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Nature, Film, Literature Combine At Live Art Event

Craig Childs

On Saturday night, Flagstaff will get a preview of the city’s 2016 Mountain Film Festival. The event’s organizers are putting on “A Night Of Visionary Live Art” at the Orpheum Theater. It will include short films, documentaries, and interactive presentations by local filmmakers and writers, including acclaimed author Craig Childs. He joined Arizona Public Radio's Aaron Granillo to talk about his performance. 

Aaron Granillo: For those of us who have never been to a live art event like this, what can we expect?

Craig Childs: Live art. People up on stage doing their thing. I'm going to be up there with a band behind me - accordion, mandolin, guitar. We're taking my stories and mixing them with their performance. So, they'll be backing me up. But, we'll be getting up and just rolling through some flash flood stories of mine. 

And you’re well-known for writing about flash floods and nature in general. You’re presentation tomorrow night is called, “Flood Club.” Where did that name come from?

Well, I chase flash floods and I have maybe my whole adult and late childhood life. Whenever there's a big storm going on I move toward it. And, I guess the flood club idea came because I have friends who I didn't know did this until we started talking about it.  And, you realize that you're part of this group of unaffiliated people who run out into the desert chasing floods around.

How do you explain what a flash flood is with music and accordions?

Well, you'll have to come and find out. I really like working with musicians because with just straight words sure you can tell a good story in a room. But, man if you can get an accordion to do rain. If you can get the cacophony of a flood, but also get the kind of elegance of how it shapes a canyon. I think that using something than other than my own voice helps. So, I think the more that you can bring in to that experience you get closer  to the action itself.

I want to talk about some of the themes in your books. A lot of them deal with that ongoing divide between humankind and the wilderness. Why do you think we’re losing that connection?

Well because it's our civilization is designed for us. Whereas wilderness is not designed for us. It's cold. It's sharp. It's a hot. It's something you have to go find. So, I can understand why a lot of people don't go into it. But then at the same time, it's where we spent most of our evolution.  It's where humans came from. We didn't come from inside of rooms. So, are we losing it or are we just relegating it to little bits and pieces? I think as humanity grows, we're losing more and more just because we're walling ourselves off from it. 

As I'm sure you're well aware, there’s a big climate change conference happening right now in Paris. World leaders are discussing ways to curb global warming. One of your more recent books, Apocalyptic Planet, warns us of those natural disasters that will happen -- some that have already happened -- when we don’t take action on climate change. Now, three years after that book was published, has your opinion changed at all on the issue?

No. My opinion has probably only been supported and deepened. So I think we're leading what is happening on the planet right now. I guess I wrote that book to say well, here's the human influence, but here's the planet we live on and here are the things that can go wrong. Because we're still acting as if humans are the primary vector because we are right now until we got a heavy year of volcanic activity. Until we got a solar outburst. There are so many things that we're not calculating in. We're calculating ourselves in as if we were the only variable. So I guess my opinion hasn't  changed that we are part of a really complicated system and we are poking it with a really sharp stick. 

Click on the links below for more information on "A Night Of Visionary Live Art."

https://www.facebook.com/events/744872772307101/

http://www.orpheumflagstaff.com/event/979911-night-visionary-live-art-flagstaff/

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