To keep writing in times of crisis: A conversation with Yessenia Funes
I sat with Atmos' Editor-at-large and talked about being a freelance creative, writing about systemic issues in a changing world, and how to be in our bodies more than in our heads.
Below the interview, you can find an herbal tea recipe, an essential oil mix, and a playlist to savour this interview through all your senses. Also, check out the end of this conversation for a workshop announcement (free for currently paying subscribers). Enjoy!
I began writing this piece in October, in a moment where my internal world had been shaken and I could not find ground. It was also the month in which the retaliation of Israel on Palestine had just begun and we saw the first glimpses of this indiscriminate violence. Today I write on the 109th day of this conflict, my heart still broken and tired. For almost four months we have seen journalists targeted, desperate mothers and fathers, shellshocked children, and whole neighborhoods decimated. And it is not stopping. To keep writing and reporting in times of crisis, especially on topics like climate change, feminism, or war, is an act of radical hope, it is a way to come out of numbness and step into action.
Yessenia Funes knows this very well. She is the editor-at-large of climate and culture magazine Atmos, and founding member of The Uproot Project, a network for and by environmental journalists of colour. “I am tired,” she says to me when I ask her how she is, “of seeing the same things. of witnessing the failure of world leaders over and over again”. A week has passed since the beginning of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and it is almost the end of a year that has seen some of the worst natural disasters recorded in history. I tell her I feel the same, I am also tired, of systemic sexism, of blind hatred, of billionaires. Funes and I met after I wrote a piece on abortion laws for Atmos, and we have stayed on each other’s radar since then. We are both Geminis, which means dealing with our own nuances daily.
What I love about Atmos magazine is that it is a space where we can hold the complexities of the pain and discomfort that climate change brings, whilst making it beautiful. Through the years, I tell her, I noticed how the journalism world failed to be sensuous and focused primarily on truth and logic, devoid of accountability and context. I ask her about her experience working for Atmos as a publication.
“So much of what Atmos publishes is beauty, tenderness, and softness. But with The Frontline newsletter that I was publishing there, it was about the ugly, it was about the greedy and trying to write about that and portray these hard truths that exist around environmental racism, colonialism and oppression in a way that won't scare readers away,” she says. The Frontline was the newsletter that Yessenia sent weekly where Atmos reported on climate from the frontline. It was, so to say, the more “news” piece of the magazine. Yessenia has now left the Frontline to focus on freelance writing and being able to explore different realms. I ask her how the shift has been.
“The transition is fulfilling in a lot of ways because I'm feeling less tied to that news cycle. I think that there's this romanticization of independent work. That we make our schedule, or we can log out whenever we want. And yes, of course, but there's also a lot of self-discipline and a lot of self-motivation,” I cannot but agree with her.
Whilst many may view a writer’s job as only writing, they are sorely mistaken. We are our own editors, marketing agents, and CEOs, and that is a lot of work. Pitching a piece can take many days of research, and we are usually not paid for it. “I don't have a safety net, I just have myself now. It's scary to be in a space where I can't count on my employer to protect me and shelter me. But creatively it's been empowering and liberating to be able to write for different publications and work with different editors and make space for the stories that I want to tell,” says Funes.
I tell Funes how much I resonate with what she is saying and how exhausting it can be to constantly talk about “the ugly”. Those who know my work know that finding a way to put all my anger out has been incredibly challenging, and rewarding. As we continue the conversation, I ask her how she grew up:
“My parents were born in El Salvador. I grew up in a predominantly black and Latino neighbourhood on Long Island that was very segregated.” She tells me her mother came from a very poor family that was extremely connected to nature for their sustenance. “My mom used to wash her clothes in the river, which is unthinkable for me” because most rivers near cities are toxic.
So why a journalist? “It felt natural for me to become a journalist. I can write about what is going on in the world, and do something with my voice in that way,” she tells me that she always knew she wanted to write about violence and racism, but then college helped focus her mind.
“It just became clear. Climate was a space where I could write about everything that I cared about, through one cohesive lens,” she says with fervour “I was able to just connect more deeply with my mother and my ancestral lands through this lens of what is climate change going to do?” She continues, “It's wild to me to think that my mother used to bathe in this ravine that is now so polluted with, human waste. And now, I'm just a generation later and I cannot imagine washing myself in any natural body of water”
“It just became clear. Climate was a space where I could write about everything that I cared about, through one cohesive lens.”
Yessenia Funes
Our relationship with the land is changing, she tells me, even in just one generation, because of globalization and industrialization and all these forces that are contributing to worsening the climate crisis.
The pace at which climate change is worsening is overwhelming. I tell her about a feminist philosophy from a collective born in Quito, Ecuador, in 2012, called cuerpo territorio (meaning body territory). Cuerpo Territorio maps the body as if it were land, highlighting that the way the coloniser treats the land is the same way it treats the bodies within those lands.
Capitalism and patriarchy are in bed with eachother, and patriarchy is extractive with anyone who is not a cis white man, whilst capitalism is extractive with the land. The bodies of people and the extractive ways of the world are incredibly interlinked, I say.“ Yes, there's no way for us to talk about environmental destruction and histories of extraction without also looking at the parallels that this has with the way women and gender non-conforming people have been treated forever, we see this in the US,” Funes agrees, “It is terrifying to see the way women have come under attack, and at the same time right-wing conservatives are doubling down on their desire to keep drilling oil and gas.” Women are usually those who face the most risks in climate disaster. “it's really important to me, to my reporting, to always try to shed light on those intersections in particular,” says Funes.
Speaking of body, I ask Funes how she keeps up with the exhaustion of being exposed to these topics daily. She tells me that the moment she shuts off her computer, she wants to shut off her brain too and have nothing to do with climate change. For me too as a writer, being able to shut off is key, but I realise that sometimes I forget about my body, I am so busy shutting off my mind that my body is forgotten. “Yes, for me too,” says Funes. We agree that a practice of self-care and body movements are key for people like us writers, who tend to have a lot on their minds. Sometimes we are so much in auto-pilot mode that we forget that writing and making art in times of crisis is an act of resistance, and it requires a lot of care.
You can learn more about Yessenia’s work on her website and subscribe to her newsletter here!
Writing the Body, a workshop to get out of our minds 🤯
This conversation inspired me to design a workshop for folks where I want to share tips and writing prompts to be less in our head and more in our bodies. Writing the Body guides writers and creatives on a journey to reconnect with their bodies. In a world dominated by logic and intellectual pursuits, this workshop invites participants to embark on a revolutionary act – embracing the wisdom that arises when we inhabit our physical selves.
When: 28 February 2024 at 18:30 CET
Where: Online
Offering: the workshop is free for previous paying subscribers and 11 Euros (12$ OR 10£) for other participants.
If you are a paying subscriber and want to participate, write me here and: virginiavigliar@gmail.com or leave a comment.
Enjoy a herbal tea recipe, oil mix, and album below for a more sensorial reading experience.