Deceleration talks to Mary Elizabeth Cantú, founder and director of the Spare Parts Center for Creative Reuse, on their decade of work using ethics of reuse to assist underfunded educators in promoting creative work and critical thinking. How can waste open up space for thinking about the ecological and human labor devalued within capitalist economies?

Deceleration Podcast

21: Talkin' Trash with Mary Elizabeth Cantú of Spare Parts

Several incoming San Antonio Council members want to freeze utility disconnections, reform CPS Energy rates, and close the Spruce coal plant early. They'd do well to listen to the attorney fighting CPS Energy's lawsuit to preserve the people's right to reform the utility by petition.

20: Darby Riley and CPS Energy Lawsuit

Deceleration's co-editors and community advisors host a public meeting to discuss our community media and research initiative, our aspirations and history, and how the effort may serve the needs of the residents of the greater San Antonio bioregion as we attack popular assumptions about progress and wellbeing. Here is the start of a public conversation to explore together how we can support collective efforts to create buen vivir para todxs--a good life for all.

Deceleration Open House

Deceleration caught up with Karla Aguilar, development director of American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions about a number of pressing political issues, including potential state recognition for the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, now pending at the Texas Legislature. We speak at some length about the Settler/Colonial mindset at an outgrowth of white supremacy and how such ways of thinking manifest in the struggles around the redvelopment of San Antonio de Valero, aka The Alamo.

19: Karla Aguilar, the Alamo, and How to Recover from White Supremacy

Day One of the 13th Annual "Words for Birds": A Poetic Celebration and a Cry for Protection! Featuring Masauki & Guadalupe Lagunes Jimenez, Dyhanara Rios, RitaMaria Contreras, Eddie Vega, Erika Maria Garza Johnson, Javier Fuentes Vargas, Alesia Garlock, the puppeteering of Mobi Warren, Kamala Platt, Laura Schultz, Megha Sood, Norma Jean Moore, and Odilia Galván Rodríguez, Author.

18: Words for Birds, Day One (2021)

Two years ago, the City of San Antonio launched a war on the bird of Elmendorf Lake. The target was the hundreds of cattle egrets who have been roosting at this Westside ecological gem for decades. By razing the island to the ground, and dismantling possibly hundreds of nests, the assault destroyed the nesting ground for many related migratory birds. Many young were killed. The action was justified as protective of military flights at Kelly Air Field on the Southeast side. Data points to one bird strike per year linked to cattle egrets, while literally thousands of strikes per year at all city airfields are logged to other species. Yet the harassment with pyrotechnics and lasers has followed the birds across City park system and even along the river in artsy Southtown. Yesterday, Deceleration caught up with local bird photographer, friend, and defender Alesia Garlock about the newest warning signs: "Bird Mitigation Plan" signage promising dawn-and-dusk bird harassment at Woodlawn Lake. We spoke as dozens of Yellow-Crown Night Herons nuzzled and roosted above us. At least one mother to be was obviously splayed over her eggs. Can San Antonio's War on the Birds end here?

17: San Antonio's 'War on Birds' Keeps Expanding

With much of Texas icing over due to Arctic weather's dangerous slide across the Plains over normally not 10-degree San Antonio, Ralph Garcia has had access to power for no longer than 45 minutes at a time for the last 48 hours. In this sustained cold-weather assault, millions have lost power because of the failure of state energy planners and reduced energy flowing from all power networks, but most conspicuously gas power plants. The climate crisis is no game. But the disabled community is an overlooked, incredibly vulnerable, demographic that often goes overlooked. Now 24, Ralph was born with Muscular Dystrophy and requires a range of treatments every day that require access to electric power. Without power, as hundreds of thousands of San Antonio residents, Ralph and his mom have closed themselves off in his bedroom, packed the window with sheets and blankets to try to stay work. His mother, struggling with the impact of radiation treatment for cervical cancer, was sleeping on the floor beside him during this interview.

16: Ralph Garcia, the Polar Vortex, & San Antonio's Disabled Community

Deceleration talks with housing justice activist Molly Wright about her decision to begin a hunger strike to protest the City of San Antonio's inadequate response to homelessness and housing insecurity.

15: Homelessness Advocate Molly Wright is on a Hunger Strike in San Antonio

Deceleration talks with attorneys and organizers affiliated with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) about the Rights of Nature movement globally, as well as what it might look like locally in San Antonio.

14: Rights of Nature Movement Reaches San Antonio

Community-based dancer Fabiola Ochoa Torralba discusses her research on "bird movement vocabulary" and the wider projects of decolonizing dance.

13: Fabiola Ochoa Torralba on Decolonizing Dance

San Antonio poet Jim LaVilla-Havelin discusses the origin and significance of National Poetry Month's Words for Birds and reads one of his poems included in the digital zine "Words for Birds 2020: Poetics for Pandemics."

12: Jim LaVilla-Havelin on Words for Birds

Deceleration speaks with local runner, writer, and environmental educator Liberty Heise about her participation in the Monarch Ultra, a 4300km, transnational run that follows the migratory path of monarch butterflies from Ontario, Canada to the Sierra Madre mountains in Central Mexico.

11: Liberty Heise on Monarchs, Marathons, and Migration

Speaking with Peter Bella, organizer for March for Science San Antonio, and Gunnar Schade, atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University about MfS, San Antonio's draft climate action plan, climate denialism, Greg Abbott, and more.

10: March for Science San Antonio

Jeff Arndt, president and CEO of VIA Metropolitan Transit, describes his experiences serving as a committee member working on San Antonio's Climate Action & Adaptation Plan.

CAAP Review: Jeff Arndt

Bill Barker, UTSA associate professor, former executive director of Solar San Antonio, and transportation professional, describes his experiences serving as an advisor working on San Antonio's Climate Action & Adaptation Plan.

CAAP Review: Bill Barker

Deceleration is an online journal responding to our shared ecological, political, and cultural crises. Moving beyond resistance to a just and sustainable peace.

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Deceleration Podcast

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