International Courant
Actress Antonique Smith and activist Rev Yearwood have teamed as much as launch Local weather Revival, a brand new nonprofit utilizing the facility of music and movie star to mobilize religion communities and other people of colour to get out the local weather vote, each within the 2024 election and past.
The duo will host a particular occasion “Local weather Revival: Reside” in Washington, DC, on Friday to kick off the initiative, that includes appearances from Leslie Odom Jr., filmmaker Maya Penn and Rep. Justin J. Pearson.
Smith — who has appeared in Lease on Broadway in addition to onscreen in Luke Cake and 2009’s Infamous — will function CEO of Local weather Revival, and has been part of the local weather motion for the final decade after seeing how her neighborhood was being affected. She factors to a latest Yale research that discovered 68 % of Black People dwell inside 30 miles of a coal-fired energy plant that causes bronchial asthma and most cancers, however solely 12 % of Black People have ever heard of local weather justice.
“This fall is probably the most important probability in historical past for us to make progress. All around the nation, there are local weather champions and local weather laws up and down the poll that may assist rebuild our methods and put them to work for the folks and our planet,” she mentioned in an announcement. “We obtained to get on the market and use our religion, our music and our pleasure to deliver folks collectively and vote on local weather. It is not sufficient to outlive, we should thrive.”
Yearwood is the co-founder of Local weather Revival and is named the president & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus. He was the topic of Hip Hop Rev, a documentary on Discovery following his longtime work as a social and local weather justice advocate.
“We’re within the midst of a local weather disaster and what we want is a local weather revival. We should transition from fossil fuels to scrub vitality, and we should use our religion, our love, our tradition and our humanity to make this modification,” he mentioned of the present second. “Our surroundings can’t be a partisan or political concern. We’re God’s kids, and we should do every part we are able to to make our planet livable for future generations.”
Yearwood added of the plan behind their initiative, “Knowledge, research and data doesn’t deliver folks collectively or create shared bonds; it would not get folks off the sofa and into the voting sales space. I have been working in local weather for years, and it is all the time the collaborations with celebrities and musicians that attain the most individuals, create the richest experiences and encourage probably the most motion.”
Antonique Smith, Rev Yearwood Launches Nonprofit For Black Local weather Vote
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