Presented by the Hollomon Price Foundation; Co-presented with Hip Hop Caucus
Join us as we present our 2024 Environmental Champion Award to Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.
6:00pm: This special event will begin with a public reception for ticketholders and participants.
7:00pm: We'll present Rev Yearwood with the Environmental Champion Award and he'll sit down for a conversation with Mustafa Santiago Ali (Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation).
7:45pm: The program will commence with a screening of the new Hip Hop Caucus short Underwater Projects, followed by a conversation with filmmaker Elijah Karriem and film subject Dierdre "Momma D" Love.
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. is the President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus. Rev Yearwood is the host of the award-winning climate and environmental justice podcast The Coolest Show, Senior Advisor of Bloomberg Philanthropies' Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign, and one of the most innovative advocates and strategists for racial justice and climate justice. He is a White House Champion of Change for Climate leadership and Rolling Stone called him a “New Green Hero.” His work has also been featured on Billboard, CNN, EBONY Magazine, Fast Company, The Guardian, HuffPost, The Nation, The New York Times, NPR, PBS NewsHour, POLITICO, REVOLT TV, The Washington Post and more.
Rev Yearwood dedicated himself to climate activism when, as a native Louisianan, he witnessed loved ones being displaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Hip Hop Caucus organized the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign in response to Hurricane Katrina and fought and advocated for justice for Gulf Coast communities. The campaign’s work, which connected grassroots leaders with leaders on Capitol Hill, challenged FEMA’s failures, and held corrupt law enforcement accountable, won the prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award in 2006. In 2009, the Hip Hop Caucus launched a solutions-based climate campaign - Green the Block - from the West Wing of the White House on President Obama’s Birthday. Then, after a decade of organizing innovative activism strategies on climate, under Rev Yearwood’s leadership, Hip Hop Caucus launched Think 100%, the organization’s award-winning climate activism and storytelling platform. Rev Yearwood foresaw the need for better storytelling to change the narrative on climate so that a movement big enough and inclusive enough to win against fossil fuel corporations could finally be built.
Norfolk, Virginia is sinking. The already insufficient sea wall ends where a public housing project, St. Paul’s, begins. St. Paul’s housing projects' residents are Black people. Norfolk is home to the world’s largest naval base and there is currently no public plan to prevent it from going underwater.
Instead, the local government, in partnership with federal agencies, is investing in what is labeled a “climate resilience” plan to tear down public housing and redevelop what is an historic Black community, the St. Paul’s district. Underwater Projects unpacks this redevelopment plan from the perspective of community leaders and members, government officials, scientists, and climate, and national security experts.