Join us as we host a panel dialogue on the current state of environmental activism. This event will feature artists, scholars, and organizers who are leading the fight against environmental racism and exploring new ways of fostering care and environmental justice.
Panelists
Elizabeth Yeampierre is an internationally recognized Puerto Rican environmental/climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry, born and raised in New York City. Elizabeth is co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, a national frontline led organization and Executive Director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization. Elizabeth was the first Latina Chair of the USEPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and opening speaker for the first White House Council on Environmental Quality Forum on Environmental Justice under Obama. Elizabeth has been featured in the NY Times as a visionary paving the path to Climate Justice. She was named by Apolitical as Climate 100: The World’s Most Influential People in Climate Policy and a recipient of the Frederick Douglass Abolitionist Award FD200. Recently, she has spoken at Oxford University, the Ethos Conference in Brazil and the Hague.
Sheryll Durrant is an urban farmer, educator, and food justice advocate. She has been the Resident Garden Manager at Kelly Street Garden since 2016, and is also the Food and Nutrition Coordinator for New Roots Community Farm, managed by International Rescue Committee (IRC). Her work has included developing community-based urban agriculture projects, providing expertise and technical assistance for gardens within supportive housing developments, and she currently serves as Board President for Just Food. Sheryll has led workshops and spoken on issues related to urban agriculture for many key organizations, and was part of the 2019-2020 HEAL School of Political Leadership. As a former Design Trust fellow for the Farming Concrete project, she is now responsible for communications and outreach for the data collection platform that helps urban farmers and gardeners measure their impact. Previously, Sheryll spent over 20 years in corporate and institutional marketing.
Alicia Grullón uses performance and self-portrait (re)composing popular histories as a critique on the politics of presence- an argument for the inclusion of marginalized communities in political and social spheres. Grullón has participated in exhibitions including The 8th Floor; Bronx Museum of the Arts; BRIC House for Arts and Media; El Museo del Barrio; and Columbia University. She has received grants from the Puffin Foundation; Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York; and Franklin Furnace Archives. Grullón has participated in residencies at the Hemispheric Institute for Politics and Performance at New York University; Center for Book Arts; and Bronx Museum of Arts AIM program. Her work has been reviewed in Hyperallergic, ArtNet News, New York Times and Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. Grullón is a recipient of the 2019 Colene Brown Art Prize and 2020-2022 Walentas fellowship at Moore College of Art and Design. Grullon is an adjunct at Queens College and the School of Visual Arts.
Yajaira Saavedra is an indigenous activist and organizer fighting for the rights of undocumented immigrants and marginalized communities in the United States. Originally from San Miguel Ahuehuetitlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, Yajaira has been living in the United States with her family for more than 20 years. As a DACA recipient, she has been involved in the undocumented youth movement along with her brother, Marco, focusing on the need for comprehensive migration policy changes and prison abolition. Together with her family, she runs La Morada restaurant in The Bronx. More than a restaurant, La Morada is a space of resistance, a sanctuary, a space of accompaniment and mutual aid. During the pandemic, Yajaira led the efforts to make this one of the first sites to respond to food scarcity in New York City. Through all her tireless work, Yajaira underscores the ways in which migration is itself a form of resistance, and centers the maintenance of cultural traditions and language as a form of activism.
Sofía Shaula Reeser-del Rio is a Puerto Rican scholar, independent curator, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. With an MFA from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, and a BFA from Pratt Institute, she has organized and produced several major exhibitions with a special focus on Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean artists, particularly supporting LGBTQ and self-identified female artists from PR. As part of her curatorial tenure (2012-2017) at El Museo del Barrio in NY, she coordinated and organized over thirty exhibitions and numerous public programs, artists’ projects, site-specific installations, and off-site special projects. Reeser-del Rio also oversaw the development, and management of the Artists in Residency, Lucky Sevens Art Salon, and the Portfolio Reviews, programs that reimagined contemporary artists’ roles and their relationships with the Museum. She has organized exhibitions at Museo Memoria y Tolerancia (Mexico), Casa de Africa (Cuba), Bronx Art Space, and the Julia de Burgos Art Center (NY). She is a founding member of the community-based organization Mujeres de Islas, Inc, a Culebra, PR's NGO. Her practice is based between Puerto Rico, Madrid, and NYC. Currently, she’s the Assistant Curator of Public Programs at Americas Society, NY, and the Senior Programs Manager at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, NY.
Event Recap
Watch the full recording below!
Thumbnail: Maria Gaspar “City as Cite”