Abstract

How do we make space for the reality of negative affect in the practices of caring for a damaged world? It is necessary to determine how the connection between environmental justice activism and care can help one parse out the turbulent affective reality of caring in a world that desperately needs care to survive and heal from political oppression and climate crisis. Love and Rage captures the affective tension which is experienced by those invested in environmental justice movements. The zine is based on pipeline resistance in central Appalachia, the testimonies of activists working with Appalachians Against Pipelines (AAP), and my own experiences living in the region. The imagery in this zine is inspired by the words of activists working with AAP, early Lady Gaga music videos, and my Catholic upbringing. Love and rage could be construed as binary opposites, but this zine demonstrates how these affects are inextricably linked and often grow together. “Love and Rage” is scalar, dealing with visceral affect in the body and responding to pipeline projects which rupture more-than-human communities across Appalachia. Working against this violent rupture, activists invoke relationality with home, place, and the more-than-human community to sustain resistance.