CCR 81 Women in Wild Places

In this month’s episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio, we feature two women so compelled by their experiences in the wilderness, they published books about their experiences.

Lilace Melin Guinard, is a poet and  non-fiction writer. CCR host Peterson Toscano walks alongside Guinard in northern Pennsylvania’s Hill Creek State Park as the two discuss the unique experiences that women face alone in nature. As a young woman who was fed up by non-communicative boyfriends, Guinard sought out solace in wild spaces and places. Backpacking and solo-trips equipped her with autonomy and released her from the fear of the outdoors she was taught while growing up in suburbia in the 1980s. 

In her memoir,  When Everything Beyond the Walls Is Wild: Being a Woman Outdoors in America, Guinard explores the challenges and rewards of exploring wilderness alone.  She writes to tell the stories of a regular person empowered by facing the risks of enjoying nature alone. This memoir provides accounts of her experiences alone, often accompanied by her dog, in remote wilderness.

She reflects on the ways culture socializes women to find safety indoors while overlooking the dangers women and girls can encounter in their own homes. She emphasizes that these cultural messages shape women as they participate in outdoor recreation. Guinard who has been a professor of creative writing, women’s studies and outdoor recreation leadership draws from her expansive knowledge of literature and encourages previously marginalized members of society to take advantage of the beauty of nature and the great outdoors. 

Dig Deeper

• Women Outdoors: a non-profit organization, dedicated to building a network for women curious about nature
• 10 outdoor women's organizations you should know (exploreorigin.com)

• The Case for Evidence-Based Outdoor Recreation Interventions for Girls: Helping Girls “Find Their Voice” in the Outdoors (pdf) Empirical evidence of the benefits of outdoor recreation on adolescent girls

“I’m rooting for us but i’m also rooting for the rest of nature” - Hila Ratzabi

We spotlight poet, writer, and editor Hila Ratzabi. In her recent book There are Still Woods Ratzabi writes both for herself as well as others who need to process the strong emotions around climate change. Her advice? Recognize there are ways to get involved. Beyond political actions she recognizes the importance of cultivating our creative sides. 

Raised in the borough of Queens in New York City, Ratzabi has always written poetry to make sense of the world around her. Communion with nature has been a personal aspiration of hers since she was a young girl, and it has been a running motif in her body of work. However, it took living through Hurricane Sandy to shift her focus to the relationship between humans and climate change. 

In this episode she reads and breaks down a selection from her book. In Willapa Bay Ratzabi recollects her time at an artist residency in the Western most point in Washington State, a space where she was able to have a spiritual connection with nature. With her senses heightened, she experienced captured the image of the tilted moon and the sounds of the wind blowing through the seagrass. Ratzabi practices gratitude for being a part of nature while simultaneously fretting over grasping onto Mothers Earth’s fleeting beauty as it slips away due to ongoing and impending threats of climate change. 

Resilience Corner

Tamara Staton, CCL’s Education and Resilience Coordinator shares the fifth and final step to building resilience: Repeat

Get more tips and resources by visiting The Resiliency Hub. 

Tamara wants you to remember, “You are strong, you are resilient, and you can make things happen.”

Transcript

Click here to view a full transcript of this episode.  

NEW! Listener Survey

We want to hear your feedback about this episode. After you listen, feel free to fill in this short survey. Your feedback will help us as we make new decisions about the content, guests, and style of the show. You can fill it out anonymously and answer whichever questions you like. 

You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on:

• iTunes
• Spotify
• SoundCloud
• Podbean
• Stitcher Radio
• Northern Spirit Radio
• PlayerFM
• TuneIn Radio

Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.