Amorphous (adjective): Lacking a definite form or clear shape.
Navarre Bartz, creator of Solarpunk Station, invited several of us solarpunk-inclined folk to contribute essays to a blog conversation about spirituality, lunarpunk, and solarpunk. My essay, “The Nonbinary Nature of Solarpunk/Lunarpunk” is the first in the series.
Volunteering to go first means that I have no idea what my co-contributors will offer. I look forward to finding out. Yet, I admit to a bit of nervousness: will my notion of the topic stand out on the fringe? How will that feel?
At the same time, being on the fringe is exciting. From what I know of the others who will take part in the blog conversation, we’re all rather fringe-y, at least compared with common culture!
I picture solarpunks spinning at the edge of society, exerting gravitational force to pull like-minded folx together. We form constellations (rather than one large, uniform planet) that will collectively have enough mass to change the world. (May it be soon!)
Navarre writes in the introduction to the blog series:
Pluralism, or everyone having their own perspective respected even when in contradiction, is something I feel is critical for solarpunks. Marisol de la Cadena goes further with the concept of uncommons, wherein “participant entities may become into commonality without becoming the same.”
In the spirit of uncommons, this year we’ll have several contributors presenting their own experiences with solarpunk/lunarpunk and the spiritual. As we present this series, keep in mind that we will not be encompassing all possible ways of how spirituality interacts with solarpunk, lunarpunk, and tidalpunk, but rather our own small facets of a greater whole.
I love how editor Justine Norton-Kertson curated Bioluminescent, the first lunarpunk anthology. As they say in the introduction, they gave contributors free rein to interpret lunarpunk as we will. “It’s too early in the life of lunarpunk to start insisting that it be any one thing. For that reason, the stories in this anthology give readers a number of paths down which to wander and experience the possibilities of lunarpunk.” (My story “When The Web Went Down” is in this wonderful anthology among pieces by Starhawk, Neil Gaiman, Sarena Ulibarri, Wendy N. Wagner, and many others.)
Justine’s sentiment jibes with my Solarpunk Station essay: I don’t wish to concretize these vibes. (Vibes being my shorthand for movement/aesthetic/art/genre/concept.)
I hope you’ll read my essay and the whole series. Here’s a teaser:
You’ll find more of my doodles in the essay.
Here’s to solarpunk/lunarpunk futures!