RIEEA is excited to announce that our upcoming Rhode Island Youth Climate Conference on November 7, 2026 will feature a presentation and workshop with Eli Nixon.
Eli Nixon concocts low-tech public spectaculah. They are a settler-descended transqueer clown, a cardboard constructionist, and a maker of plays, puppets, pageants, parades, drawings, suitcase theaters, and primordial interventions in Modern Human time. Eli collaborates with artists, scientists, schools, mental health and recovery centers, libraries and the more-than-human world to expand imaginative capacity and build muscles for collective liberation. They believe in the transformative power of snacks, tide pools, costumes, friendship and “free time.” Eli was named RIEEA’s ‘Environmental Educator of the Year’ in 2025. They are a Rhode Islander living on Pokanoket, Nipmuc and Narragansett land.
PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Eli will share a suitcase theater version of their proposal for a new holiday in homage to horseshoe crabs, a DIY eco/cultural effort to celebrate one of our most ancient neighbors while destabilizing anthropocentrism. Eli then facilitates participants through the process of imagining their own new holidays to amplify awe-inspiring organisms, rock or cloud formations, water bodies, and anything else here since before humans evolved. Eli offers low-stakes drawing prompts and imaginative interventions to support collaborative grappling with climate anxiety, rage and grief. They explore absurdist practices and transformative tactics for building community power guided by ‘primordial futurism’ and what each participant needs from a new holiday.
2026 RHODE ISLAND YOUTH CLIMATE CONFERENCE
Calling all Rhode Island youth and their adult mentors!
Are you ready to take climate action in your community?
Registration is now open for the Rhode Island Youth Climate Conference! This event is for teams of 3-6 high school aged students and an adult mentor and will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at the Roger Williams Park Zoo’s new Conservation Education Center. This is a free event; lunch will be provided and transportation costs will be covered.
Registration closes Thursday, October 29.
MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION HERE