Ecology of Us: A Community Conversation: Impact of Humans on Earth with Kristin Marting

Ecology of Us: A Community Conversation: Impact of Humans on Earth
with BAC Artist-in-Residence Kristin Marting
Date & Time: Wednesday September 30, 7-9pm
FREE Community Program. Registration encouraged. Walk-ins welcome until we reach capacity. 

Join BAC Artist-in-Residence Kristin Marting for a community conversation centered around the impact of humans on our earth and positive actions we can take towards sustainability.  

Kristin will read short excerpts from visionary writers Octavia Butler and Alan Weisman, as well as an excerpt in progress from Quintessence, her environmental speculative fiction opera.  

Kristin will then facilitate an “Open Space” format for our conversations — Open Space is a self-organizing, participant-driven format in which attendees create the agenda together on a variety of topics in response to our central theme. As a participant, you will be free to choose which conversation you join and move as desired between simultaneous conversations, engaging with topics that resonate with you. We will re-gather as a group towards the end to share findings with the full group.  

Our friends at Riverkeeper will join to share local issues affecting the Hudson River and provide resources for framing solutions. Riverkeeper protects and restores the Hudson River from source to sea and safeguards drinking water supplies, through advocacy rooted in community partnerships, science and law. ‌‍Learn more about Riverkeeper and their work here. ‌ ‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍ 

About Quintessence 
Inspired by the speculative fiction of Octavia Butler and the environmental nonfiction writing of Alan Weisman, Quintessence is a new environmental science fiction opera about othering, nonconformity, intolerance, and community that Kristin is co-creating as librettist/director with composer Paul Pinto.  

The 90-minute multimedia opera tells the story of our dying planet in seven parts, scored for an ensemble of seven singers, four instrumentalists and electronics. Our earth is sick – it has been damaged beyond repair by our species. All humanity share an existential awareness of our fragility. There are too many of us, but too few other species. Our earth is no longer able to produce anything naturally so food and drink are created through technology. One world government controls all resources, which are distributed unevenly to haves and have-nots. As humans scramble to survive, genetic modification has become a worldwide practice with almost no one unmodified. But the modifications induce unpredictable abilities. Ongoing human conflict is weakening our already ailing earth. 

ABOUT KRISTIN
Kristin Marting is an award winning director & creative producer based in NYC. She has constructed 38 world premieres (15 hybrid, 10 opera/music-theatre, 9 adaptations of novels & 5 classics). Selected premieres: BAM, HERE, Ohio Theatre, Soho Rep. Selected touring: 7 Stages, Berkshire Festival, Brown, MCA, New World, Painted Bride, UMass, Moscow Art Theatre, Oslo. Selected workshops: Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theatre, Target Margin. Recipient of an OBie award for Lifetime Achievement and Proclamation from the NY State Assembly for steadfast leadership, two prestigious MAP Fund awards, a nytheatre.com Person of the Decade for outstanding contribution, a Leader to Watch by Art Table, and a BAX10 Award. She is the Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of HERE and co-founded/co-curated 12 editions of PROTOTYPE festival. 

This Community Program is a part of BAC’s Annual Fall Multidisciplinary Residency. As part of a residency at BAC, we ask each artist to build and facilitate a Community Program. Community Programs are a unique opportunity for both artists-in-residence and our local community to gather, engage, and be in conversation with one another through art. Community Programs are free engagements open to the public and/or in collaboration with a local community partners. 

BAC’s 2026 Fall Multidisciplinary Residency is made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor’s office and the New York State Legislature, Westchester County Board of Legislators, ArtsWestchester and Westchester County Government.