Green Equity
Magazine
May 2024
ISSUE NUMBER 1
Being Brown On The Mississippi
Intro to Airborne -isms
$2USD
Environmental Justice: A Soulful Pursuit
Global Impact On Black
Table of Contents
02
Letter from the Editor
03
Being Brown On The Mississippi
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Intro to Airborn -isms: from Glory to Lowry
07
How L.L.C.O.O.L.J. Divines Solutions
11
G.E.M. Resource Hub
08
Environmental Justice: A Soulful Pursuit
1
13
It’s In The Air
On Paper
Magazine
1229 NE 2nd St MPLS MN 55413
llcooljmn@gmail.com
LLCOOLJ
www.llcooljorg.com
Editor-in-Chief
Angela McDowell
Art Direction
Elisheba Israel-Mrozik
Photographers
Terance Penister
Content Director
Angela McDowell
Managing Editor
Analyah Schlaeger Dos Santos
Contributors
Angela McDowell, Analyah Schlaeger Dos Santos, Annabelle Watts, and Nicole Stanoch. All photos of Devin Brown are courtesy of Devin Brown.
Meet The Artivist
Angela McDowell
Executive Director of Let’s Learn Collective On Our Life’s Journey (LLCOOLJORG.COM) and Editor of Green Equity Magazine
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From the
Editor
What is Environemental Justice and why do we use this term? Where is the justice? Is it not the Pursuit of Environmental Justice?
It isn’t called Police Justice. We are very clear on the fact that there is no justice or peace and Police brutality has to stop! So why do we play this game when it comes to the literal air we breathe? If you ever investigate this field of inequity known as Environmental Justice, you will be hard-press to find any... justice that is. Is it aspirational? Why not just call a spade a spade. It is the pursuit of Environmental Justice.
We strive and seek justice on behalf of the Environment that serves and protects us. To not do so is to live out a disdain for life itself which is a whole other thing. In this magazine, we will investigate the pursuit of Enviromental Justice as it relates to communities most effected by the lack of environmental justice...us.
Angela McDowell
Editor-in-Chief
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Ever wonder what you’re made of? Ever go on a journey to find yourself or find yourself on a journey? In Mississippi Solo, author Eddy Harris writes, “I never minded looking stupid and I have no fear of failure. I decided to canoe down the Mississippi River and to find out what I was made of.” Sure! There are other ways to see what one is made of. You could just cut yourself open but then you would be cut open. You could document the ingredients of everything you eat for a year and get a pretty good idea. What is one made of? One could spend an entire life answering the question over and over again in a new way as life presents new challenges in addition to the ones we gift ourselves.
In Minneapolis, stretching while black, despite the airborne racism of toxic chemicals and even the rampant gun violence, does not exempt us from the human responsibility of finding and aligning our beings with purpose. Even as we tough our way through tumultous geopolitical landscapes like north Minneapolis, we are not tragically colored. To hear Devin Brown tell it, gatekeepers are keeping us from taking a critical stake in America. The outdoors have been coopted and siphoned off with disadvantaged communities being left to rot in a swirl of bacteria-ridden recycled indoor air. Fortunately for us all, Devin Brown’s pursuit of happiness includes cultivating a renewed committment to Mother Earth and embracing nature as modern day Moorish Minneapolitans or “water keepers” as she puts it.
Being Brown On The Mississippi
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Being Brown On The Mississippi
By Angela McDowell
The nomadic Tuareg people of the Sahara speak of houses as ‘graves for the living’ and Devin Brown is paddling her way from her northside dwelling all the way down the Mississippi in celebration of life’s indomitable human spirit that seeks to rise in us all. In a few weeks (the last day of May 2024), Brown is paddling from the Mississippi headwaters on a historic solo kayaking journey all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Bound for the open sea, like water, Brown is on a journey to return to the origin while intentionally seeking to galvanize Minneapolis’ black delegation. “I personally have this need to smell coco butter on the river,” Brown shares in an recent exclusive with Green Equity Magazine. “I need to see black people on the river. It’s absolutely spiritual to be surrounded by my people on water.”
G.E.M. Topics
On Black People As Water Keepers
On Returning to Nature
On Black People & Trauma
On Nature As A Birthright
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Devin Brown’s Responses
On Guiding Youth To Nature
“I’m planning the Great North Side Camp Out which focuses on getting the Title 1 elementary schools out to North Mississippi Regional Park to go camping overnight. It’ll be filled with food, adventure, and fun!” She shares in a recent exclusive with Green Equity Magazine. “My hope is that every single family gets to take home a sleeping bag. I’ve applied for two grants for it.”
On Black People As Water Keepers
“We are actually the water keepers. There has been so much gatekeeping with nature that black people struggle to return to the land. Our ancestors were out there [enslaved] so it’s hard for us to get back out there. When swimming pools were integrated they closed them. Or when black towns were really successful they just turned them into lakes. So when you swim they say you do white people stuff. No! Swimming is black as fuck!
On Nature As A Birthright
“We are our own most effective enemy every single time. Before there were shoes, before there were clothes, there was your naked self on this planet. The only thing that separates us from animals is clothes. Nature is your birthright. Its your right to engage in it, to protect it, and to be a part of it. ”
On Black People & Trauma
“It’s absolutely spiritual to be surrounded by my people on water. There’s been a lot of intergenerational trauma with water and black people. Black people struggle to return to the water because of that history. It’s literally inheritantly ours. When no one in your family can swim, you stay away from water. We see white people out there so they say you do white people stuff but it’s like no, Moors literally built boats to go to Europe.”
Being Brown On The Mississippi
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Introduction to Airborne -isms in North Minneapolis:
From Glory to Lowry
By Angela McDowell
W
Where do these people live? Do they have some sort of industrialized purifiers in their homes and cars that we can’t access? How deep does environmental racism travel? We know that capitalism breeds casualties but do they really think they can blow the world up without getting blown away themselves?
These bold questions unfortunately have even more daunting answers with suspiciously auspicious culprits. When the automobile industry saw a rise in the late 1940s, it posed a bit of a problem for Joseph Lowry’s Twin City Transit Company. He entered a scheme with northern metals to shred abandoned street cars with the pollution mainly affecting the black people in the poorest neighborhoods.
Twin Cities from maybe the wildfires in Canada or perhaps the “world’s most environmentally friendly shredder” in Becker, there’s no telling what all they got floating in the air. Lord knows what million or billion dollar industry is taking precedence over our right as oppressed people to inhale and exhale freely!
hat do we know about the quality of the air?
Despite the fact that we buy food from grocery store shelves that sit in boxes inside plastic bags, we still seek to breathe. It may not be as easy to flip over and read the back but we still strive to know what is lingering in the air.
With the fog visible for miles across the
To be continued in Issue 2
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Sex
Age
Race
-ism
Heterosex
Class
How L.L.C.O.O.L.J. Divines Solutions
by angela mcdowell
It’s In The Air Mission: To create trauma-informed, equity-infusing education programs in Minneapolis that equip individuals to activate, advocate, and restore environmental justice in BIPOC communities.
=
LLCOOLJ is a black woman-led civic engagement cohort where the Government intersects with the people that empower it for targeted Jam sessions. The civic engagement thinktank is geared to service a community of concerned people that have largely grown almost completely unexpectant of Government to operate in the interest of the people. In coming to the conclusion that if the system is ever going to bend toward equity, it would need more than a mighty wind, it needs us, we have so organized.
It’s true, we need stronger regulatory protections against contamination in disadvantaged communities in Minneapolis. In understanding that this is a problem in black and disadvantaged neighborhoods across the country, we know that the system that was never built to consider the people that truly empower it is in full play! Insert L.L.C.O.O.L.J., a collective of activated people with stake in the community, social enterprising businesses, scholars, culture bearers, and
artists led by one black woman, Angela McDowell, a freelance changemaker and black woman genome project. The L.L.C.O.O.L.J. cohort is uniquely qualified to inform the public on airborne -isms and opportunities to improve air quality (North & Northeast) because we are not only members of the community but also survivors of the special brand of oppression prevalent in the air and on land in Minneapolis.
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Environmental Justice in Minneapolis: A Soulful Pursuit
BY ANGELA MCDOWELL
“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
We speak the language of oppressed people and understand the cultural nuance that comes along with introducing new concepts to historically disenfranchised people. We have become versed in creating a paradigm shift in the mind that can unlock the chains of mental slavery. “How,” you ask? We are able to break the chains of mental slavery by unlocking the real Underground Railroad in our minds through education.
Literacy is the only true light in the world. It’s right there in the word if you’re looking for it. By not only teaching but reestablishing a commitment to a lifelong pursuit of scholarship, we aim to influence an informed, engaged populace that fully participates and contributes according to their gifts and talents.
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People experiencing homelessness sell Green Equity Magazine for income. When you see them, support them. Every sell makes a difference.
Green Equity
Magazine
January 2024
ISSUE NUMBER 1
Introduction to Airborne -isms
Environmental Justice: A Soulful Pursuit
What We Can Do To Help Ourselves Breathe Better
Global Impact On Black
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In just a short time, L.L.C.O.O.L.J has grown over 1000% percent in membership and unites several MBE, WBE, and Small Business enterprises as well as social justice activists and non-profits all concerned with raising equity concerns in Minneapolis and divining sustainable solutions. Most recently, we collaborated to cross-pollinate programs to win 3 Partnership Engagement Fund awards in 2024 from City of Minneapolis Neighborhood & Community Relations.
These member programs run the gamut from safe after hours programming for immigrant youth to mitigating low vitamin D levels in BIPOC communities to an entrepreneurial jobs training program through The Rose Cart (therosecart.com). These programs were developed and strategized in our weekly cohort and one-on-ones with members. This year, these changemakers learned how to better engage the Government to not only vent but to provoke favorable, resounding action!
What does that have to do with educating on air pollution data and opportunities to improve air quality, you asked? We teach people how to better navigate the Government as a basic function. Beyond that, we teach activated, potential changemakers how to cross-pollinate programs and maximize resources for a greater impact. The outcome is a more robust menu of programs for our community.
The goal of 100% of our efforts is to live a more equitable life and help our children better project themselves into a future that is welcoming them, not one that will choke the air out of their lungs like a police baton. The uncomfortable, lived reality of people in North Minneapolis is that breathing is hard for a lot of preventable reasons.
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from The Hub
G.E.M. Resources
Air now: check the air where you are right now
MN Radon toolkit
Air Cleaner guide
EPA’s 2024 Air Quality
Awareness Week Toolkit
Host an air monitor
Minneapolis Industrial Air Monitoring info
green equity magazine resource list contributed by let’s learn collectively on our life’s journey
i’m
This resource list is Minneapolis-focused and intentionally meant to support the Pursuit of Environmental Justice for communities most impacted. For Program Development, Public Funding opportunities, and to otherwise activate visit llcooljorg.com and Apply today!
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Global Impact
On Black
Friday Dec 6, 2024
It’s In The Air
Workshop
series
a multimedia edu-arts project
in support of
The Pursuit of Environmental Justice
Recorded & Streamed Live at Metro Cable Network 6
5PM to 8PM CST 1229 NE 2ND ST MPLS MN 55413
All Are Welcome
Facilitated by Annabelle Watts, PHD
Executive Director
Fern Logic
1
Introduction to Airborne -isms
Friday May 3, 2024
Facilitated by Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos, Environmental Justice Youth Program Director/ Global Climate Justice Coordinator
2
A Pursuit of Justice in Minneapolis: How Air Impacts Quality Of Life
Friday August 2, 2024
Facilitated by Angela McDowell, Executive Director, Let’s Learn Collectively On Our Life’s Journey with support from Minneapolis Health Department
3
G.E.M. Resources: Practical Solutions to Breathing Better
November 29, 2024
Global Solutions
4
T.B.A.
It’s In The Air is a community-led project to benefit Minneapolis sponsored by:
It’s In The Air
a multimedia edu-arts project
in support of
The Pursuit of Environmental Justice
It’s In The Air
It’s In The Air
a multimedia edu-arts project
in support of
The Pursuit of Environmental Justice
It’s In The Air is a multimedia edu-arts project with 4 components: A Workshop Series, Green Equity Resource Hub, Green Equity Podcast, and this magazine! The civic engagement cohort, Let’s Learn Collectively On Our Life’s Journey LLC worked diligently to have the project 100% sponsored as illustrated below. These creative works are FREELY shared and is intended to be an accessible, engaging, and informative community resource to help us all breathe better and a little more freely.
-Angela McDowell
Executive Director
L.L.C.O.O.L. LLC
NCR, Partnership Engagement Fund
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
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Photo: culture bearer and community activist, olivia pinex jackson, holds sign in george floyd square, august 2020
Green Equity Magazine