Top Left Corner: BSI co-founder and executive director Raina Turner-Greenlea sharing presentation on “Building sustainable capacity in Black Communities” during the Ubuntu Climate Initiative Online Indaba.
Bottom Left Corner: Pictured Left to Right: BSI co-founder & executive director, Raina Turner-Greenlea, Shoe Waste founder, Tanita Gray, BSI communications & marketing specialist, Lauriel Stewart
Top Right Corner: BSI Juneteenth Tent (left side of the picture) & N'COBRA Tent (right side of the picture)
Bottom Right Corner: BSI membership coordinator, Kelyce Allen, speaking with festival attendees
This year's goal for Juneteenth was to collaborate with members of our network, celebrate ancestral wisdom while elevating conversations centered around sustainability initiatives! Learn more about the events we participated in and our recommendations for how you can celebrate Juneteenth here. Even though Juneteenth is behind us, you can use our recommendations throughout the year to honor yourself and your ancestors, these ideas are great for moments you'd like to take a sacred pause!
As we mentioned above, our goal for this year's Juneteenth was to collaborate with adjacent organizations within our network and celebrate ancestral wisdom while elevating conversations centered around sustainability initiatives. To fulfill this vision we collaborated on 2 FREE events with our network partners! On June 19 from 10am-12pm CDT/11-1pm EDT / 3:00 PM GMT our team participated in a FREE online Indaba in collaboration with the Ubuntu Climate Initiative. Our Co-Founder and Executive Director, Raina Turner-Greenlea presented on “Building sustainable capacity in Black Communities” as a part of the conversation centered around Celebrating Juneteenth & A “Taste of Freedom” Sankofa (Black to the Land and Commons), Historic Black Towns, and Black Sovereignty.
The conversations held during the online Indaba were healing for all who attended. The topics we discussed reminded us of our resilience as a people and the wisdom our ancestors embodied. This wisdom is within each of us and always available for us to call upon.
Part 2 of our Juneteenth celebration was June 21 - June 23, at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, GA for the 12th Annual Juneteenth Atlanta Parade & Music Festival. We collaborated with our partners with hands-on demonstrations centered around clean energy, up-cycling, and agriculture! The partners that attended and shared their wisdom at the event included Shoe Waste, EV Noire, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, & Atlanta Clean Energy Collective. Thank you to the Ubuntu Climate initiative for sponsoring us for the booth at this event.
We rounded out June at the We Are One Conference, Environmental Justice in DeKalb, Organic Fest, and The South Eastern Environmental Justice (SEEJ) Conference hosted by Harambee House! BSI Research interns were able to fly in and join us at this event! Some of the sessions included: Project Management 101-Conference led by Dr. Rita Joyner, Appalachian State University, Pillars of Emergency Preparedness and Response led by Sheila Brown Speaks, Lighthouse Consulting, “Inside/Outside game: how young people are making the most of all approaches to alleviate injustice” Moderator: Eriqua Vincent, EcoWomanist; Panelist: Blythe Coleman-Mumford, Second Nature and Diamond Spratling - Girl+Environment - just to name a few.
Left to right: BSI research intern, Omotola Oladapo, BSI co-founder & executive director, Raina Turner Greenlea, BSI research intern, Autumn G. Dancy
We are grateful to celebrate our ancestors' legacy each day through our organizational mission and look forward to continuing to build upon the framework & foundation that we've built this month
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