Earth Systems Capstone Project Uses Art to Communicate Climate Change

Senior Makulumy Alexander-Hills’s Earth Systems capstone project was anything but ordinary. When asked to communicate his combined learnings over the past four years, the Earth Systems and Music dual major decided to combine his passions, highlighting the universality of human experiences through the power of music and theater.

The resulting compilation was Stories from Our Earth, an evening of musical storytelling about climate change, crafted from interviews with Stanford community members. A four-piece ensemble of musicians performed Makulumy’s score, written to reflect the emotions and experiences within these true stories, which were performed live by two student actors. The stories were personal reflections on students’ relationships to nature, whether spiritual connections found through trail running or childhood memories of river hiking in Zion National Park. From brush fires in Australia to hurricanes in New York, these experiences described the power and universal importance of nature in human lives. Stories from our Earth was presented in the Elliott Program Center on Lake Lagunita in late May 2016.