A writer, performer, creative producer and activist making work about the climate crisis, whose socially engaged, collaborative arts projects connect citizens and communities with deep themes
I’m a writer, performer and creative producer. One of three poets who created and performed breath:[e]LESS, a spoken word/music performance exploring climate psychology, in Bradford, Liverpool and Hebden Bridge 2015/16. I’ve performed at poetry events across the north, for the Climate Psychology Alliance conference 2016, as composer/pianist Lola Perrin’s guest performer on her Significantus (2017) and End Climate Chaos (2019) tours, and at No Bounds Festival, Sheffield 2019.
I’m a climate activist, blogger and member of networks of artists making work about the climate crisis. I recently attended a course with The Dark Mountain Project which had a profound effect on the way I see the role of the artist in the Anthropocene.
As a producer, writer and theatre-maker I’ve created socially engaged arts projects which connect groups of citizens and communities with a deep set of ideas or themes, framed through collaboration with artists. I’m currently undertaking a creative development process / project supported by Arts Council England exploring the dramaturgy of co-creation and how it can foreground the voice of ‘WE’ over that of ‘I’ in the art we make for times of environmental tragedy.
Tessa is one of our members featuring their work as part of the ClimateCultures Quarantine Connection series. We shared her piece, The Art of Virtual Social Dreaming / The Cave, on Day 18 of the 40-day series.
Creative Conversations
Tessa took part in a series of lively and engaging conversations that climate change dramatist Julia Marques recorded with fellow ClimateCultures members. These covered a wide range of topics that inform the work that ClimateCultures celebrates, and Julia introduces them and brings them together in Conversations with Work That Connects. In her video, among many other things, Tessa discusses her involvement with the Climate Psychology Alliance and Dark Mountain Project as inspirations for work such as Breath[e]:LESS and The Divided and explorations of 'social dreaming' as ways to address our emotional responses to climate crisis. Tessa also shares plans for a deep adaptation project working with the land and conversations around the campfire.
Tessa then took part in a follow-up conversation with Julia and other interviewees. You can find the recordings in Talking to the Crisis, where ClimateCultures editor Mark Goldthorpe reflects on the themes they discussed.