#OurStoriesInVividColor

parents

parents most of us have them some fight some don’t some you think are perfect but i’m here to tell you that not everyone is perfect i have 2 moms and 2 dads my birth mom and her boy friend they just fight so much and my birth dad and his wife i just love them but some times they fight. I just got back from bob’s but what Sam said at bobs (Sam is my birth moms boyfriend) just broke my heart he is the only one who is casing pain in my life i just wish that Sam was so much nicer about some things but you cant get what you always wish so i’m just saying just be happy with what you got and try your best even if you don’t want to or like to but don’t hide yourself

I was born with an illness, but that illness hasn’t stopped me from doing what I love most. Writing is truly my passion, it is my life. And I am following my dream of becoming a published writer no matter how many problems along the way. A problem isn’t a problem until you choose to see it that way. It is a challenge, and challenge we must overcome to be able to reach success.

Standing Up in The Rise of Asian Hate

Running for office at 18 was one of the most significant experiences that has shaped me who I am today. In the second grade, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and have had much trouble with body image throughout my life. And growing up, I was often bullied, I was the student that ate lunch in the bathroom. I spent all four years of high school going through mental health therapy and counseling, so that I could “get fixed”. I was broken and traumatized, but I am thankful for the political community in Colorado giving me a space to grow. I was always apologetic, but as I started to gain much support from youth activists and was making big career moves in the world of law & policy, I soon grew out of that nature.

I am who I am today, more confident, unapologetic, conquering the world, because I was able to defy the odds. No matter a win or loss, I was the first Indian American woman who stood up in front of White Conservative Christians during the Rise of Asian Hate.

Creativity Prevails

I have been an artistic person most of my life – from performing arts and bullet journaling to graphic design and illustration; I always find myself engaging in creative projects that fuel me. Yet, growing up in an Asian family, I was never encouraged a creative career. My parents are business owners, and my uncle works in tech – so, the idea of becoming an artist never once crossed my mind. It wasn’t until I moved away from home and exposed myself to a new environment that I started to consider the possibility and allowed myself to explore my skillsets.

I started at Austin College as a Psychology-major. However, after two and a half years, I realized that Psychology was not something I want to pursue in the next ten years, even though the human mind and behaviors have always been fascinating to me. It was not enough. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic occurred and that was when I began to take my creative career seriously and completely fell in love with the idea of being an artist/designer.

One good thing about quarantining was the free time at hand that allowed me to work on more art projects. I started posting one illustration a day, every day, at the beginning of 2020 on my Instagram page @PB.Journal. Fast forward a year later, I am now a freelance illustrator, small-business owner, and creative intern, working remotely at a creative agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Running for office at 18 was one of the most significant experiences that has shaped me who I am today…growing up, I was often bullied… but I am thankful for the political community in Colorado giving me a space to grow. I am who I am today, more confident, unapologetic, conquering the world, because I was able to defy the odds. No matter a win or loss, I was the first Indian American woman who stood up in front of White Conservative Christians during the Rise of Asian Hate. 

Afro Indigenous

In the early stages of my life, I’ve identified as half Navajo & half Black. My growth as a woman, has come to the realization that the word HALF only seperates my two cultures. When in reality, I am complete…I am WHOLE because of both my Diné (Navajo) and African ancestors. I come from people who love the land; and everything that grows from it. My people have a beautiful connection to nature, to animals, and to each other. My people feed each other. I come from people of ancient talents who share their knowledge and craft. I come from people who love, who pray, who sing songs of medicine and happiness. I come from people who dance to heal. I come from people who have risen above oppression who continue to fight for our rights. My People are resilient. My people gather; we gather in celebration and in times of need. My people are here. I am not half of either of my cultures; nor am I more of the other. From my skin, my high cheekbones, my thick hair, my brown eyes, my spirit, my language, and from the art that my heart creates, I am a perfect combination of both. *Shimá (my mom) gifted me this squashblossom💕. The skirt and earrings I’m wearing are treasures I brought back from my trip to Lusaka, Zambia.💕 This combination is a beautiful blend that represents my Afro Indigeneity.

Allies Promise

Allies Promise by Caela Collins 

I may not say all the right things.

I won’t always be the first to know or understand. 

I will never feel the true weight of your burdens or carry your individualistic fears. 

But I will not abide by any pride that human nature has allowed to reside within me. 

I won’t use loving words of any faith and disfigure it with incorrect citations of hate. 

I will hear what you say when you speak because listening isn’t quite the same sentiment.

My heart will grab a hold of you as my eternal sibling.

There will always be a teachable moment for me but my intentions shall remain pure.

When you defy the current format of “equality,” I will always be by your side. 

I will challenge any bias that surfaces on the journey of my own evolution. 

I will educate those who need it the most even if we’re bound by blood. 

I will honor you because you breathe the same air as me. 

I will respect you because you put one foot in-front of the other like me. 

I love you simply because you’re human.

I Promise.

I have given much more time to myself, in a way I never have before. It’s been liberating, in many ways, to not have to feel overwhelmed by the obligation of caring for others, and rather, feeling compelled and thus choosing, with intention, to care for others. I’ve given more of myself and my energy to care to my workplace, as we’ve been forced to self-isolate, and I am aware that it will be a process to disentangle myself from this disposition as we begin to come together again in person.

Self-Care Advice from a Case Manager

Take care of yourselves! Self care has become kind of a cliche term, but it is so vital in this field. In my role, I work directly with people experiencing homelessness. They often have traumatic backgrounds and few people that they trust. Once they build trust with me, they share all of that trauma with me. I feel thankful that I can be that person for someone, but I also get emotionally drained. I have to keep reminding myself it’s alright to take days off, it’s alright if I need to take a few minutes to myself after a tough conversation.

My Experience: Injustices in Different Communities

Transforming the World

A future of urban breathing spaces that revitalizes everyone. Safe from polluted waters, toxic air, and bad infrastructure that harms marginalized communities. I would love to see a world that is inspired by nature and instead creates in rhythm with it. My experience with environmental injustice has evolved in a form of being able to disrupt these types of racist and polarizing policies that were created by design to oppress and capitalize off communities of color. Through social innovation, human-centered design, and creative problem solving I believe that the power of community can impact how we envision #DreamGreen and transform the world we would love to live in.

My #DreamGreen Activism

My name is Storm Lewis, and I am a food justice and climate equity activist based in New York City. I am also the co-founder of Who’s Hungry, a food justice-based mutual aid initiative in Brooklyn. As a Black woman living in the city, I have seen firsthand the effects of food insecurity on low-income communities. I have also conducted community-based research, which documents the principles of food sovereignty present and absent from these food systems. I believe that access to sustainable, culturally appropriate food is a human right. Therefore, we must protect the land and farmers cultivating our food systems. I envision a future in which urban food systems can foster community ownership and connections between marginalized groups and local farmers. It is thus imperative that the 30×30 initiative receive the support needed to uplift farmers and urban consumers.

#DreamGreen

Our collective future hangs in the balance. We can either design societies that respect nature, or we can continue with the destructive business as usual. I, for one, prefer a world with clean air, clean water, and nutritious, local food. I want everyone to have access to nature’s bounty. And I mean everyone. I #DreamGreen because I want my people, Latinos in the U.S., to not have to risk their lives by working with harsh chemicals to grow the nation’s food. I want them to be able to support their families rather than be oppressed by multi-million-dollar corporations. I want an environmentally just future because I am tired of People of Color not having human dignity. To #DreamGreen is to believe in a place that cares for all people, all animals, and the planet. All equally.

Eliminate Toxic Spaces

My dream for climate justice is to eliminate toxic, and oppressive systems that threaten our communities.

Connection to Earth

I wanted my piece to show the magnitude of the issue. It is not one place or people being affected by this climate crisis. This is a world issue that is often hardest on poorer or black, indigenous, and brown communities. I love goddesses and their stories of divinity, so Gaia, mother of Earth was who I thought of instantly. But much like when we were children our parents can only help us so much, there is a time when we have to learn to do things on our own and succeed or fail, it’s on us. I’ve been thinking more about ancestral responsibility and knowledge and there is something to this ancestral knowledge that lives in the Earth. There have always been sustainable ways of existing, but we haven’t always valued that knowledge. A symbol of divinity felt like it spoke to the ancestral part of that knowledge, a symbol of ancestry and our responsibility to this planet that has allowed us to be here for so long. 

I want people to see this piece and know that we have so much work to do, but our planet is rooting for us. Earth is doing everything it can for us and we should match that same dedication. We can all do something, and that something depends on our strengths and our means, but this climate crisis is about whether life on Earth will include humans. This is a human issue. If we’re thinking of the environment separately from human issues like racism, capitalism, classism, etc. then I don’t think we’re doing it right. Much like the goddess, I think the issues we face collectively as humans are woven together and not separate from each other. If we care about the environment we should care also about access to food, community resources, education, funding, etc. The access to these resources are not the same for each community, working to make resources more available to whoever needs those resources is part of environmental justice, it has to be. 

Through this process I had such a hard time letting go of this idea that my art piece had to be perfect, without flaws; but the flaws are part of what makes my style unique. It’s part of what makes my style mine. I could work on any piece forever and it would never be perfect, but perfection is not what I want to strive for. I want people to feel something when they see my art or understand that I had something to say and perfection won’t help me with those things. 

My #DreamGreen

My dream environmentally just future includes equitable distribution of limited natural resources & aid for climate change-caused natural disasters for everyone. Black & people of color communities are the first to suffer from these problems. While we are the first communities to be considered to have dangerous & cheaper solutions run through our community causing human health implications. Such as having a non-EPA-approved pesticide often used to disinfect pools clean your tap water. This is currently taking place in the 88.4% Black community of Denmark, South Carolina. I have been actively working with Denmark Citizens for Safe Water (DCSW) to produce short-term & long-term solutions for this environmental justice issue. Currently, I am using my magazine Disturbance, A publication dedicated to exploring the power of art to break down & disturb institutional systems within society, to disturb the assumed peace that Denmark has access to clean water. When in fact they have been deprived of this natural resource for 10 years! I am curating a Disturbance x DCSW art auction & artists talk for Juneteenth Weekend 2021. Because to #DreamGreen means to be inclusive within your approach to environmental justice.

As Earth Pirouettes...

by Kai Adia

Can Earth have more than a day?

I want Earth year, every year,
because what other place in space gives us years?
We get years to sow, water, and grow
into the beings we are meant to be—here.
Somehow we forget this.

I think the systems put around us
have something to do with it. These fabricated pillars
are isms erected by echoing voices. They coo us to sleep
as false giants pump, frack, and spew waste with no regard.

I dream of a future filled with high regard
for Human life and the World’s liberties.
This dream of compassion will kickstart
when we hold sincere regard
for our space in line
our point in time
as one of the generations
overlapping this world.

This world gives water, clear sky, sound seasons, and fruitful soil
with no need of a thank you.

It’s time to say thank you and halt
the disruption of Her liberties.
The pillars will start to crumble.

I know the astroboys are scouring the sky,
glossing over the redlines and columns meant to separate.
They’re looking to see where other roots can lie,
but that’s not a full vision. Will it ever really be?

There’s no place in our local system more fitting of us than this terrarium.
This world holds us as it pirouettes in glittering darkness.

Mother Earth, I want your stress and stressors to be a distant dark memory.
I dream that you and the generations upon your back are beautiful and boundless.

In the years we celebrate you
for giving us everything,
we will have cultivated gratitude.
A deep wellspring of it
along with thick skin upon our hands
ready to turn
pillars into rubble.

An environmentally just future is one where everyone has access to what they need. Clean water, decent housing, access to healthy food have to be priorities for environmentalism. The only way to have an environmentally just future is to work in tandem with the planet.

#DreamGreen: Navajo Nation's Water Quality

In the Navajo Nation, about 15% of homes are not connected to regulated water systems. Unregulated wells typically have more contamination issues than regulated wells. Abandoned mines left behind environmental issues such as elevated levels of uranium and arsenic in water. Many Navajo people living in the Navajo Nation have a higher risk of kidney and lung cancer from exposure to Arsenic and Uranium in the drinking water. My research is focused on whether the bedrock chemistry of the Navajo Nation affects water quality. We wanted to see if there were high values of Arsenic in the bedrock that could leach into surrounding water aquifers. We found higher values of Arsenic in the clay bedrock, which is encouraging because water is less likely to flow through clay than sand. There is a social injustice and colonization that minorities and indigenous communities have historically experienced and continue to experience today. Indigenous people are the last people on this planet that are still connected to the operating system of Mother Earth. It would be very wise to stop and listen to us because although less than 5% of the population of this planet is of indigenous origin. We hold stewardship of over 50 percent of the planet’s natural resources. Social justice, indigenous rights, human rights, are also the intersection between environmental issues and women’s rights. Therefore women are the most affected people when it comes to biodiversity laws. Indigenous people’s women and environmental issues all intersect. Indigenous women rising to the position of leadership in their community to fight for social injustice, human rights, indigenous rights, and environmental justice.

For People and Planet

I work for a small environmental nonprofit that spreads awareness for ecosystem restoration. Restoring ecosystems means helping nature revive. It also means recognizing the role each living thing has in the circle of life. Of course, Indigenous Peoples have known this for centuries.

I advocate for a healthy environment for the sake of public health, as well. Marginalized communities are more likely to live near toxic industrial factories, less likely to live in areas with urban green spaces, and more likely to become sick due to pollution. To address these inequalities, I participate in campaigns that push for environmentally just policies.

The only reason I have the time and resources to get involved in different initiatives is my family. My parents immigrated from Bogotá, Colombia. Ever since they arrived in the United States, they have worked hard to build a small family business. Thanks to them, I earned a Master of Science in Animals and Public Policy- the first graduate degree in our family. Everything I have done has been with my family and motherland in mind. Without the beauty of my culture, I would not be the person I am today.

Tearing Down Environmental Racism and Building Environmental Justice

My name is Diamond Spratling and I am the founder of Millennials 4 Environmental Justice(M4EJ) which is a small nonprofit organization working to inform, advocate for, and engage with Black and Brown millennials across the U.S. to fight for environmental justice in their own neighborhoods. As a Black millennial myself, I am especially passionate about intersecting health equity and racial and social justice to the environment.

Since first starting M4EJ in 2019, I’ve built a small board of directors completely ran by passionate millennials. We’ve been very successful in our advocacy efforts through hosting webinars on various topics such as gentrification, housing disparities, and environmental health. In addition, we launched our This Is Gentrification campaign, a digital magazine featuring interviews, news articles, videos, quizzes, and research around gentrification vulnerability. One of our most recent efforts is starting our Green Table Talk where we invite young people of color to be guests on our live YouTube channel where they can talk about their awesome efforts around environmental justice and have informal conversations about today’s pressing issues.

I’m excited to continue doing this amazing work and I’m hoping that M4EJ can continue to have a great impact on communities of color.

Iris

An environmentally just future looks like a climate stable world that is prospering, where all the just and sustainable solutions we want to see possible are our reality. The most frontline, marginalized, oppressed people and ecosystems are thriving. Humanity cares for each other and our environment. Intersectionality is prioritized.