Here at The New Sincerest, I’m very excited to announce a new regular series. You’re now listening to Ecopunk, a music and talk show program aiming to highlight the intersection between the arts and environmental perspectives. Ecopunk will air on Thursdays from 12pm-1pm on KHOI Story City/Ames, except for the last Thursday of each month, and will be archived here on this Substack.
I’m your host, Connor Ferguson. I am a creative writer based out of Ames. My work largely considers the intersection of urban environments, natural environments, and human environments in relation to queerness, cultural criticism, and mysticism.
For this week’s episode, guest host Elizabeth Wenger is joined in the studio by Connor Ferguson, a candidate in the MFA in Creative Writing and Environment Program at Iowa State University. Connor Ferguson is a queer writer born and raised in the Midwest. He graduated from the University of Maine Orono with a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing in 2019, and graduated from the University of Maine Orono with an MA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing in 2022. His primary genres are fabulism, lunarpunk, memoir, and free-verse poetry; his writing explores themes of queerness, mysticism, the porous boundaries between urban and natural environments, and the ecology of the human body. He is currently preparing to defend his thesis, a multi-genre collection titled Travelers.
In this episode, Connor Ferguson reads “Pang” and “Other People’s Parties”, two excerpts from his thesis collection Travelers, discusses the influence of video games and comics on his writing origins, the meditative qualities of divination tools, the importance of free access radio in creating communal soundscapes, and more!
Song Selections:
“People’s Parties” - Joni Mitchell
“Got ‘Til It’s Gone” - Janet Jackson, Q-Tip, Joni Mitchell
“Before Today” - Everything But The Girl
“Seven” - Fever Ray
“Rosy” - Wet
“New Year” - Beach House
“Look At Me Now” - Caroline Polachek
“Rise” - Kelly Lee Owens
“Cherry Coffee” - Kelela
“Flames shards goo” - ML Buch
About Ecopunk
The title of the program comes from its definition as a literary genre: Ecopunk is a subgenre combining science fiction with themes of sustainability, conservation, and reparation; it explores how humans can symbiotically and respectfully interact with the environment and adapt to climate change. Ecopunk is also a design aesthetic that embraces a positive outlook on the future. While the definition does relate it to fiction as a genre, I think it’s a philosophical concept that can be applied to any creative work, since it champions the imagination of a better world in our current climate crisis.
Each week on Ecopunk, I will invite a locally based creative to come onto the show to discuss their craft, how philosophical perspectives on the environmental imagination informs their work, and how the arts can connect and collect our community. After our conversation, the guest will curate a selection of music that is conversation with their craft.
Ecopunk is produced in collaboration with KHOI’s partnership with the BeWild/ReWild program, a loosely-knit group of volunteers with a passion for wildness, reconnecting with the natural world, and curiosity about what lifestyle changes are necessary for us to live within the bounds of sustainability. Here at Ecopunk, we invite you to imagine a better, more sustainable world through the arts.
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