Art has always had the power to spark change and we at MMM believe in its power to influence and inspire people. So at Spoken ‘22, Asia’s largest spoken word festival, we decided to tap straight into the city’s creative pulse and engage folks through an interactive installation and our first post-pandemic on-ground workshop.
The last two and a half years have been positively inspiring, with MMM bringing together young professionals, urban designers, social impact professionals, artists, stand-up comedians, journalists, issue experts and civil society organisations across the city. We wanted to make the most of this two-day event and leave Mumbaikars with a takeaway that impacts their everyday life. We believe the best way to spark change is through collective awareness and effort. With this in mind, our Relive and Reimagine installation was the centrepiece of our on-ground presence, where the attendees of the event and MMM members came together to exchange their ideas and vision on making the city liveable and sustainable.
Keeping the collaborative spirit at the heart of our endeavour, we put together our wall of badges. With the concept of ‘Take One, Add One’ we invited Mumbaikars to pick a badge that kindled their favourite Mumbai Memory around climate issues—such as biodiversity, sustainable mobility and the role of traditional fishing communities in preserving Mumbai’s coastal ecosystem—and asked them to share it with us. The response we received was overwhelming and heartwarming with 650+ distinct memories shared.
Our interactive playshop ‘Are You The Right Match for Mumbai?’ was a fun exercise in getting to know Mumbai better. Designed to engage players in discovering Mumbai through its rich biodiversity, coastal ecosystem, green spaces and public mobility, we were successful in bringing new facts and facets of Mumbai’s magic to light.
On day two of Spoken ‘22, we held our first offline meetup - Dreams of a Magical Mumbai, where we engaged participants in sharing visions for a sustainable and livable Mumbai. Members shared these ideas in creative ways through illustrations, news articles, comic strips and other interpretations.
Fellow Wizard and climate change warrior Prachi Shevgaonkar added to this discussion with her inspiring words on creating the app Cool The World. She shared her personal journey on understanding the climate crisis by looking at its effects in her daily life. This led to her creating the app, which now has users across 110 countries and has clocked in 2.5 Million kgs of avoided greenhouse gas emissions through easily executable actions taken by citizens like composting, recycling or reusing everyday objects and clothes.
More green spaces, and better waste management and sustainable mobility topped the list of continue to be top climate solutions issues on the minds of young Mumbaikars for a sustainable, livable and magical Mumbai.
Apart from collective action by all climate stakeholders, young Mumbaikars see Mumbai’s citizens themselves playing a crucial role in making our city climate resilient and a solid 75% feel that they themselves can play an important role in improving the city’s climate.
74% feel for the protection of the city’s coastal ecosystem and 64% believe Mumbai’s biodiversity plays an important role in reducing the impact of climate change.
There was a mixed response on the decision makers contribution to protect the city’s biodiversity.
Share your views, by taking the survey below