022. We'd like to thank the following organizations that co-sponsored the launch with us: OSU Press, Grass Roots Books & Music, OSU's Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative, 350 Seattle, 350 Eugene, Corvallis Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the Safina Center, the Post Carbon Institute and the McKenzie River Trust.
About the Contributors
Kathleen Dean Moore is a philosopher, environmental advocate and award-winning nature writer, best known for books that celebrate rivers and shores, like “Riverwalking” and “Wild Comfort.” Her concern about climate change and ecosystem collapse led her to turn her writing to the defense of the wild, reeling world she cares so much about.
Bob Haverluck is an artist and storyteller who works with community groups using the arts to help engage issues of conflict and violence against the Earth and her creatures. His drawings have appeared in Harpers, the New Statesman and other publications. A former adjunct professor at the University of Winnipeg and a current mentor with the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation in Montreal, Bob teaches with an eye to the role of comedy in social change. All illustrations on this page by Bob Haverluck, from “Take Heart.”