Get Ready for the First SolarPunk Story
Coming soon: the First SolarPunk Story
Solarpunk Salutations!
Welcome to a new sunrise for SolarPunk Stories as we’re almost ready to bring you our first full story. As well as that we’ve got updates on how we’ve been presenting, connecting and other solarpunk happenings for you.
Coming soon: the First SolarPunk Story
We’re almost ready to release our very first SolarPunk Story and we wanted to give you an opportunity to get it ahead of everyone else. We will shortly be offering all our newsletter subscribers an exclusive pre-release version of The Prodigal, the first DI Russo SolarPunk Story.
The Prodigal is set in a solarpunked future Brixton and follows DI Russo, one of London’s last murder detectives, as he tries to find out why someone has killed a black market ‘Q-jumper’.
The details of how you can get your pre-release version of The Prodigal will be sent out in the next edition of this newsletter. Forward the signup link or this email to other people who you think might like SolarPunk Stories. If they sign up before our next newsletter they will also be able to access this exclusive pre-release edition. We’re really excited to be here with you at the release of our first thrilling tale from a better future.
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Solarpunk is HOT Stuff
When gatherings of up to six people were still allowed, we were invited to be the guest speaker at the House of Transformation’s very first HOT table. The House is a new space in East London dedicated to regenerative practices in architecture, co-living and more. The HOT Tables are facilitated discussions over dinner with topics kicked off by guest speakers.
Our Founder Alex spoke about solarpunk and how we’re trying to contribute to the movement. Numbers were limited due to lockdown restrictions, nonetheless there was a great conversation about the potential of solarpunk artistically, culturally and politically.
Sunny People
We’ve been thrilled to connect with the talented Kantarama Gahigiri. Kantarama is an award winning feature film maker who recently did this TED Talk about how we need to use the power of stories to inspire action for the futures we want. She very kindly said she’d partly been inspired by what we’ve been doing with SolarPunk Stories. We’re hoping we can work with Kantarama in the future as she totally rocks.
Videogame Punks
One of the biggest videogame events at the end of last year was the release of Cyberpunk 2077.
The game sparked a number of commentaries on cyberpunk itself. We think the best of these is the brilliant long read “Cyberpunk is Dead” by John Semley. Among other things he argues how a genre that once seemed rebellious and futuristic is now denounced as both nostalgic and corporate by its own creators.
In “Why There Should Be More Video Games With Solarpunk Settings”, Coleman Gailloreto argues such games would be both visually fresher and a powerful tool to inspire us to create better worlds.
Gailloreto’s desire may first be fulfilled by Broken Totem Studios who are developing a first person shooter game called Solarpunk. In this thoughtful piece about different types of solarpunk aesthetics; Andrew Dana Hudson makes clear his opinion on the game’s trailer. We think it’s safe to say he’s not a fan!
What do you think? Would you like to see more solarpunk videogames? Do you agree with Andrew Dana Hudson’s analysis about what he feels is wrong with some solarpunk aesthetics? Do you think cyberpunk is now a hopelessly outdated genre or does it still have something to teach us?
Email us with your thoughts either by replying to this email (we get the replies!).
Bites of light
Investing in a just transition is a win-win: Spending money to create a sustainable world is often portrayed as a cost but, as Adair Turner writes in the FT, it’s actually an incredible investment for both a greener and fairer planet.
The feeling’s mutual: On this episode of Team Human, Marina Gorbis argues greater cooperation and mutualism should be at the heart of the better future we build together.
“Hope in Hell”: Jonathan Porritt is one of the world’s most experienced environmental campaigners (as well as a friend and supporter of SolarPunk Stories). This review of his new book says we can still build a sustainable and socially just world, and that there’s no time to waste in doing so.
Manifesto for a future London: Time Out London contributors were recently asked how they would like their city to look in years to come. They paint an exciting picture of a city transformed, more by cultural, economic and political changes than techno-fixes.
The German Government: This German Government ad from the 2080s reminisces on how we beat covid.
Can You Help Make SolarPunk Stories Happen?
As you'll see from this page of the site we're currently entirely volunteer-run and donation-dependent. If you can give time to help build the SolarPunk Storyist movement please get in touch. If you'd rather contribute some money, to help us pay for things like site hosting, please do so on the link here. Another way to help is to follow us on Instagram and to like, share and comment on what we post there.
Signing Out
That’s it for this newsletter. Remember if you think anyone you know might like to also get a pre-release version of The Prodigal forward them this email or this link so they can sign up to our newsletter here .
Hoping you stay well until we’re next in touch.
See you in the sunshine.
Alex Holland
Founder
SolarPunk Stories