Climate Zine Storytelling
Climate Zine Storytelling Workshop
What Is This Workshop?
Houston summers hit different. Share your heat experiences with neighbors, learn about heat data, and create zine art from your story. We're storytelling with climate, data, and art.
Your neighborhood might be 10 degrees hotter than other parts of the city. Your electric bill might make you choose between staying cool and buying food. You might worry about family getting sick from the heat. Your experience matters. Your story can help change things.
What We'll Do Together (1:00-4:00 PM)
Hour 1: Getting to Know Each Other
Listen to neighbors' stories
Zine Fest & Orange Show & Art for Climate Resilience Panel
Hour 2: Make Your Art
Learn about Climate Emotions & Urban Heat Islands, including a presentation by HARC's Stephanie Piper, PhD, Research Associate in Community Development and Resilience sharing findings from HARC’s H3AT Mapping Campaign.
Create your one-page booklet (called a zine) about heat and cooling
Use any style - drawing, writing, collage, whatever works for you
All supplies provided
No art experience needed
Hour 3: Community Share
Share your zine & heat experiences in a safe space
Talk about what we learned from each other
What You Get
✅ All art supplies
✅ Your personal art piece to take home
✅ Community zine with everyone's stories
✅ Resource guide for heat safety and help with bills
✅ New connections with neighbors who care about the same things
Who Should Come?
Ages 14 and up welcome!
Perfect if you:
Live in Houston and deal with hot summers
Want to connect with neighbors about climate worries
Have ideas about staying cool that others should hear
Are curious about making art with your community
Want your experience to matter for city decisions
Families with teens encouraged to come together!
Safe Space Cultivated
We know talking about heat, health, and money can bring up hard feelings.
Our intentions:
Trained facilitator who understands community trauma
Share only what feels safe to you
Respect everyone's comfort level
Research Part (Optional)
This workshop is also a research study. That means:
If you want: You can fill out forms before and after to help us prove community art workshops work.
If you don't want: You can still do the workshop and skip the research part.
Your choice. Participation in research is completely optional.
Event Details
When: Saturday, September 27
Time: 1:00-4:00 PM
Where: The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art
2334 Gulf Terminal Drive, Houston TX 77023
Cost: Sliding Scale
Limit: 50 people so everyone gets attention
Who's Making This Happen
Workshop Leader: Ryn Delpapa - Artist, Founder, and Public Health worker who specializes in art for healing and climate storytelling
Community Partners:
The Orange Show Center - Amazing art space hosting us
Zine Fest Houston - Experts in community book-making
Houston Energy and Climate Week - Connecting community voice to climate action
H3AT Mapping Campaign - Heat data that proves what you already know
Funding Partners: This workshop is offered with a sliding scale to support access to this knowledge. The overall program, Art for Climate Resilience, is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
Important Things to Know
The Real Talk
We'll talk about how heat affects different neighborhoods unfairly
We'll discuss both personal experiences and bigger system problems
This is a brave space where we can say difficult truths
You only share what you want to share
We'll give you resources for ongoing support
If You Need Help Now
This workshop focuses on community building. If you're having a mental health emergency, please contact:
NAMI Greater Houston: (713) 970-4483
Or go to your nearest emergency room
Register Now
Limited to 50 people - register today to save your spot!
When you register, we'll share your contact info with our community partners (Orange Show, Zine Fest Houston, Houston Energy Week) so they can keep you updated on similar events. We won't share anything else about you.
Need help with accessibility? Tell us when you register and we'll make sure you can participate fully.