Our Symposium Schedule
May 15
Edith Chase Lecture
At 7 p.m. Jonathon Wlasiuk, arthor of "An Alternative History of Cleveland" will present "How We Got to Now: Lessons in Local Environmental History" at the KSU College of Architecture & Environmental Design – 132 S. Lincoln St. Kent, OH.
(Doors open at 6:30 PM)
May 15 Poetry
Join us on Friday Evening at 4 p.m. Poets from around the State will read original poems, "Our Natural Cities, Nature in The Urban Setting," at the College of Architecture & Environmental Design – 132 S. Lincoln St, Kent Ohio. A new anthology of these poems will be available at the reading.
(Doors open at 3:00 PM)
All events are FREE all are welcome
Thursday Night’s Presentation
How We Got to Now: Lessons in Local Environmental History
Our Speaker – Johnathan Wlasiuk
Wlasiuk delves into the natural phenomena of the Cuyahoga River, Lake Erie and the climate in northeast Ohio and describes the intersection – and more often, the collision – between these timeless environmental realities and how humans in this area have lived in the past and continue to live today. He harkens back to indigenous cultures who understood and embraced the natural environment, rather than modern cultures who have instead ignored the Patterns at Work in The Environment.
He details the tenuous attempt to balance human social and economic needs with the environmental features of this area. In fact, by citing the massive 2003 electrical grid blackout, and the Norfolk and Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023, Wlasiuk reminds us that things can still go terribly wrong when there is no balance. In both cases, a collision occurred between complex technological developments and the natural environment. As such, Wlasiuk termed these collisions not as one-time incidents, but rather, as a larger representation of an “adversarial relationship” most modern-day urban and suburban communities have with the environment and the natural world.
In the end, Wlasiuk terms the environmental issues we face today as a “consequence of a two-hundred-year-long war against nature that began with white settlement.” As such, he describes the purpose of this book as an attempt to get today’s inhabitants of Northeast Ohio to look back in time when other cultures utilized different models to live and thrive on the land. He understands, and hopes that we do as well, that modern technology “does not negate the power of the climate and geology” and their impact on our lives. Indeed, in Wlasiuk’s words, "The river, lake, and the land itself abide by their own laws and we ignore them at our peril."
