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Currently — March 31st, 2023

Currently — March 31st, 2023

March 30, 2023

What you need to know, currently.

Currently’s Editor-in-Chief Abbie Veitch chatted with Jocelyn Travis, a recipient of the “Black Woman, Green Futures” award from New Voices for Reproductive Justice and senior organizing manager with the Sierra Club, last month.

Here’s a snippet of their conversation:

Abbie: Can you talk about why it’s important to take a moment to celebrate Black woman leaders in the environmental and climate space right now?

Jocelyn: Unfortunately, you don’t see many people of color in the environmental movement. You don’t see many Black women or Black people period. It’s a necessity that we are engaged because, unfortunately, it’s our Black communities and our communities of color who are most affected by environmental justice.

Too often, it’s our folks who are primarily burdened with energy issues, living near landfills and coal plants, and dealing with all kinds of climate disasters. It’s usually our communities of color who have the hardest time working through those issues.

I’m excited about being with the Sierra Club because I think we can really support our communities of color and our Black communities. We just need more people to recognize that we are excited about being engaged in this movement. We want to not just be at the table, but at the heads of the tables. We need to be listened to because we’re the ones going through these experiences. Too often, you have these volunteers just making these decisions for our communities and not involving our communities.

I’m excited about the work being done at New Voices and being the recipient of the award. There are so many Black women who are doing so much good work, and they are not being recognized.

Read the full Q&A on our site!

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