Guest

I'm the executive director of UPROSE. UPROSE is the oldest Latino community-based organization in Brooklyn. It was founded in 1966. We work at the intersection of racial justice and climate change and we are a black indigenous women of color intergenerational matriarchal leaderful organization, and I sort of fell into this work. I'm a civil rights lawyer. I was doing organizing against police misconduct, and I came to this organization when it was about to fold. And people came in and said that they were about to expand the Gowans Expressway and that they couldn't breathe. And you can't fight for justice if you don't fight for the right to breathe. And so the climate movement likes talking about how we move a little slower, but we integrate. We tell our community climate change is going to exacerbate all of the isms, all of the inequities because it's cleaner. It's easier to talk about infrastructure to talk about policy without talking about the challenges that our communities face every single day of their lives. And the fact that those challenges come out of these things that created the climate crisis, and so I work nonstop. Because for me, it's not a job, it's a life. I'm fighting for the seventh generation, yet I'm born. And I fight, and I challenge, and I take risks because I have big ovaries, right? And I go into places and I say the things they don't wanna hear because literally what's at stake is survival. I'm not a founder of the movement. I'm not one of the elders in the movement. I just came to it because the community said this is what we need. 

If you're wanting to get into the climate justice and sustainability movement, I recommend starting by reading the Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing. Do research on the work that is being done by organizations in this field across the country. Refrain from wanting to create a new organization. Instead, find out what people are already doing in the community and see how you can add value and complement the work that is already being done.

Elizabeth Yeampierre

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Yeampierre

About Elizabeth

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