FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory is an exploration using music, media, art, and performance.
As a public arts experience, FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory is a forest journey and exploration of national and local history, diverse cultural perspectives, and scientific efforts, to deepen art appreciation and inspire community engagement around ongoing wildfire experiences. 
The project is an opportunity to bring together a broad spectrum of residents to examine, reflect through the lens of art on a very real threat, its attendant anxieties, and many factors that have brought us to these current conditions.
As a personal creative journey, the piece is being birthed through my own learning process with people I meet, including from those from the US Forest Service, CAL FIRE and other agencies, to wildfire survivors, scientists, land stewards, Indigenous culture keepers and other artists. The idea for the new piece, FIRE/LAND, is rooted in personal and collective trauma experienced in and around El Dorado County, principally from the Caldor Fire of 2021, and from deep connections with the local rural landscape in the face of wildfire, drought, climate crises, and cultural change.
Here is some back story.
August 2021. We had just sold our home, a small ranch perched on a cliff, situated on a narrow oak-canopied road with one way out. The direct experience of climate change–-drought, heat, overgrown dry brush, mounting fire danger–-depleted our stamina. Now, the sky hung thick with smoke. Three days before, a high gray plume with an ominous yellow core, an angry glowing bruise, had billowed up from the hills first to the east and then to the south, across the North, Middle and South Forks of the Cosumnes, in Somerset, Happy Valley, Sly Park, Silver Fork–all ablaze with spreading wildfire. We followed news reports, air indices, the sky, the burning hills across the valley. Not to panic, but to plan and get out in time. Could we get our donkey to a safe place? Each night, though, the wind would shift to blow east away from us toward Tahoe and Amador County. People required to evacuate in South Lake sat in gridlocked traffic for many hours. But, what would happen without escape routes and safe havens? Is that our future with climate change? Stressful thoughts are compulsive and tortuous.
Ultimately, we were lucky and safe. We found a new small home in town. I began learning more about climate stewardship, and am embarking on this creative journey with an amazing association of talented musicians, singers, composers, poets, actors, directors, technicians, policy makers, first responders, funders, and keepers of land and culture.
--By Ameera Godwin
FIRE/LAND
An Experience Inspiring Community Resilience
Saturday, June 10th, 2023, 4PM - 10PM
Wakamatsu Farm, 941 Cold Springs Road, Placerville, CA 95667
A project of Myrtle Tree Arts and co-hosted by the American River Conservancy, this unique "art rock opera for the forest" and public forum will happen at the landmark Wakamatsu Farm. During the speaker forum in the late afternoon, local experts and representatives will share community issues related to wildfire, land stewardship, emergency preparedness, cultural preservation, and forest ecology. The evening features Main Street Collective's Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary concert followed by FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory, a musical and dramatic performance starring musicians, singers, Native American storyteller, and video projections in a creative exploration of wildfire, ecological change, and resilience in El Dorado County. This intellectual and creative experience strives to spark inspiration and your call to action in support of community resilience! See more details on the Myrtle Tree Arts Fire/Land page.
FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition
SWITCHBOARD GALLERY
Arts and Culture El Dorado
525 Main St. Placerville, CA
June 8 - August 6, 2023
Experience this installation of Ameera Godwin's digital prints and video from FIRE/LAND.
Artist Talk, July 13th, 6pm
FIRE/LAND is made possible with support from:
The Latrobe Fund, Sacramento Region Community Foundation,
Pure Life/Sacred Roots, in partnership with the
American River Conservancy and Arts and Culture El Dorado
As a public arts experience, FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory is a forest journey and exploration of national and local history, diverse cultural perspectives, and scientific efforts, to deepen art appreciation and inspire community engagement around ongoing wildfire experiences.
Here is some back story.
August 2021. We had just sold our home, a small ranch perched on a cliff, situated on a narrow oak-canopied road with one way out. The direct experience of climate change–-drought, heat, overgrown dry brush, mounting fire danger–-depleted our stamina. Now, the sky hung thick with smoke. Three days before, a high gray plume with an ominous yellow core, an angry glowing bruise, had billowed up from the hills first to the east and then to the south, across the North, Middle and South Forks of the Cosumnes, in Somerset, Happy Valley, Sly Park, Silver Fork–all ablaze with spreading wildfire. We followed news reports, air indices, the sky, the burning hills across the valley. Not to panic, but to plan and get out in time. Could we get our donkey to a safe place? Each night, though, the wind would shift to blow east away from us toward Tahoe and Amador County. People required to evacuate in South Lake sat in gridlocked traffic for many hours. But, what would happen without escape routes and safe havens? Is that our future with climate change? Stressful thoughts are compulsive and tortuous.
Ultimately, we were lucky and safe. We found a new small home in town. I began learning more about climate stewardship, and am embarking on this creative journey with an amazing association of talented musicians, singers, composers, poets, actors, directors, technicians, policy makers, first responders, funders, and keepers of land and culture.
--By Ameera Godwin
FIRE/LAND
An Experience Inspiring Community Resilience
Saturday, June 10th, 2023, 4PM - 10PM
Wakamatsu Farm, 941 Cold Springs Road, Placerville, CA 95667
A project of Myrtle Tree Arts and co-hosted by the American River Conservancy, this unique "art rock opera for the forest" and public forum will happen at the landmark Wakamatsu Farm. During the speaker forum in the late afternoon, local experts and representatives will share community issues related to wildfire, land stewardship, emergency preparedness, cultural preservation, and forest ecology. The evening features Main Street Collective's Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary concert followed by FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory, a musical and dramatic performance starring musicians, singers, Native American storyteller, and video projections in a creative exploration of wildfire, ecological change, and resilience in El Dorado County. This intellectual and creative experience strives to spark inspiration and your call to action in support of community resilience! See more details on the Myrtle Tree Arts Fire/Land page.
FIRE/LAND: The Exhibition
SWITCHBOARD GALLERY
Arts and Culture El Dorado
525 Main St. Placerville, CA
June 8 - August 6, 2023
Experience this installation of Ameera Godwin's digital prints and video from FIRE/LAND.
Artist Talk, July 13th, 6pm
FIRE/LAND is made possible with support from:
The Latrobe Fund, Sacramento Region Community Foundation,
Pure Life/Sacred Roots, in partnership with the
American River Conservancy and Arts and Culture El Dorado
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