This 12 minute presentation and slideshow was part of “The Performing Arts Lights the Way: A Climate Week Celebration,” part of Climate Week NYC, in September 2025. Ricardo discusses his roots in Puerto Rico, struggles against colonial resource extraction, and the counter narrative joining ecology and resistance.
Category: Videos
Videos on social justice, organizing and liberation from Ricardo Levins Morales.
(Audio & Transcript) “The Land Knows The Way” Book Launch at Moon Palace Books
Discussion with Ricardo Levins Morales hosted by Autumn Brown at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, February 6, 2025. In Ricardo’s first ever book event, he reads from and discusses The Land Knows The Way: Eco-Social Insights For Liberation.
The audio is 74 minutes. See below for timestamps, and click “continue reading” to read the transcript.
0:00 Autumn Brown introduces the event, how she met Ricardo, and the book
7:53 Ricardo introduces the book
10:26 Reading of the chapter “Haiti and the physics of fire”
20:35 Ricardo discusses the elements of the book: personal narrative, history, ecology, and organizing principles
21:20 Autumn asks about when Ricardo first began to notice and teach the connection between Ricardo’s ecology and organizing
22:26 Ricardo responds
25:36 Ricardo talks about the chapter “Organic tensions, birds and windfall”, and polarization in movements
28:44 Autumn speaks to the current moment and asks Ricardo, what is the medicine that you’re offering right now?
29:48 Ricardo responds and talks about what keeps him grounded in times of confusion and danger, and about grief and despair
34:30 Autumn reflects about emotional wounds and healing
35:57 Ricardo talks about restoring power in the face of trauma and emotional injury
37:27 Autumn asks, how is this moment the same and different from other periods of fascistic rise in history?
38:38 Ricardo responds by talking about childraising advice he was given, and about how fascism and authoritarian looks different in different times and places. He talks about differences in how elite factions respond, and about how we can rely on principles like not surrendering public space, using tactics to see us through when we don’t have strategy, and defending those most immediately targeted.
46:53 Autumn reflects about the heat sources of people’s movements
47:40 Ricardo elaborates on how it’s not a time to be purists, and about making alliances from a position of strength
49:19 Autumn asks, what do you think will be possible seven generations from now?
50:15 Ricardo responds and reads a short book excerpt and discusses the emotional and cultural chemistry of change,
55:28 Ricardo talks about regime change in ecosystems using the Everglades as an example
1:00:25 Autumn asks the audience for questions rooted in dilemmas about organizing work
[the questions are audible but are at very low volume in the recording]
1:04:11 Ricardo responds to audience questions by speaking about connecting with the world outside one’s own trauma
1:06:23 Ricardo talks about collectively addressing the feeling of powerlessness and modeling a way of new being
1:09:40 Ricardo concludes by discussing the useful concept of the enemy, that sharp analysis and compassion have to go together, with the Black Panthers’ Rainbow Coalition as an example
1:13:44 End
Continue reading (Audio & Transcript) “The Land Knows The Way” Book Launch at Moon Palace Books
The Praxis of Hope: An Evening with Ricardo Levins Morales
A February 2023 event hosted by the Leadership Center for Social Justice at United Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The video is 91 minutes, includes a slideshow of Ricardo’s art, and is auto-captioned.
A Circle By The River – Climate Visionaries for 100PercentMN
This June 2022 video produced by Line Break Media and 100PercentMN, a coalition of organizations working for a just and fossil-free future for Minnesota, features Ricardo’s words and (animated!) artwork. It’s part of their “Climate Visionaries” series.
The video is five and a half minutes; use the CC button to enable captions.
MN COVID-19 Response Town Hall
On March 26th, 2020, I joined many community leaders to in roundtable live-stream to discuss how we’re responding as a community to the COVID-19 crisis. Thank you to Rep. Ilhan Omar and her team for convening this conversation.
TPT Minnesota Originals
The Empire Trips Itself
Overwhelming power can become a weakness.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
Tactics Are All About Context
To be effective in our tactics, it’s the questions we ask that matter the most.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
Organizing on the Titanic
How social justice organizing is held back by the structures that contain it.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
Organizing on the Titanic a video snippet from Ricardo Levins Morales.
The Soil Is More Important Than The Seeds
What beliefs, if they were widely disseminated, would make it easy to win?
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
MAG-Net Media Justice Salon: Abolition in the Digital Age
On November 29, 2017, the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) held a Media Justice Salon, hosted by Myaisha Hayes. The theme for this salon was “Abolition in the Digital Age.” I participated in this salon on behalf of MPD150, along with guest speakers Mariame Kaba of Project NIA and Hamid Khan of Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.
The Enemy Advertises Their Weak Points
Our power is amplified when we know where to direct it.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
Transit Police
This incident occurred on the Minneapolis Blue Line light rail train, northbound on Sunday, May 14, 2017. Question of the Day: why are Metro Transit Police asking people’s immigration status???
Organizing with Kindling
A lot of the best community organizing starts small and thinks big.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
Moon Spaces, Sun Spaces & Community Power
In this short video, I discuss where power is generated and ways to make use of it.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.
2nd Grade Liberation Program
In this short video, I share what a liberation program might look like.
Produced by our friends at Line Break Media.