April 2020 Monthly Review

quarantine photos from the window by Kate Meehan Rocks (http://www.katemeehan.rocks/)

quarantine photos from the window by Kate Meehan Rocks (http://www.katemeehan.rocks/)

disclaimer: these reviews are for my own personal accountability and aren’t really meant to be articulate blog posts. if you are curious about anything I write here, feel free to email me at nichole.lynn.bennett <at> gmail.com

values

• bewilderment
• making a difference
• brilliance
• daring
• joy
• authenticity
• imagination
• intimacy
• justice

highlights from the past month

• surviving/pandemic/learning rest
• cast in Icebox podcast, had our first table read
• fieldwork for Drama Based Pedagogy
• shaved my hair into a mohawk and bleached it to dye it turquoise but it looked cool as blond with pink tips so I kept it there
• Museum Theater Afrofuturism piece for pre-service nursing students and galleries for Black Studies
• played some rpgs and board games online with friends
• talked with our Global Classroom partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina about our drama-based facilitation plan
• wrote up a blog post for Planet Texas about Marie Lorenz’s Graybelt piece
• trained public health officials and toxicologists in science communication
• Facilitated Jay Banner’s Planet Texas 2050 class on logic models as tools for collaboration
• using Stardew valley to shut off and relax
• bartering stuff (sourdough starter, seeds, crafts) with friends

lessons learned from last month

• I don’t have to label everything, including myself. And it doesn’t need to be a single label.
• I want to learn more and practice non-attachment more.
• Thinking a lot about the “how” of my work. (the subversiveness of being fully myself as a joyful artist/activist/scholar in academia)
• theme or emotion that sums up the month
• foggy hope
• mindfulness
• compassion

outcome of last month’s goal, projects completed

• fieldwork for Drama Based Pedagogy (facilitation plans for youth activated climate change plays)
• Museum Theater Afrofuturism piece for pre-service nursing students and galleries for Black Studies
• ICA Handbook chapter comparing Environmental, Risk, and Science Communication done

goals for the month ahead

scicomm

• finish up second year of doctorate — class project crunch
• then rest
• then set goals for summer
• then on to revising science communication fellowship paper

personal

• joyful movement, taking rest time, doing stuff for whimsy
• what it means to always be where I am, what joy looks like in these spaces

media consumed in the last month

films

• JoJo Rabbit

books

• Children of Blood and Bone
• Daughter Detox: Recovering from An Unloving Mother and Reclaiming Your Life
• Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-Based Approach
• Drama-based Pedagogy: Activating Learning Across the Curriculum
• Don’t Bite the Hook: Finding Freedom from Anger, Resentment, and Other Destructive Emotions
• Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who’s Been There
• Social Acupuncture
• The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work
• The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
• The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
• Soul Music (Discworld #16)

board games/rpgs

• Love Letter
• Find/Fix/Finish

video games

• Stardew Valley