Iowa City celebrates sustainability through Prompt for the Planet event
![Prompt for the Planet, Chapter 2 featured numerous performing groups, such as The Quire.](https://wsspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/prompt-for-planet-1.jpg)
On Sept. 15, residents from all across the greater Iowa City area gathered in the Englert Theater for Prompt for the Planet, Chapter 2. The event, featuring 11 performances, was arranged to spread awareness about sustainability and environmentalism using artistic expression, ranging from interpretative dancing to slam poetry. Additionally, The University of Iowa Office of Sustainability and the Environment and The LENA Project partnered to organize the event, as a greater part of their Promise to the Planet campaign.
Refer below to view a few performance highlights of the event.
![Both Culbreath performers throw clothing garments while dancing passionately.](https://wsspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screen-Shot-2024-09-16-at-12.44.48-AM.png)
Joshua and Emily Culbreath of Snack Break Movement Arts perform a contemporary dance titled “HAUL”, critiquing fast fashion brands such as SHEIN.
The duo unloaded bags full of various clothing garments on stage, followed by a monologue imitating influencer hauls, denouncing rampant consumerism.
![Chuy Renteria recalls a personal experience to highlight the negative aspects of the meat-packing industry.](https://wsspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screen-Shot-2024-09-16-at-12.22.07-AM-e1726464293297.png)
Chuy Renteria, a first-generation Mexican-American, spoke about their experiences growing up in a town in Iowa where meat-packing factories and farming were prevalent. Renteria ties in personal anecdotes with their immigrant parents to the hardships they faced as a result of the meat-packing industry.
“People roughly my age, people I grew up with — Mexicans and Southeast Asians — brown people that were sickly worried about their parents going back to working at the [meat-packing] plant. Children of immigrants and refugees who knew the work ethic of our parents, who knew that if the plant told them to come back, they would would oblige,” Renteria said. “Work was their grounding, it was the tether to the fruits of their labor that would manifest in their children, because work was their dream for us.”
Rentaria continues citing the negative environmental and domestic impacts of the meat-packing industry, and ultimately ends off with a request to take small steps to catalyze environmental change.
![Bella Moss performed two songs in appreciation of notable environmentalists.](https://wsspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screen-Shot-2024-09-15-at-11.46.23-PM.png)
Bella Moss, a guitarist and singer from Iowa City, performed two songs for the Prompt for the Planet. These songs were dedicated to notable environmentalists in her life, remaining a testament to their legacies.
![As a part of the Promise to the Planet campaign, preschoolers line up for the final performance.](https://wsspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screen-Shot-2024-09-16-at-1.00.26-AM-e1726466575222.png)
The program concluded with a performance led by preschoolers, under the ‘A Promise to the Planet’ campaign, which was started by The LENA Project. The establishment of this campaign was inspired by the preschoolers who had been impacted by the inaugural Prompt for the Planet showcase, repeating the philosophy that it was essential to “help Earth be the best Earth”.
The preschoolers brainstormed topics for two songs and performed them for the audience, as a culmination of all prior performances.
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