Even as we speak, a drought has been declared in the state of Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Bihar slowly recovers from a flood. At times like this, the Climate Emergency Mixtape feels like a clarion call. With six artistes from around the country turning their lived experience of climate change into music, the album takes the conversation out of symposiums and into the cypher.

The mixtape is a collaboration between Asar, a climate culture collective, the community platform Youth Ki Awaaz, and rapper-composer Ashwini Hiremath aka Krantinaari that started off in February this year. Brikesh Singh, coordinator, Climate Culture Collective, and chief communications officer, Asar, shares that the idea is to ‘decentralise climate communication through culture.” Asar had previously worked with Meghana T on a stage production about rising temperatures. Hearing about Ashwini Hiremath aka Krantinaari’s cross-country journey at a Mumbai conference pushed Singh to rethink their approach.