This website was the culminating project for the graduate course ENG 540 - Literary Traditions & Influence: Literature, Pop Culture, & Climate Action,
Taught by Dr. Everett Hamner during the spring 2020 semester at Western Illinois University-Quad Cities, the course examined popular visions of humanity and other species in light of both the accelerating destruction of Earth's climate and also growing opportunities for true intervention.
This project aims to shed light on the reality of climate devastation in our own personal spaces through various forms of art, writing, and communication. Below are some final reflections on the project from our student team.
I approached this project thinking about how everything we love and enjoy about the Quad Cities could be lost to us and our children if humanity does not act now on climate. To get this message across, I tried to juxtapose music and drawings that are dark and somber in tone with parts of the community that would normally be thought of in a positive light. For example, I set some dark music over the speeches given at the opening of phase two of the riverfront campus to point out that the life of this institution could be cut short by climate devastation. For the same reason, I made a drawing of a statue of Rocky with a rat living in his husk and flood waters lapping at his feet. It’s meant to be jarring.
- Andy Round
I am a newcomer to the Quad Cities, and so when we decided to do this project as a class focusing on the QC, I thought it would be a good opportunity to not only learn about the area, but also how I personally am impacted by climate devastation every day. When choosing the images and then editing them for the site, we wanted to choose locations that were important landmarks and show how those vital pieces of the community could be impacted by climate devastation.
- Abby Klug
For my contribution to this collaborative site, I chose to do poetry. In my intimate and private moments, I like to consider myself a writer. Prose, poetry, and anything else in between the two. I often find inspiration when I run on the riverfront bike path in Moline, and I see a majority of the locations we include. This is an inspiration to try and make a piece of art as nice as the world we live in together.
- Kevin Vysoky
I wanted to add a “human element” to the “climate change saga” by incorporating the personal narratives of Quad Citizens. I interviewed local business owners and community members to draw attention to the people whose livelihoods were negatively impacted by last year’s devastating flood. Ultimately, my goal is to increase awareness and call people to act. This isn’t a “distant” issue. Natural disasters have real and detrimental effects on our community. My hope is that we will come together to protect the places we hold dear to our heart, particularly the “hot spots” along the river that are in a precarious position, as they are in harm’s way. . . year after year. Perhaps these stories will inspire someone to imagine otherwise, to envision a time in the future when flooding isn’t a constant fear or concern. . . and to take action in order to make that vision a reality.
- Shannon Finneran
Give Deanna Palm's song "Time's Fool" a listen while you read about the other great students below! (composed for a related undergrad course)
I’ve been thinking about trees a lot lately. When we started the project I knew that I wanted to write stories from the trees’ perspective. Turns out it’s really hard to make trees talk. If they could talk, what would they say about what’s happening to the world? Finding the right voice was a challenge. Another was trying to discern what a tree would notice about us and our daily comings and goings - What would they notice, stuck in place as they are? What kind of perspective would be appropriate for something that will be there long after we’re gone? In the end, I found it simpler to just have them talk the same way we do while giving the trees an understanding of a passive observer that has seen generations of people go by and will see many more.
-Robert Dillon
When talking about climate change, I can’t help but immediately think of my two-year-old son and what his future looks like. Will he be able to spend summers on the Mississippi River, playing in the water and building in the sand, like I did? Will his winters be filled with snowman-making snow days off of school? Will he learn about the beauty of polar bears in the present tense, or past? So when we were beginning to brainstorm a project that spoke to climate change, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the voices that are often most impactful are the voices of our children. After all, they have a lot at stake. And they are so powerful. How can we look our children in the eyes and continue to make the decisions that we do, knowing that we are changing the world that they will live in? And when we ask them what it is that they love about this planet, their answers are almost always the same: flowers, sun, swimming, animals.
- Kasi Henshaw
