Naomi Ortiz
Complicating Conversations
As a disabled person and the child of formerly undocumented, indigenous, and multiracial peoples, my body, needs, and perspective do not have a home in conventional responses to climate change. In Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice (Punctum books), I present my own vulnerable journey with climate grief through artwork, essays, and poetry. The reader and I accompany each other in an unfolding process to grapple with a relationship to land in the midst of change. This project serves as a companion to those struggling with the difficult questions posed by climate change in the borderlands and how to nurture a love affair with places we live.
Contributor Work
Naomi Ortiz
Photo credit: Jade Beall
Contributor Profile
Naomi Ortiz (they/she) explores cultivating care and connection within states of stress. Reimagining our relationship with the U.S./Mexico borderlands and challenging who is an environmentalist is investigated in their new collection, Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice (Punctum Books). Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice (Reclamation Press) provides informative tools and insightful strategies for diverse communities on addressing burnout. Ortiz is also a co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Every Place on the Map is Disabled: Poems and Essays on Disability (Northwestern University Press). As a 2022 U.S. Artist Disability Futures Fellow and a Reclaiming the Border Narrative Awardee, they emphasize interdependence and spiritual growth through their poetry, writing, facilitation, and visual art.