EVOLVE COLLECTIVE MANIFESTO
We are artists.
We are dreamers.
We are healers.
We feel the grief and heartbreak of our current ecological crisis, yet we believe the future is unwritten.¹
We believe a better world is possible.
Research tells us we have all the money and technology we need to create a regenerative world where humans and nature collectively thrive,² but scientists and politicians can't inspire the change we need. It's going to take artists.
We are being called forth in this moment.
We are agents of change. Creativity is our fuel.
We will deliver new ideas and visions for the future.³
We have the conviction.
We can save the planet.
We believe that hope is a choice and a conscious action.
We know every moment leading up to 2030 is critical.⁴ We believe we Must. Act. Now.
We believe in unleashing our full human potential through the power of manifestation. Science has validated the power and connection of our thoughts, words, and actions. It's quantum physics.⁵
Practicing radical imagination and painting a new reality are key.⁶
We believe in collective action.
We believe in the power of our breath.
We believe in using our hands and hearts to feel and heal.
We believe in building resilience in ourselves and our communities.
We believe in kinship.
We believe caring for the environment will allow us to show each other greater care.
We recognize plants, the soil, and the sky as our teachers.⁷
We believe in the transformative power of watching the rising and setting sun.
We believe the world is infinitely abundant; there is no limit to the wind and the sun.
We believe we are abundant. This is our natural state.
We believe in regeneration. Of ourselves. Of the economy. Of our ecosystems.
We believe in rest.⁸
We believe the more we care for our souls, the more we can care for the planet.
We believe in generosity and making way.
We believe in cooperation, not competition.
We believe in our interconnectedness with all things.
We work like a mycelium network.⁹
Our current ecological crisis is our spiritual training ground, calling us to evolve.
We owe it to future generations to throw everything we've got at making a better world.
We owe it to ourselves.
EVOLVE COLLECTIVE is a creative ecosystem.
Everyone is invited.
We are stronger with you involved.
¹ Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac illustrate other possibilities in The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist's Guide to the Climate Crisis (New York: Vintage Books, 2021)
² Krista Tippett's conversation with Christiana Figueres for the On Being podcast, titled Ecological Hope and Spiritual Evolution, which aired on November 9, 2023, inspired so much of this writing: https://onbeing.org/
³ This is what artists do.
⁴ The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change, adopted by 196 countries at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France, on December 12, 2015. The legally binding Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016, emphasizing 2030 as our point of no return.
⁵ Dr. Joe Dispenza integrates scientific information with ancient spiritual wisdom to show how we all can live magical existences in Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon (Carlsbad, California: Hay House, Inc., 2017)
⁶ Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert say, "To create a new world, we need to imagine what that world looks like" on page 6 of The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible (New York: OR Books, 2021)
⁷ Robin Wall Kimmerer says, "The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness." Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, (Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2013)
⁸ Social justice movements recognize rest as both a resource and a political act. Rest replenishes us, supports our transition from surviving to thriving, and enables us to honor ourselves individually and the collective work we have ahead.
⁹ Peter Wohlleben's book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World (United States: Greystone Books, 2016), shares the story of the fungal networks linking tree roots, forming a web of underground relations that has been dubbed the "wood wide web."
¹⁰ "As an artist and mother, I am compelled to throw everything I've got at creating a world that is cared for and endures for future generations." —Monica Lynn Manoski (EVOLVE COLLECTIVE Founder)