Phoebe Shea Pérez

I’m Phoebe Shea Perez and I’m class of 2023. I currently am changing my major every week, but I’m passionate about (evolutionary) economics, indigenous histories and futurisms, and poetry. I’m still very much confused about what the future holds, but I know that wherever the wind takes me, my life and work will be grounded in an awareness of, and relationship with, the natural world in which I participate. A time-honored effort of mine has been learning K’iche’ - my mother’s Maya language; currently that’s taking the form of writing poetry about water, trees, birds, and movement. One of my favorite words is no’j, which means knowledge, and I often write b’ixal no’j - songs to knowledge. I believe in the wisdom of the natural world and this semester I’m excited about centering specificity in my relationship with nature - to find the sacred in learning names, to differentiate the similar-looking species, and to honor the diversity in existence I’ve often reduced to generalities in the past.