Rough Draft is excited to welcome lifelong activist and author Andrew Boyd along with author, speaker, and educator Onnesha Roychoudhuri to celebrate the publication of Andrew's new book, I Want a Better Catastrophe.
This event is free with food, drink, or book purchase. Seating is first-come, first-served, but RSVPs via Eventbrite are appreciated. (They help us stay in touch in case of changes, and they give us an idea of how many people to expect.)
Come for the reading and discussion; stay for the book signing and meet-and-greet to follow. Copies of I Want a Better Catastrophe will be available for purchased on event night, and can be ordered online at roughdraftny.com/preorder .
ABOUT THE BOOK:
With global warming projected to rocket past the 1.5°C limit, lifelong activist Andrew Boyd is thrown into a crisis of hope, and off on a quest to learn how to live with the "impossible news" of our climate doom. He searches out eight leading climate thinkers — from activist Tim DeChristopher to collapse-psychologist Jamey Hecht, grassroots strategist Adrienne Maree Brown, eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer — asking them: "Is it really the end of the world? and if so, now what?".
With gallows humor and a broken heart, Boyd steers readers through their climate angst as he walks his own. From storm-battered coastlines to pipeline blockades and "hopelessness workshops,” he maps out our existential options, and tackles some familiar dilemmas: "Should I bring kids into such a world?" "Can I lose hope when others can't afford to?" and "Why the fuck am I recycling?".
Boyd finds answers that will surprise, inspire, and maybe even make you laugh. Drawing on wisdom traditions Eastern, Western, and Indigenous, Boyd crafts an insightful and irreverent guide for achieving a "better catastrophe.".
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Andrew Boyd is an author, humorist, and climate activist. His new book, I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope and Gallows Humor is forthcoming from New Society Press in February 2023. He is currently CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign he co-founded that melds art, science, technology, and grassroots organizing to get the world to #ActInTime.
Onnesha Roychoudhuri is a writer, speaker, and educator with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of storytelling and social justice. She is the author of The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America, named one of the best books of 2018.
COVID PROTOCOLS:
Rough Draft is no longer requiring masks or social distancing indoors. Event attendees are encouraged to monitor the CDC's guidance based on current community risk level in Ulster County, and to decide what precautions to take and what level of risk is appropriate for them.