Today on The Choral Commons, we take a  deep dive into place-based practice, eco-justice, and our relationship with the land in a conversation with Kyle Lemle. 

Kyle Lemle works to catalyze the impact of organizations that work at the intersection of environmental justice, forest restoration, and spiritual ecology. Kyle is a climate organizer, a lover and protector of forests, a spiritual practitioner, and a choral activist with the Thrive Choir. 

Based in Oakland, California, the Thrive choir is a diverse group of vocalists, artists, activists, educators, healers, and community organizers who join together in, what they call, big harmony to celebrate the confluence of their many cultures & identities. Their music illuminates the joy, pain, and beauty of what it means to be human in this time of systemic transformation. 

As a climate organizer, Kyle has mobilized thousands of people in the streets of San Francisco as a leader of RISE for Climate. Kyle has worked in international and grassroots community forestry projects from the pine forests of the Himalayas to the mangroves of Southeast Asia to the urban forest in San Francisco. Kyle plants trees at sites impacted by violence across the US with shovels made from guns, through his work as co-founder of Lead to Life, an arts collective dedicated to creative interventions bridging racial and environmental justice through ceremony and art practice.

You can learn more about Kyle at www.kylelemle.com.