Meet Serafina Scalo of Boulder primarily, with some events and collaborations across Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Serafina Scalo.

Hi Serafina, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The idea for Climatique came out of my experience of organizing in college, primarily in a fossil fuel divestment group. In entering the world of self advocacy and collective action, I discovered just how important it is that regular people begin coming together to create and advocate for for a sustainable, just, and joyful society, and the immense power we can have when people get organized, and find their niche in creating change. However, I also experienced many of the challenges and flaws in mainstream environmental organizing. I lacked community where I could find peers, support, and reflect on activism experiences, ideas, and challenges. Organizing in Fossil Free CU took up a lot of my time, and the group didn’t have any support systems to make it easier to do the basics (like cooking for myself) or social aspects where myself and other organizers could connect, learn together, attend events, and share struggles and solidarity.

I loved the meaning and sense of power to help my community that organizing provided. I was determined to be a part of making the transformative changes for a sustainable, just, and joyful world, and knew that it was time more people come together to do that work. But it felt like something was missing. Creating positive change doesn’t just mean protests — we need spaces where we can build community and learn from each other, process grief and fear, more ways to learn about whats already happening and get involved, and training and mentorship to each find our individual role in a wider community of organizers and advocates. I also felt a need for more creative forms of climate communication and action — more storytelling about the amazing work being done and the beautiful future that is possible, more spaces for collective imagination and ideation, and deeper forms of organizing that built community and care systems across many issues, such as labor, women’s justice, racial justice, indigenous sovereignty, and mental health.

Eventually, I met a few other people who were feeling and thinking similar things, and together we created Climatique. With them and the many people who’ve joined since, I’ve loved getting to organize in a new way that is community and collaboration centric, building community centered around peace and justice, learning about and supporting other local groups, and spreads a message of hope and shared responsibility.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle in trying to organize in a different way then we had previously experienced was not having a road map of what that looked like. Many groups of the past and present have inspired me and helped me to discover what my vision of effective, meaningful, and supportive forms of organize look like, such as indigenous justice groups who use community building, shared values, and direct action to protect land and life, or the Black Panthers who focused on feeding and educating their community as a form of political resistance. However, the political and social context of organizing has changed rapidly, such as increase in isolation and climate anxiety that prevents people from action, increasing wealth disparity and limited energy that people have to advocate for and care for each other, and the need for more rapid and transformative change due to the fast approaching tipping points in climate and ecological systems.

It’s clear that this level of change will require more than writing legislators, social media posts, or protesting, and when I first realized this, it left me asking, ‘well, what other options are there?’. I didn’t hear that many stories of collective action beyond these more traditional forms of advocacy and activism, and so knowing where to start to figure out something else was challenging. But since then, I’ve been lucky enough to witness and learn about countless other forms of organizing that build parallel power, help people find peace and belonging during turbulent times, and focus on healing communities and building alternative systems that we DO want, instead just talking about problems or fighting what we don’t want. One of the most inspiring and joyful forms of organizing I’ve gotten to be a part of is growing food in community at a small collective homestead in Niwot, where I help on a backyard farm for a few hours a week and get eggs, veggies, a home cooked meal from the homestead leaders, and good company in return. Another has been helping to organize creative outreach events where regular people can hear from local leaders, learn in hands-on, imagination-building workshops, and connect with other people who care.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My two biggest passions are community organizing, and making music that spread a message of interconnection with earth and people, shared responsibility, and radical hope. I’m lucky enough to get to do both at the same time with my community — much of the organizing work I get to be a part of needs creativity and imagination to thrive, and I think that justice and educational events are more fun if there’s some music at the end! However, finding balance between on the ground organizing and creative storytelling is something I am still learning to navigate, and I look forward to deepening the ways that I can inspire collective hope and responsibility through songwriting and storytelling.

In organizing, my main work is with Climatique. We are a community of creatives, workers, students, scientists, and human beings who believe that change is needed NOW, and that all of us have the power to bring this brighter world into being. We believe it is time for a mass movement for the people. And that change must happen contextualized by justice, collective healing, and radical reconciliation: A revolution of love, an uprising of empathy. Our work is grounded in collective action, community resilience, solidarity, and on-the-ground bioregional political power building.

With Climatique, I focus on helping people wake up to the urgent and meaningful times were are witnessing, and find their role in helping to build community resilience, increase political sovereignty, and learn the skills needed to help build a more just and joyful world. Recently, this has looked like planning workshops and educational events, coordinating film screenings, creating a mutual aid free weekly meal program to build community and help more people feel supported and find belonging within the poly crisis we are witnessing. Oftentimes, the most impactful thing I put time into is simply building relationships with other people seeking to create positive change, from casual 1:1 conversations to creating larger community gatherings with other local leaders. Our capitalist-colonial system may create a sense of urgency and need for output-focused effort, but I believe that creating the change we need will require us to redefine our priorities, and begin to invest more deeply in building relationships, listening, and showing up for the human and non-human life all around us.

I feel is my unique way of showing up for justice and social transformation is to tell the stories of what is possible and all the amazing work already being done. I also try to be someone who supports, connects, and empowers others on this shared journey of discovering how we can be a part of creating a just and beautiful world. Every person has something unique and meaningful to contribute, but wow, it can be tough to figure out on our own! While the environmental movement has done some amazing things, it is time for a shift in how we organize. If we want to see a world more focused on care (for earth AND people) and community, then we must build a deeper culture of radical care and collective imagination in the present, nourish deeper solidarity between causes, kinds of people, and organizations, and be ready to figure out together how to create the change we need, even if we feel overwhelmed or inexperinced. The times we are witnessing invite us to show up more fully, change our priorities, and find new skills to help create a post-capitalist world, and while they journey is deeply joyful, it’s also a huge challenge! For me, this is why it has been so exciting to build community that can learn and take collective action together, and care for and feed each other too, so that no one has to figure it out alone.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I’m incredibly grateful to be surrounded by so many incredible organizers, leaders, and humans who want the same world that I do. There is really no way to tell the stories of all the incredible mentors and friends that I’ve found through getting involved in Boulder organizing, because there’s so much great work happening here. One group in particular that has inspired me though is 350 Colorado, and the amazing women who lead it, fighting for environmental justice and a Just Transition away from the oil and gas industry who pollutes our communities, land, and water. I’m also grateful to my friend and mentor Kritee, who runs Boundless in Motion, a buddhist group that builds spiritual community while still staying grounded in the polycrisis and collective action, and to the folks at Boulder Food Rescue who exemplify so well what it means to do tangible, present-tense mutual aid while also being grounded in sustainability and the longer term power of creating food systems.

I’m also lucky enough to have parents who introduced me to land-based activities such as gardening and cooking, read me books about alternative societies and social justice, and raised me among the redwoods and windy ocean shores of Santa Cruz. My teachers as a kid also taught me a lot, telling the stories of the Ohlone and Miwok tribes who lived and still live on the Northern California coast, and the lessons that we could learn from them in always practicing gratitude for all the earth gives us, and remembering the shared responsibility humans have to take care of it in return.

Pricing:

• Upcycled screen print tee-shirts: $20
• “Beginners guide to changing the world” zine, $5
• “see a better world” stickers $1
• concert posters $10

Contact Info:

• Website: climatique.earth
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/climatiquenow?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568539327984
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Climatique