Weather and the Whale: The Impossibilities of (Cetacean) Mothering

Weather and the Whale: The Impossibilities of (Cetacean) Mothering comes to Local Economy in Oakland on Sunday, October 11, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm.

This is a quiet Sunday afternoon event with a heavy question at the center: how do people care, raise young lives, and grieve during a climate crisis?

Curators and scholars Alexandra Moore and LuLing Osofsky will read from their recent essay and talk through motherhood, whale mothering, loss, and the strange pressure placed on care when the world feels unstable. They will be joined by filmmaker and researcher Alix Blair Darling, who is also part of the Local Economy community.

Local Economy should be a good fit for this kind of gathering. The space has that close, community room feel where a talk can turn into a real conversation. Expect less stage polish and more careful listening.

The event also looks at whale mothers and their visible grief as something we should take seriously. That part alone feels worth sitting with. What happens when distress from another species is treated as a call to act, rather than background noise?

Books will be available through East Bay Booksellers, so you can bring the conversation home if it stays with you.

If you like local talks that mix art, research, climate, and moral questions without making things too neat, this one is worth putting on your calendar.

Join curators and scholars Alexandra Moore and LuLing Osofsky for a conversation on their contributions to The Weather and the Whale, exploring motherhood, grief, and care in the midst of climate catastrophe.
How do we caretake and grieve in a time of climate catastrophe? In this event, Alex and LuLing will explore the double binds of motherhood, and particularly the mother-child unit as both a site of life and a site of vulnerability to death, historically and in the present, for humans and whales. We take motherhood to include all forms of raising young lives, including non-biological primary care relations and the work of whale mothering. We ask what it would mean to understand a whale mother’s displays of grief and distress as demands for action, and whether, in doing so, we may take mothering as the basis for multispecies political solidarity.
Alex and LuLing will read excerpts from their recently published essay and be joined in conversation by filmmaker and researcher (and Local Economy member!) Alix Blair Darling. Books for sale at the event in partnership with East Bay Booksellers.