Looking For America’s Climate Future In The Southwest’s Past: A Chat With Kyle Paoletta At First Light Books

On January 28th, at 7 P.M., First Light Books will host a conversation between the New Yorker’s Rachel Monrow and Kyle Paoletta, author of the newly-released (and already highly acclaimed) book, American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest. (Tickets)

American Oasis makes the case that the water conservation and climate adaptation battles that define the political landscape in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and El Paso are rippling out to a broader swatch of the country.

As Mark Athitakis writes in his review of the book for The Washington Post, these shifts make the Southwest region the country’s “starkest mirror… and, if we’re willing to see it clearly, a source for solutions.”

Social Stimulus recently interviewed Bradley, who crafts events for First Light Books, an “unmistakably Austin bookshop in an old post office” to understand why Kyle Paoletta’s book spoke to First Light, what they hope attendees take away from the book conversation, and what food and drink pairings from the cafe would be a perfect fit for American Oasis:

• Social Stimulus: Why are you excited to bring Kyle to Austin? There are a lot of books about climate change and adaptation these days—and even a number of them that touch on Texas and the Southwest. Why this author and this book?
  • Bradley: “One big thing that stood out to us about American Oasis is the way that Kyle Paoletta looks for the future by excavating the past. The research that the book presents is grounded in the history of the Southwest, telling the stories of those indigenous to the land and all of those who have moved across it over the centuries. That combination of rigor and wisdom is rare, and reminds us that taking care of the land which we so luckily inhabit is an exercise in learning that history so that we might take better care of it.”
• Social Stimulus: Is the theme of climate of resilience and climate change something that resonates with you?
  • Bradley: “Absolutely. Whether you look at the devastation in Los Angeles, the historic droughts in Kenya, or the weather across our home state of Texas in recent years, the impacts of climate change are here, and already beginning to shape and alter our lives. Resilience or complacency are the only options and the choice, to us, feels clear.”
  
  
• Social Stimulus: Are there questions you want people asking themselves and grappling with as a result of participating in this conversation?
  • Bradley: “You touched on the theme of resilience already, which is a big one for what we’d hope guests might take away from this event. But we’d also say that any desire towards learning more about the place you live — what sort of plants grow in its soil, where do you get your clean water from, and so on — is a meaningful place to begin asking the questions about how both you and that place can continue to flourish in the decades ahead.”

• Social Stimulus: Stepping back, how does this type of community book talk fit into the vision for First Flight Books?
  • Bradley: “First Light is a neighborhood book shop and cafe located in the historic neighborhood of Hyde Park. The word neighborhood gets the emphasis there — above all, we believe in spaces like bookstores and coffee shops for people to gather, talk, and be a part of a community. For us, books are occasions to encounter other people, whether at the table next to you or hundreds of years in the past. Events like this one are part and parcel of that vision, a chance for our guests (and ourselves!) to be invited into a community of readers and question-askers.”
  
  
• Social Stimulus: How about a recommendation from the cafe for people attending this event: What’s the perfect drink and bite to pair with this book?
  • Bradley: “Well, the perfect drink pairing for the book is probably water! But maybe after a glass of that, guests can grab one of our Lapo’s Negronis—non-alcoholic, I might add, for those practicing dry January. And nothing goes better with the bittersweet citrus flavor than a side of our marinated olives.”
  
  

Widening The Lens:

• Get Ready: To prepare for the book event (Book + Ticket), in addition to the Los Angeles Times, the Arizona Republic, Associated Press and The Washington Post all published excellent reviews of American Oasis. And, here’s an interview between Kyle and Zachariah Webb published in The Baffler.
• IYKYK: Visiting First Light Books is as much of a reason to attend the book event as the event itself. “First Light transformed a midcentury post office into a light-filled space that fully embraces the all-day café concept,” Steve Russell writes for Garden and Gun.

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