🌱 A Whole Different Ecosystem: Environmental Justice & Art Conference
📅 Saturday, August 9, 2025 | 🕘 9:00 AM–3:00 PM (ET)
📍 Ijams Nature Center, Knoxville, TN
🎟️ Tickets & Info: lu.ma/awde
Calling Up Justice is proud to uplift “A Whole Different Ecosystem”, a groundbreaking environmental justice and art conference presented by the AfroFuturists of Knox Collective. We’ve created a digital replica of their event space inside our Digital Encampment, complete with archival links to the hosts, events, and outcomes—preserving this powerful gathering for future reflection and continued learning.
🌍 About the Event
This isn’t your typical conference. Taking place in the natural beauty of Ijams Nature Center, A Whole Different Ecosystem is a one-day participatory experience that blends environmental justice, performance art, and community dialogue. It’s a space where everyone is part of the performance—panelists, artists, and attendees alike.
Bonus! Evening performances will follow at Spacecraft at 7:00 PM.
🎤 A Hip Hop Ode to Nature
Drawing on the five elements of hip hop—Knowledge, DJing, MCing, Breaking, and Graffiti—this gathering reimagines environmental discourse through Black cultural brilliance. AfroFuturists of Knox Collective are redefining what an environmental conference can be: playful, artistic, embodied, and rooted in cultural memory.
Expect panels, performances, and interactive sessions designed to:
- Bridge climate justice and Black Appalachian heritage
- Foster connection through Live-Action Role-Playing (LARPing)
- Explore environmental issues through storytelling and imagination
🌿 Who’s Behind the Magic?
The AfroFuturists of Knox Collective is a visionary group of Black artists rooted in Southern traditions, cultivating new ways of being with the land and with each other. This year’s futurescoping collaborators include:
- Knox Community Street Dance
- The Bottom
- Good Guy Collective
Together, they’re building cultural infrastructure that looks both to ancestral wisdom and speculative futures.
🧭 Visit the Digital Encampment
Couldn’t make it in person? Want to revisit the brilliance?
Explore the digital twin of the event space inside the Calling Up Justice Digital Encampment! There you’ll find:
- 📚 Event archives
- 🔗 Links to participating organizations
- 📸 Media & documentation
- 🧭 Space to reflect and connect
We’re honored to preserve this moment and amplify the voices shaping just futures.
🔗 RSVP & More Info: https://lu.ma/awde
🗺️ Visit the digital replica at: https://app.gather.town/app/PW801dMmbhno4Cpv/Campus