Resilient Communities: Growing Together Instead of Falling Apart

For a community to function, the individual must learn to see themselves once again as part of a larger whole. In this lecture performance, we weave together voices of resistance with the power of the cloud forest. In this fourth act of our series THE ROOTS OF EVERYTHING, we have the honor of welcoming Cenaida Guachagmira to Berlin in person for the first time. Coming directly from the Intag cloud forest in northern Ecuador, she will accompany us for the remainder of the series.

Cenaida is a farmer, herbalist, and defensora de la vida—a defender of life. She has sued her own government and fought global corporations to win protection for the "Rights of Nature" and her community—achieving this victory hand-in-hand with that very community. She shares first-hand how the people of Intag have grown closer over the past 30 years, standing with resilience in their spine.

Supported by videos and sounds directly from the cloud forest as well as insights into other communities, we immerse ourselves in a world where forest protection and the nurturing of relationships are the roots of utopia and resistance. The evening will be further enriched by another perspective from local activism or research. Together, we explore how social structures remain stable when the ground begins to shake—and how we can build a foundation that not only holds us in global chaos but allows us to act powerfully as part of a collective movement.