Contributors of the anthology “The Nature of Our Times” celebrated the release of the book with a poetry reading in the Student Center Ballroom Balcony Sept. 18, 2025.
All three co-editors, David Hassler, Aileen Cassinetto and Luisa Igloria, were in attendance, as well as several Ohio and a few non-Ohio poets who are featured in the collection.
The project, originally a companion to the National Nature Assessment under the Biden Administration, had its funding cut once the Trump Administration took over in January 2025. The project was able to be continued as Phil Levins, the director of the assessment, was able to create an organization, United by Nature, to sponsor the continued work.
Levins spoke at the event, explaining the original project and his approach after the funds were cut.
“I was disappointed, I will admit,” he said. “I saw it as an opportunity because I couldn’t do it where I was going to do it, but the need was still there. The urgency that we saw, that all mattered.”
Gabriela A. Igloria, a featured poet in the collection and Luisa A. Igloria’s daughter, read their poem, called “Archive for a City Under Water.” Gabriela is also a creative writing instructor at Muse Writing Center in Norfolk, Virginia. The poem deals with childhood memories of her environment as she reflects on living in a current flood zone back home.
“Memory is a really important part of my process,” Gabriela said, “and just sort of figuring out where those memories can unfold into a bigger story.”
They write about a lot of environmental justice in their work.
“[Environmental justice] is something I just felt really called to talk about in my poetry,” they said.
Gabriela said their activism for these topics came from their poetry.
“I think if there’s anything I can do in this world with the skills that I have, I know that my strengths are in writing and in the arts and being creative, so I do what I can with those skills to talk about the issues that are important to me,” they said.
Elaina Letso, a senior integrated social studies major, attended the poetry reading. Letso works for the Wick Poetry Center with community outreach.
“There’s so much focus in today’s world on STEM and how important it is that we don’t lose track of our humanities and our arts,” Letso said. “The humanities and the arts are what bring meaning to STEM. It’s what keeps it ethical and keeps it moral and human.”
The topics covered within the collection are near Letso’s heart, especially the effects of climate change.
“Just because the world that I’ve been brought up in will not be the world that my future kids will be brought up in,” she said.
Paula J. Lambert, another featured poet in the anthology, also shared her poem, “On the Weight of the Soul, the Weight of a Cloud, the Weight of a Whale.” Lambert said she starts with doing research when she wants to write a poem dealing with topics like the ones featured in this collection.
“The science is important to understand,” Lambert said. “The science can be very difficult for people to understand, and the poetry provides a bridge sometimes that allows people to understand more of the details of what’s happening.”
The climate is something Lambert is both interested in and concerned for, dedicating a lot of her work to eco-poetry.
“Our very lives and our very planet are endangered,” she said. “It’s a pleasure for me and it’s what interests me, but it has become more and more critical as the planet has been in crisis.”
Melora Shue is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].