Louisiana residents are already living through the consequences of a warming world — with heat emergencies, major floods and record-breaking storms now becoming common occurrences. On Friday (July 5), environmental justice advocates from around the state are joining local musicians to educate people on environmental and climate injustice.

The Hip Hop Caucus and Beyond Petrochemicals, two climate advocacy organizations, will host “NOLA Green: So Fresh, Seaux Clean.” The event will feature artists and activists who are fighting to reduce emissions in Louisiana’s most polluted communities, which are among the country’s most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The group will include New Orleans rapper Big Freedia, who has talked about climate change in her music, and prominent environmental justice leaders Sharon Lavigne and Beverly Wright. 

Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of Beyond Petrochemicals, said the combination of music and organizing draws inspiration from Essence Festival, which also takes place this weekend. 

“It’s more than music; it is music and culture and conversation,” Toney said. Essence Festival brings people from across the country together in New Orleans, allowing them to take some of what they learned back home. 

The Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, said the event is meant to educate people about climate change and environmental justice and inspire them to take action. He wants attendees to leave with a better understanding of the climate crisis, but he also hopes they will take action — by working to prevent expansion of the fossil fuel industry, taking part in creating new clean energy solutions and holding political leaders accountable at their polling booths. 

“You must use your cultural expression to shape your political experience,” Yearwood said. “And so culture is critical in that aspect. If you have a culture that’s not lifting up the issue of the day, you have a culture that’s not worth anything.”

Recent Supreme Court decisions against environmental regulation — like preventing enforcement of the “good neighbor” rule, which aims to reduce smokestack emissions, and the overturning of the Chevron doctrine, which compelled courts to defer to agency experts when considering challenges to federal regulations — have dealt a series of blows to climate activists. Still, Yearwood said the rulings also highlight the need for more protest and court challenges. He said music is helpful in boosting morale. 

“When I get discouraged by those Supreme Court cases … music also lifts the spirits,” Yearwood said. “And it gives hope, and you can listen to certain songs to remind yourself not to give up and to keep on fighting.”

Lou Hill, the founder and leader of Water Seed, a local band slated to perform at the event, said he hopes people leave with a sense of urgency to act. 

“The effects of what we’re doing to the environment, we’re seeing it now,” Hill said. “We have to get very aggressive about this, in our daily habits, and in our policies, and everything else.”

At the event, activists such as Roishetta Ozane — founder and director of Vessel Project of Louisiana, a mutual aid group — will talk about creating equitable clean energy solutions that empower communities by including them in decision-making processes. 

“A lot of times in our community, things are brought to us without us having any sort of input,” Ozane said. “We never were at the table. So we want to educate and empower the community on how they can be a part of those conversations, and bridge those relationships between community members and…agencies within the federal government who are making decisions for the communities without the communities being at the table.”

Ozane and Toney are just two of the Black women climate advocates who will speak at the event. Panelists also include Lavigne, founder of environmental advocacy group RISE St. James, and Wright, founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.

“To see Black women from the South, from Louisiana, really paving the way and being trailblazers,” Ozane said, “and then to get to sit on a panel with some of those women is amazing.”

Most Read Stories

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons License