A marine biologist wants us to find joy in troubling times.

Pam Marino here. In the past year, I have heard a number of people talk about the importance of finding joy amidst despairing news. It’s a sort of rallying cry, to not succumb to the despair and fall into complacency and inaction. 

An event tonight, April 18, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is all about finding joy in music, dance and community and it’s all in the name of the serious issue of protecting the planet and ourselves from climate change. It’s the Climate Dance Party, and it’s part of a series of such parties by marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who was interviewed by my colleague Katie Rodriguez for this week’s Face to Face feature in the Weekly.

Johnson, author of What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, tells people to take climate change seriously, “but don’t take yourself seriously,” she told Rodriguez.

That mantra has blossomed into this party series by Johnson, who said that she sensed people didn’t want to attend yet another panel discussion on climate change.

“Not to say there’s not absolute value in having those deep conversations among experts, but it just felt like everyone needs to connect with each other, be in community, get reinvigorated for the huge amount of work we have ahead of us. We all just need to boogie,” she said.

She hopes that by bringing like-minded people together for a party, they’ll connect and find collaborators for local action.

If you’re interested in attending you have to act fast—tickets are only on sale online only through this morning and space is limited. Admission is $150, or $135 for members. Proceeds go toward the Aquarium’s ocean conservation programs.

And if you can’t make tonight’s party (and even if you can), let me recommend an upcoming performance at 7pm Wednesday, April 22, at Pop & Hiss in Pacific Grove. For all of $5 you can watch The Lonely Parrots perform. The duo of Michael Martinez and Max Embers from San Francisco sing hopeful, optimistic songs in beautiful harmony.

I wrote about both the Climate Dance Party and The Lonely Parrots for this week’s Hot Picks, and as I was researching the Parrots I discovered that one of their favorite recent books is none other than What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures by Johnson. 

Finding joy is in the air. Let’s hope it catches on and spurs us all to take serious, yet joyful, action.