Theatre of Climate Action: Amplifying Youth Voices for Climate Justice in Guadeloupe and South Africa

Young people make up a fifth of the world’s population. They are – now and in the future – carrying the heaviest climate burdens, especially those who have contributed the least historical emissions across Africa and the Caribbean. The climate crisis is therefore a matter of both intergenerational and racial/imperial injustice. In this context, this presentation will provide some early reflections from an arts-based youth climate activism research project being supported by the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice at SOAS and the Human Sciences Research Council, titled ‘Theatre of Climate Action: Amplifying Youth Voices for Climate Justice in Guadeloupe and South Africa’. In this project, sixteen young people aged 18-25 from South Africa and Guadeloupe are collaborating to design, produce, and create theatre pieces that reflect their exploration of climate justice through their lived experiences. This experimental transnational work is supported by Platoniq’s Safer Spaces methodological framework that has at its core, developing transformative practices centered on social justice. The presentation will examine the opportunities and challenges in using youth-centred feminist and creative methodologies to produce theatre and learning tools that emerge out of and speak directly to the experiences and activism of young people at the frontlines of the climate crisis.