Climate Changemakers

On this episode, Damon and Daniel have the honor of talking with two of the leading voices in the fight to save the lives and communities of Centreville, Illinois, a community that has been living in raw sewage for decades. Nicole Nelson is an attorney with Equity Legal Services, where she litigates on behalf of and works with Centreville residents, and Valerie Marion is a lifelong Centreville resident who is one of the founders of Centreville Citizens for Change, a community group that provides bottled water and other resources to their neighbors. The duo talks about how their town was structurally neglected, the physical and emotional toll of the struggle for justice, and what you can do to support.

SHOW NOTES

Donate to the Home Repair Community Fund - https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/centreville-citizens-for-change-home-repair-community-fund

Learn more and dive deeper into the fight - https://floodedandforgotten.com/

Climate Changemakers is back for Season 2! And this year, hosts Damon and Kiss are reaching beyond Illinois and talking with environmental justice movement workers from across the land about what ideas guide their work, which strategies have been effective, and what advice they have for Elevate as the organization works to put people and the planet first in the fight to build equity through climate action.

The season kicks off with Marnese Jackson, an advocate, organizer and mother from Pontiac, Michigan whose work lives at every scale from the personal to the global. She is a member of Michigan's State Climate Solutions Board, on the leadership team of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition, and a facilitator of BIPOC leadership programs in the climate justice movement. She talks about getting white folks to be self-reflective, bringing together multiracial coalition, and much more!

Subscribe to, rate, and review Climate Changemakers on your podcast app: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/climate-changemakers/id1503392646

We're very excited to announce that Climate Changemakers is returning for Season 2, and this year we're going cross-country! To get the podcast juices flowing, we've compiled our Season 1 guests' responses to the question "What should Elevate and its peers be doing differently to move the work forward?," and are sharing their reflections with you today!

Stay tuned for a new episode every month featuring a conversation with an Environmental Justice worker from across the U.S. who is leading the fight against climate change and environmental racism, and make sure to rate and review Climate Changemakers!

On this eighth and final episode of Climate Changemakers, Dame and Daniel are joined by Olga Bautista of the Chicago Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke. In response to decades of pollution and environmental destruction by industry in her home neighborhood on the Southeast side of the city, Olga banded together with other community members to fight for environmental protections from and cleanup of Petcoke, a toxic byproduct of oil refinement that was poisoning the air she and her family were breathing. The coalition successfully fought the Koch brothers, who were forced to dispose of the petcoke in a less destructive manner. She talks about the devastation of industrial pollution, learning to collect the necessary data herself, the unique challenges of having a set at the redevelopment table during a pandemic, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Exit Zero - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24898568-exit-zero

COPD - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/copd/symptoms-causes/syc-20353679

NRDC - https://www.nrdc.org/

Nancy Loeb - https://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/NancyLoeb/

Invest South/West - https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/invest_sw/home.html

Great Cities Institute - https://greatcities.uic.edu

Poor People's Campaign - https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org

On the penultimate episode of Climate Changemakers, Damon and Daniel talk with artist, community builder, and Chicago gem Tonika Lewis Johnson. A lifelong Englewood resident, she helped co-found the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E), whose mission is to “mobilize people and resources to force positive change in Englewood through solution-based approaches." She is also a lead co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective, established in 2017 to help artistically “reframe the narrative” of Englewood. Her Folded Map Project, which brings together "map twins" from opposite sides of the city, has been widely acclaimed as both an artistic project and a flashpoint in the fight against structural racism. She talks about the ways that the project has evolved, what she's learned from it about our collective relationships to land, what she imagines in the demolished spaces across her neighborhood, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Cooked Survival by Zip Code - https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/cooked-survival-by-zip-code/

Open Lands Tree Stewardship project - https://www.openlands.org/trees/

Go Green on Racine - https://gogreenonracine.com/

Folded Map Action Kit - https://www.foldedmapproject.com/submit

Climate Changemakers is back, baby! AirGo returns to partner with Elevate for another three conversations with some of Illinois' most impactful environmental justice and sustainability movement workers, showcasing their work and sharing what lessons they've learned. This episode is with Ramon Etc. aka Radius, the cofounder of the Love Fridge Chicago, a mutual aid network that sets up community-run, free-food fridges across the city of Chicago. He talks about how the network emerged, his relationship with food, and how we can build a more embodied and sustainable relationship to our food system.

SHOW NOTES:

Check out Ramon's music -

SEEN (Etc Records/ARR sound)

https://radiusetc.bandcamp.com/album/seen

Sense x Radius (Etc Records)

https://senseradius.bandcamp.com/album/the-live-archive-2-era-of-the-tec

Partner Organizations -

eric aka manny is on the team and runs flatlands press

https://www.instagram.com/flatlands_press/

lisa armstrong is a head/og designer

https://www.instagram.com/lisastrongarms/

charlotte cohen is main web related designer/etc

https://www.instagram.com/charlottecohen/

Feed The Crib/Del dia chicago

https://www.instagram.com/feedthecrib/

https://www.instagram.com/deldiachicago/

Grocery Run Club

https://www.instagram.com/groceryrunclub/

grow greater englewood

https://www.instagram.com/growgreaterenglewood/

bronzville kenwood mutual aid

https://www.instagram.com/bk_mutualaid/

stephanie dunn/starfarm

https://www.instagram.com/stephaniedunn8318/

Gotham Greens

https://www.instagram.com/gothamgreens/

Urban Growers Collective

https://www.instagram.com/urbangrowerscollective/

Thankful For Chicago

https://www.instagram.com/thankfulforchicago/

Chef Chanell

https://www.instagram.com/chefchanell/

Back to school boxes

https://www.instagram.com/backtoschoolboxes/

Bobcat eats

https://www.instagram.com/bobcateatsfoodwasteprogram/

kitchfix

https://www.instagram.com/kitchfix/

Moms Chicago

https://www.instagram.com/momschicago/

On this final episode of Climate Changemakers, Damon and Daniel are joined by Lissette Castañeda. A lifelong Logan Square resident, Lissette is the Interim Executive Director of LUCHA, an organization working to advance housing as a human right by empowering communities– particularly the Latino and Spanish-speaking populations–through advocacy, affordable housing development, and community building. She talks about the ways in which her work is connected to the Puerto Rican diaspora, how COVID is impacting the fight for housing as a human right, and much more.

Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy. This month's Climate Changemaker is Patricia Abrams. Pat is the Executive Director of the Renaissance Collaborative, a social impact organization that has provided affordable housing, workforce development, employment, and educational services and solutions to over 1,000 individuals annually in Bronzeville and its adjacent communities for the past 27 years. She talks about how environmental sustainability became an important piece of her work, the transformation of the historic Wabash YMCA that houses the organization's office and housing, and how we can move forward in a more human direction.

Learn more about the organization: https://www.trcwabash.org/about-us.html

Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: www.elevateenergy.org/

Learn more about podcast hosts Damon and Daniel: http://airgoradio.com

Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy. This month's Climate Changemaker is Anton Seals, Jr. Anton is the Lead Steward of Grow Greater Englewood, a social enterprise focusing on building a equitable and resilient local food system that fosters protections of vacant land in divested communities and focuses on connecting those residents with community wealth building opportunities. In this wide-ranging conversation, Anton talks about the connections and unique challenges of reshaping Black Chicagoans' relationship to food, as well as how the structures and pathologies of power limit this transformative work.

Learn more about Grow Greater Englewood: http://growgreater.org

Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: www.elevateenergy.org/

Learn more about podcast hosts Damon and Daniel: airgoradio.com

Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy. This month's Climate Changemaker is Juliana Pino, the Policy Director at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO). At LVEJO, Juliana analyzes, researches, and advocates for environmental justice, climate justice, and economic justice in local, state, and federal environmental policy. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Environmental Council, a statewide organization that promotes sound environmental policy and protections for land, air, water, wildlife, and human health.

Check out LVEJO: http://www.lvejo.org/

Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: https://www.elevateenergy.org/

Learn more about podcast hosts Damon and Daniel: http://airgoradio.com