Majora Limited Press Package September 2011 Table of Contents

Page Awards...............................................................................................2 Board Affiliations............................................................................4 Other Affiliations............................................................................5 Books Featuring Majora...............................................................6 Print Media Samples, various...................................................10 TV/Film/Radio................................................................................14 More Print Media Samples, various.......................................24

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Majora: Awards and Honors 2011 University of Georgia: Peabody Award 2011 Conway School of Landscape Design – Honorary MLA 2011 Knox College – Honorary PhD 2011 Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr – Citation of Merit 2011 Brooklyn Botanic Gardens – Better Earth Award 2011 Association of Teachers of Social Studies/UFT – Rosa Parks Award 2011 Sweet Beginnings/North Lawndale Employment Network – Community That Works Award 2011 Rocking the Boat – Whitehall Award 2010 International Interior Design Association – The Star Award 2010 Concerned citizen’s Action Program, Syracuse NY – Recognition Award 2010 Associação para a Valorização Ambiental da Alta de Lisboa, Portugal – Sócia Honoriaria 2010 International Interior Design Association - Leaders Breakfast, Honoree of New York 2010 The Grey Panthers – Award for Environmental Justice 2010 Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (B.A.D.D.) – B.A.D.D. Ass Women Award 2010 City of Bridgeport, Connecticut - Key to the City 2010 OXFAM International – Sisters on the Planet Ambassador 2010 Zeta Phi – Honoree 2009 Silver Medal, Public Space: Rudy Bruner Foundation 2009 Honorary PhD.: York College/CUNY 2009 Honor Award: National Building Museum 2009 Riverkeeper - Fisherman’s Ball: Honoree 2009 Young Visionary For Tomorrow: Sci Fi Channel 2008 Liberty Medal for Lifetime Achievement: The NY Post 2008 The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal: Eleanor Roosevelt Society 2008 Hollister Award: United Nations Temple of Understanding 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award: Wesleyan University 2008 Paul Wellstone Award: Campaign for America’s Future 2008 Woman Of Distinction Award: National College of Women Student Leaders 2008 Trailblazer Award: National Coalition of 100 Black Women, L.I. 2008 Honorary PhD: The New School University 2008 Fellow: Hunt Prime Mover 2007 Rachel Carson Award: National Audubon Society 2007 Kalil Lectureship: Parsons School of Design 2007 New York State Women of Excellence Award: Lt. Gov. David Patterson 2007 Honorary PhD: Mercy College

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Majora: Awards and Honors 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Humanitarian Service: NYU 2007 Lawrence Enersen Award: National Arbor Day Society 2007 Forecast Earth Hot List - Individuals Making An Impact On Long-Term Global Climate Change: The Weather Channel 2007 Honoree: Rotary Club of the Bronx, NY Inc. 2007 Community Development Award: NY Chapter of the AIA 2007 Honoree, 11th Annual Honoree: NY/NJ Bay Keepers 2007 Urban Visionary Award: American Cities Foundation 2006 Lewis Rudin Award for Public Service: CORO NY 2006 Environmental Advocate of the Year Award: NRDC 2006 Evangeline Blashfield Award: The Municipal Arts Society 2005 Honoree: Walton High School Green-Teens 2005 Fellow: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 2005 Earth Day Award: Timberland 2005 Public Advocate Contribution Award: City of Glasgow Scotland 2005 Meritorious Service: American Planning Association NY Metro 2004 Fellow: Drum Major Institute 2004 Woman with Organic Style: Organic Style Magazine, Rodale 2003 Clean Cities Award: United States Department of Energy 2003 Living the Dream Mentor Award: NY State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. 2003 Honoree: Congressman Jose E. Serrano 2002 Clear Air Excellence Award: US EPA 2002 Citation: NYCity Hall 2002 Pacesetter Award: NYC Council Women’s History Month 2002 Union Square Award: Fund for the City of New York 2002 Vision for the Future Award: Court TV 2001 Fellow: Open Society Institute 2000 Community Development Award: Environmental Advocates 2000 Bronx Super Hero: Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr 1999 Fellow: Coro Leadership NY for Public Affairs and Civic Leadership 1999 Environmental Quality Award: US EPA 1998 Certificate of Merit: NY State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr

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Majora: Board Affiliations The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a 501 c3 non-profit organization committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energysaving green buildings. With a community comprising 78 local affiliates, nearly 16,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 162,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students. Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.

The Wilderness Society was founded in 1935 to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. Since 1935, The Wilderness Society has led the conservation movement in wilderness protection, writing and passing the landmark Wilderness Act and winning lasting protection for 109 million acres of Wilderness, including 56 million acres of spectacular lands in Alaska, eight million acres of fragile desert lands in California and millions more throughout the nation. About a half million members nationwide, mostly older and white

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Majora: Other Affiliations 2009 Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC): Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force Member 2009 US Conference of Mayor/Wal-Mart Foundation Green-Jobs Grant one of 3 Jurists who distributed 8 grants ranging from $250K to $750K depending on size of city 2009 National Academies of Science Six 2-day meetings over the course of one year to advise Congress on climate change mitigation strategies She is making sure this report to Congress includes issues of equality in all its advice July 2008 National Geographic Society/Aspen Institute Arctic Mission for Climate Change Action: one week on a boat in the arctic ocean with 80 top political, corporate and nonprofit leaders from around the USA - see attached guest list 2007 Special Commentator for NY Bar Association on green zoning 2007 - present Google Zeitgeist Conference: Speaker and recurring invitée to this is an ultra-exclusive yearly get together of thought leaders and Google customers/contributors and friends 2006 - present TED Conferences Speaker One of the first 6 TEDtalks to be launch TED.com in 2006 Member of the TED community since 2006 2009 TED Fellows Jurist 2006 - present Clinton Global Initiative and CGI America 2006 Speaker at Poverty Alleviation Track, and co-signed commitment with Bill Clinton to develop a community based Greenway Steward Corps to build and maintain urban forest networks 2009 -launched CGI commitment for new investment vehicle with in Detroit

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Majora: Featured in Books 2002 - Present

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Majora: Featured in Books 2002 - Present

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Majora: Featured in Books 2002 - Present 2002 -- Outside Magazine’s Urban Adventure New York City By David Howard 2004 -- Highway robbery: transportation racism & new routes to equity by Robert Bullard, Glenn Steve Johnson, Angel O. Torres 2005 -- Local Acts by Jan Cohen-Cruz 2005 -- Groundswell by Alix Hopkins 2006 -- The Humane Metropolis - people and nature in the 21st-century city By Rutherford H. Platt, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy 2007 -- Boundary Breakers: Remarkable People (Scholastic) COVER 2007 -- 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth by John Javna 2007 – This Moment On Earth by John and Teresa Kerry 2007 – Giving – by Bill Clinton 2007 – Apollo’s Fire: ~ by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks 2007 -- Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York by Timothy Mennel, Jo Steffens, Christopher Klemek 2008 -- The Red Rubber Ball at Work by Kevin Carroll 2008 -- Surprises Around the Bend- 50 Adventurous Walkers By Richard A. Hasler 2008 -- The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones 2008 -- Reality Check – by Guy Kawasaki 2008 -- X Saves The World by Jeff Gordiner 2008 -- Women in Green by Kira Gould 2008 -- The 100 Day Action Plan To Save The Planet by William Becker 2008 -- Biography Today: Profiles of People of Interest (High School Educational) 2009 -- Power Trip by Amanda Little 2009 -- Life, Inc. by Douglass Rushkoff 2009 -- Most Good, Least Harm by Zoe Weil 2009 -- No Impact Man by Colin Beavan 2009 -- Strategy for sustainability- a business manifesto By Adam Werbach 2009 -- Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness by Catherine Ross 2009 -- Community Practice Skills: Local to Global Perspectives By Dorothy N. Gamble 2009 -- Transforming power- from the personal to the political 2009 -- Practicing Organization Development- A Guide for Leading Change By William J. Rothwell, Jacqueline M. Stavros, Roland L. Sullivan 2009 -- Black Is the New Green- Marketing to Affluent African Americans By Leonard E. Burnett, Jr., Leonard E. Burnett, Andrea Hoffman 2009 -- Strategies for the Green Economy - opportunities and challenges By Joel Makower, Cara Pike 8

Majora: Featured in Books 2002 - Present 2009 -- Down to the wire- confronting climate collapse By David W. Orr 2009 -- Green Kids, Sage Families- The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Kids By Lynda Fassa, Vanessa Williams 2009 -- Confessions of Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson 2009 -- Earthcare Anthology by David Clowney, Patricia Mosto 2010 -- Authentic patriotism- restoring America’s founding ideals By Stephen P. Kiernan 2010 -- Black Faces in White Places- 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success By Randal Pinkett, Jeffrey Robinson, Philana Patterson 2010 -- Working on a dream- the progressive political vision of Bruce Springsteen By David Masciotra 2010 -- Power of Pro Bono by John Peterson, John Cary fwd by Majora Carer 2010 -- Diet for a hot planet By Anna Lappé, Bill McKibben 2010 -- Black Business Secrets by Dante Lee 2010 -- Spend Shift- Post-Crisis Values Revolution By John Gerzema, Michael D’Antonio 2010 -- Please Don’t Bomb the Suburbs By William Upski Wimsatt 2010 -- Black on Earth- African American Ecoliterary Traditions By Kimberly N. Ruffin 2010 -- Positive Psychology as Social Change By Robert Biswas-Diener 2010 -- What We See- Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs By Lynne Elizabeth 2010 -- The World I Dream of By Curt Butz 2010 -- Reimagining Detroit - Opportunities for Redefining an American City By John Gallagher 2010 -- Emerald cities- urban sustainability and economic development By Joan Fitzgerald 2010 -- Teaching as leadership- the highly effective teacher’s guide By Steven Farr, Jason Kamras, Wendy Kopp 2010 -- Green Deen- What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet By Ibrahim Abdul-Matin 2010 -- The Vertical Farm- Feeding the World in the 21st Century By Dickson Despommier fwd by Majora Carter 2011 -- Shapeshifting Into Higher Consciousness- Heal and Transform Yourself By Llyn Roberts 2011 -- Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist By Ray C. Anderson, Robin White 2011 -- The Battle for Gotham- New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs By Roberta Brandes Gratz 2011 --- The Purposeful Argument- A Practical Guide By Harry L. Phillips, Patricia Bostian 2011 -- Eco Amazons- 20 Women Who Are Transforming the World Dorka Keehn, Colin Finlay, Julia Butterfly Hill 2011 -- Do It Anyway- The New Generation of Activists By Courtney E. Martin 2011 -- Grassroots with Readings- The Writer’s Workbook By Susan Fawcett 2011 -- Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change By America’s Climate Choices NAS 9

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TV and Film 2009 TrueNorth / Frito-Lay Commercial Debuted on ABC Oscar Night right before Best Picture, and still airs on cable networks including CNN, Bravo, and Discovery. 2009 Dirt, The Movie Documentary Official Selection: Sundance Film Fest 2009 2009 No Impact Man Documentary Official Selection: Sundance Film Fest 2009 2009 HBO The Black List Vol. 2 Special Artists, academics, athletes, activists, authors and more. Following the acclaimed HBO special “The Black List: Vol. 1,” AfricanAmerican notables share candid stories and revealing insights into the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in the U.S. 2009 Martha Stewart Show Daily Majora visited Martha on April 22, Earth Day 2009 along with fellow guest RFK Jr whose organisation River Keeper honored Majora ant their Annual Fisherman’s Ball Benefit.

2009 The Hour on the CBC Nightly Hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, this is Canada’s number one nightly talk show for the past two years - Majora has been invited back for an interview on her book.

2009 CNN with Tony Harris Daily Majora follows up on her April 2009 with Tony and discusses her experience with green jobs in her work across the USA. 14

TV and Film

In Season 3 (2009), Majora continued her talks with leaders and luminaries who have taken unorthodox points of view on the environment and how we can use it for better effect in our lives and in our economy.

At left, Majora with: Robert Redford, Sarah Jones, Ray Anderson, and Dr. Nalini Nadkarni

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TV and Film 2008 Focus Earth Special On Planet Green with ABC’s with Bob Woodruff

2008 Tavis Smiley Show Nightly May 8, 2008 12 minute guest segment with an invitation to return with her book.

2008 CBS Evening News Nightly Majora was one of the Beijing Olympic Torch runners as it came to San Francisco for its only North American appearance. While Majora had the torch, she pulled a Tibetan Flag from her sleeve and was eventually ejected from the relay. 2008 LifeTime TV Special 2:30 profile on “Remarkable Women” series including Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Valerie Jarrett,and Lilly Ledbetter.

2008 Brave New Films Documentary Majora and Pete Seeger’s inter-generational conversation on activism then and now

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TV and Film

In Season 2 (2008), Majora continued her talks with leaders and luminaries who have taken unorthodox points of view on the environment and how we can use it for better effect in our lives and in our economy.

At left, Majora with: Zem Joquin of Eco-Fabulous, Director Johnathon Demme, and Tibetan Scholar & father of Uma, Bob Thurman

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TV and Film 2006 PBS NOW Weekly with David Broncoccio and Maria Hinajosa 12 minute feature news 2006 TED Special Majora’ and Al Gore were two of six talks that launched TED.com in 2006. 2006 City of Water Documentary Metro Waterfront Alliance, 1 hour on NYC’s Waterways, Aired Ch 13 WNET 2006 Contested Streets Documentary 1 Hour re: traffic Congestion and safety. Sponsored by Transportation Alternatives.

2007 CNN - International Special :30 and 4:00 profile for Just Imagine Series 2007 CNN - Planet In Peril Special Series Anderson Cooper comes to the South Bronx to speak with Majora about the Solutions she was pioneering and advocating

2007 The Future We Create Documentary By Daphne Zuniga on the TED experience 2007 CNN Money (not pictured) Daily with Alan Chernoff, focused on the shareholder action her non-profit instigated against the management of a local polluter. 18

TV and Film

Season 1 (2007): Majora deliver 90 second straight to camera op-ed’s on the environment and how we can use it for better effect in our lives and in our economy.

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Majora Carter: Greener Neighborhoods, Sustainable Jobs...

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2008/i...

four power plants. With some 60,000 trash trucks passing through every week, stray garbage and diesel fumes contributed to asthma rates that are among the nation's highest. The toxic environment discouraged physical activity. Obesity and diabetes rates soared. Carter formed Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) not just to defeat the garbage depot, which she did. She also wanted to harness what she recognized as a dormant passion among her neighbors to improve their environment. "Who would want to go outside?" she recalls. "There were no trees. It was dirty and dangerous. These people didn't not have a connection to the natural world." Simply cleaning up weed-strewn lots and planting trees wasn't enough to overcome such distrust. "I was watching the city bring in contractors from outside to do cleanup work," she says. "It was basic work that local people could do as well, and they needed the jobs. That made no sense." Carter concluded jobs could both green up the neighborhood and create a sense of investment if local people helped with the process. With a small grant, Carter set up a training program for local residents, including many ex-convicts and others with dim employment hopes. The Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program puts those chosen though a multi-month training program. BEST trainees learn specialized eco-skills, such as green-roof installation and maintenance, urban forestry, brown-field cleanup and, more recently, how to retrofit buildings to boost their efficiency. Think: window caulking and insulation. The workers are also given guidance in life skills, such as punctuality, effective communication, how to handle disagreement, and even clothing. "Many of these men have grown up with no reference in their lives for how to behave in a formal job situation," says Carter.

CLEANING UP LIVES Creating jobs was just one benefit. By engaging local residents to do the work, Carter discovered a strong desire for clean, green space, and she helped build trust in the community—believing that if locals did the clean up, parks would be better cared for. Among their first projects: cleaning up the banks of the long-neglected Bronx River to create a new park and new public access to the waterway. After two years, the program has placed over 85% of its more than 100 graduates in jobs. None of the ex-convicts has returned to prison, despite a high rate of recidivism under normal circumstances. Around 10% have gone on to college.

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energetska efikasnost – akvarijumi – graditi zeleno – bazen – zelenilo – terasa– opremanje pe sportske površine – obnovljivi izvori energije – zaštita životne sredine – oprema za ulice i ba

urbanizam

CRNO JE

ZELENO&SEXY Majora carter

Od prijatnog predgra!a Menhetna do jedne od najugroženijih urbanih sredina u SAD, Bronks su delile samo dve odluke sa više instance… Polovinom XX veka u Bronks su po"eli da se naseljavaju afro-ameri"ke porodice srednjeg staleža. Prvi znaci iseljavanja belaca bili su dovoljni bankama da pojedine zone obeleže kao visokorizi"ne i stopiraju zajmove za bilo kakve investicije. Ovakav potez oborio je cenu nekretnina u tolikoj meri da se vlasnicima objekata više isplatilo da ruše i pale sopstvene zgrade kako bi naplatili novac od osiguranja, nego da sakupljaju niske zakupnine ili prodaju pod tim uslovima. Ovakav Bronks nije bio vredan pažnje verovatno najuticajnije li"nosti na javnom položaju u Njujorku od 30-ih do 50-ih godina XX veka Roberta Mozesa. Njegov koncept rešavanja saobra#aja u gradovima, koji se zasniva na individualnom prevozu (autoputevima) a ne na javnom saobra#aju, zape"atio je sudbinu Bronksa, a zatim, preko njegovih kolega-sledbenika, i mnogih drugih gradova u SAD. Kako bi imu#niji stanovnici iz novoformiranog predgra!a, Vest"estera, stigli u svoje kancelarije na Menhetnu, Mozes je ova dva dela grada prosto spojio autoputevima koji su prešli preko Bronksa, bukvalno – u obliku vijadukta na visokim stubovima. Obaveštenja o rušenju stizala su neretko i samo dan ranije, a 600.000 ljudi je pre/i/ra/seljeno. Ovo je posledi"no uticalo na negativne migracije, nezaposlenost, porast stope kriminala, i veoma loše opšte zdravstveno stanje stanovnika Bronksa: degradacija sredine dovela je do ekonomske, koja je vodila dalje do socijalne degradacije (Madžora Karter). Nekadašnje predgra!e srednjeg staleža, za samo par decenija, pretvoreno je u geto. Slu"ajna šetnja sa psom dovela je Madžoru do zaboravljene zaga!ene re"ice u priobalnoj zoni Bronksa, koja je, poput beogradske, ali i mnogih drugih gradova u Srbiji, bila rezervisana za industriju, sa 60.000 teških teretnih kamiona koji su svake nedelje dolazili u nju. Po"etni iznos od 10.000 dolara donacije

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Održivi južni Bronks – SSBx (Sustainable South Bronx), neprofitna organizacija iz Njujorka, osnovana 2001. godine, posvećena je traženju pravednih rešenja za životnu sredinu. Svetska javnost upoznala se sa ovom organizacijom kada je njen osnivač, Madžora Karter (Majora Carter), predstavila ideje i dostignuća SSBx-a na TED konferenciji, u februaru 2006. godine. Nažalost, paralele Bronksa i Beograda, ili drugih gradova u Srbiji, brojne su...

Mladen Bogićević

koje je Madžora pokušala da sakupi kako bi uredila ovaj prostor ubrzo je narastao 300 puta, i sa tri miliona dolara Bronks je, prvi put nakon 60 godina, dobio ure!enu zelenu priobalnu površinu. Re"ica je danas obrasla rastinjem, dom je za nekoliko vrsta ribe, po njoj plove mali "amci, a stanovnici Bronksa imaju radna mesta i hobi o kojima nisu smeli ni sanjati: sada su "uvari reke i ribolovci. Danas delatnost SSBx-a (www.ssbx.org) obuhvata nekoliko projekata i pre svega vodi se idejom ravnopravnog zoniranja gradova, tj. takvim ure!enjem urbanih sredina koje ne#e zelene površine, saobra#ajnice nižeg inteziteta, zdravstvene, obrazovne i kulturne ustanove, itd, koncentrisati u privilegovane gradske zone, ve# #e to "initi tako da svaka zona podnese onoliko tereta (teškog saobra#aja, industrije…) koliko iziskuje za sopstveno funkcionisanje.

otvaranje rečne obale

Kako se nije mnogo toga promenilo u urbanisti"kom stavu prema Bronksu, projekti SSBx-a usmereni su na sopstvene snage. Velika rekonstrukcija koja je u toku obuhvata ozelenjavanje površina, uvo!enje efikasnijeg javnog transporta (kopnenog i re"nog), izmeštanje ili strogu kontrolu velikih zaga!iva"a i zapošljavanje ljudi. Na velikom broju ovih poslova angažovani su sami stanovnici Bronksa. Putem programa obuke B.E.S.T. (Bronx Environmental Stewardship Program; best, eng. – najbolji) nezaposleno stanovništvo obu"ava se za rad na "iš#enju opasnog otpada, pejzažni dizajn, sa!enje i održavanje biljaka, pošumljavanje zelenih zona, postavljanje zelenih krovova… www.build.rs

Za "etiri godine ovaj program obezbedio je zaposlenje za 90% svojih polaznika. Godine 2005. SSBx postavio je zelenilo na krov svoje zgrade – bio je to prvi primer zelenog krova u Njujorku. Samo dve godine kasnije, pokrenuo je preduze#e SmartRoofs koje se bavi instalacijom ovih krovova. Ipak, borba sa urbanistima Njujorka se nastavlja: grad planira da u ovom kraju izgradi novi javni objekat – zatvor. Odgovor SSBx-a je ekološki industrijski kompleks na ovoj parceli, sa pogonima za reciklažu otpada i iskoriš#avanje sekundarnih sirovina. Tako!e, predstoji borba za uklanjanje autoputeva nad glavama stanovnika Bronksa koji su "ak i za vreme špica poluprazni. Upornost, transparentno trošenje prikupljenih sredstava, li"ni primer, i svakako, šarm same Madžore (autora parole u naslovu), privukao je veliki broj investitora i prikupljeni su višemilionski iznosi. Uspešnim projektima SSBx dokazao je da ne postoje gubitnici kada je u pitanju ravnopravno ulaganje u zdravu životnu sredinu. Brojke pokazuju da je degradacija zaustavljena i da je uveliko po"eo povratni proces: cena nekretnina raste, sve zna"ajnije privatne investicije dolaze u Bronks prate#i pozitivne efekte pionirskih ulaganja, ekonomski položaj, obrazovanje i zaposlenost lokalnog stanovništva se popravlja, budžetski troškovi za zdravstvo postaju niži… Na TED konferenciji, februara 2006. godine, Majora je u svom kratkom izlaganju pred investitorima, predstavljaju#i SSBx projekat ispri"ala i anegdotu sa Al Gorom, najuticajnijim politi"arem u SAD, u vezi sa pitanjima životne sredine: – Kada sam pitala g. Gora kako #e aktivisti pravednog zoniranja biti uklju"eni u novu strategiju koju promoviše, Smarketing (smart marketing, eng. – pametni marketing), njegov odgovor bio je: program zajmova. Mislim da me nije razumeo. Nisam mu tražila novac – ja sam njemu dala ponudu !

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Green the Ghetto By susan piperato Photographed for Yoga+ by danuta otfinowski

That’s the message and the mission of Majora Carter, whose grassroots environmental activism has brought new hope to one of the poorest congressional districts in the country—and an important voice to policy debates.

Forthright and passionate, wry and eloquent, Majora Carter has the stage at the 2006 TED conference, an annual by-invitationonly “big ideas” gathering of thinkers and doers. (Stewart Brand, Richard Branson, and Bill Clinton have all given TED talks.) Al Gore, also a speaker that year, is in the audience, sitting up front. Carter’s topic is environmental justice: “For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, it goes like this: No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other. Unfortunately, race and class are extremely reliable indicators of where one might find the good stuff, like parks and trees, and the bad stuff, like power plants and waste facilities.... Economic degradation begets environmental degradation which begets social degradation.” Carter, 41, is leading a turnaround for one such low-income community—the South Bronx, where she grew up—which has long been famous for its crime and decay, but also for being the place where New York City does its dirty work: It is the dumping ground for 25 percent of New York City’s waste, the site of four power plants, a sewage sludge plant, and a food distribution center that brings thousands of trucks through the area daily. Carter’s mission: “environmental justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects.” >>

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yogaplus.org

Improve the environment in low-income communities, Majora Carter exhorts us, and you lift up the economy, safety, and morale, not just locally, but regionally and nationally.

Photo credit.

ONE WORLD

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Left, Carter got funding for a “green collar” jobs program from a private donor through the Clinton Global Initiative. Right, with Van Jones, founder of Green for All, and President Clinton.

GREEN JOBS

Many know Carter as the host of Robert Redford’s The Green, a weekly three-hour TV program on the Sundance Channel. In her community, however, she is the woman who went back home temporarily as a 20-something grad student and not only stayed but discovered her calling and founded the nonprofit organization Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) in 2001. A few years later, she won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for her work. Carter helps support SSBx through her speaking engagements, appearing casually hip in jeans, dangly silver earrings that complement her long dread-

Clearwater in Beacon, N.Y., last September, including her middle school science teacher who stood up to tell Carter she was beloved—that she spoke to Yoga+. It was a warm, sunny autumn morning, and Carter sat on an antique stone wall beneath a golden-leafed tree at the University Settlement campus hall, waiting to address Clearwater’s membership. Carter recalls the South Bronx of her childhood as a “concrete jungle” largely given over to garbage dumps, prisons, and violent crime, an area that smelled bad and was devoid of greenery and covered over in asphalt. “I remember assuming that ‘an environment’ was very

and then on to Wesleyan University, where she completed a degree in film studies in 1988. As the environmental justice movement was just taking shape at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. in 1991, Carter was living her life, “bouncing around New York City,” working in the film industry. A few years later, in order to complete an MFA in English and creative writing at New York University and get through a divorce, she left her film production job and moved back to her parents’ house in Hunts Point—“literally just a cheap place to rest my head at night.” She had every intention of “trying to get the hell out of there again,” she told Yoga+, smiling and shaking her head as she reminisced about her transition to activism. Each morning, she would leave to go downtown to NYU or to visit friends, and she’d return as late as possible. “I felt so disconnected from the neighborhood even though I lived in it.” The turning point came when she joined Writers Corps, a part-time writing program for NYU teaching fellows, and learned from another member about an arts-based community center in the

When people were given enough information to “recognize the links between all the facilities in this industrial area and their children’s health—they began to say, ‘That can’t happen.’” locks, and a black T-shirt worn tight against her trim torso bearing the fluorescent green words “Green the Ghetto.” She talks to audiences around the world about environmental and economic inequities and the importance of using grassroots activism to address them. Emphasizing her points with her hands, looking audience members straight in the eye, and smiling and showing raw emotion in equal measure, Carter has won wide admiration as a communicator. (Commentator Guy Kawasaki, who once served as Apple’s Chief Evangelist, has said she tops even the legendary presenter Apple CEO Steve Jobs.) It was before one of these appearances—for an audience of some 75 members of the Hudson River Sloop

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different from what I saw around me every day,” she recalls, even though her Southern-born parents frequently reminisced about growing up along “the crick” or creek. As a young girl, Carter says she believed the environment only existed at the homes of her aunts and uncles in Connecticut or New Jersey “because they had places that actually had trees and backyards and grass. I couldn’t for the life of me reconcile that there was an environment [where I lived], even if it was abused, or that the city was an ecosystem as well.”

South Bronx “doing these remarkable programs in poetry, spoken word, the whole shebang. It was only two blocks from my house, and I had passed it every single day without knowing it was there,” Carter recalls. “I went in and was just amazed. They were supporting arts and culture, supporting people thinking differently about their own physical space. I thought that was kind of cool, being from the South Bronx, where people tended to think, ‘We can’t really engage in cultural endeavors,’ so I got involved with them, started volunteering, started the South Bronx Film and Video Festival, did pub-

AWAKENING OF AN ENVIRONMENTALIST

Carter escaped the South Bronx, first to the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, from which she graduated in 1984,

yoga + joyful living march - april 2008 yogaplus.org

Susan Piperato writes about sustainability and culture from New York’s Hudson Valley, where she lives with her two children.

lic art projects. I thought, this is what I’m going to do for a while. Then I got it: Okay, this is my way of giving back to the neighborhood. I can do community development this way, and I love what I’m doing.”

Majora public outreach: James Burling Chase / Courtesy of SSBx; President Clinton with Van Jones and Majora Carter: © The Clinton Global Initiative; Green roof installation: James Burling Chase / Courtesy of SSBx

NOT IN MY BACKYARD

One day members of the arts group got word “totally by accident” that New York City and New York State were planning to close down Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island and, “without any real environmental review,” says Carter, “just create a couple of smaller Fresh Kills in the boroughs. The first place they looked, of course, was the South Bronx.” Carter suddenly found her life and work becoming politicized and her artistic goals taking a backseat. “I began to realize that if we’re not actively meeting the environmental needs of our community, then all the art in the world isn’t gonna help,” she told Grist, the online environmental magazine. “It was going to be a huge facility that would have brought 48 percent of the city’s waste to the neighborhood,” says Carter. “It was clear no one intended for us, the people in the neighborhood, to know about this. Then I realized, if they’re planning on doing this, well, I wonder what’s here already? There were these odd smells in the neighborhood sometimes that would just crop up, you know?” Carter discovered the likely reason for the secrecy around the landfill plans: When New York City had built a sewage sludge pelletizing plant in the South Bronx six years previously, a huge battle had taken place. Now the city wanted the plant to begin processing “up to 70 percent of the City’s sewage sludge with this really complicated chemical procedure that released dioxins and other pollutants into the environment. And there were lots of other waste facilities that started

opening up in the neighborhood at the same time,” she says. Asthma, which most people in the community assumed was hereditary, was becoming “a big issue,” she recalls. “And I thought, wait, they want to put more [waste facilities] here? For me, becoming politicized was about looking at how land is used in various neighborhoods based on expediency. Usually expediency is determined by how powerful or how powerless the people in those areas are. The South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in New York, is about 99 percent people of color. The government was just, like, yeah, we’ve always done this, and now we’re going to put more here. And that’s what started me doing this work.” Carter calls “fighting against that facility…the most important thing I could have done at the time,” but rallying the community to fight was not easy. “It’s still hard,” she admits. “We are the kind of community that has been beaten down so much that our expectations are not very high to begin with: The feeling is, this is where you end up if you’re poor, if nobody cares about you; it’s a worthless place to be. So people didn’t think they could do anything to stop it. In fact, what I heard often was, ‘Well, this is the South Bronx—of course this happens here.’” Despite the community’s attitude of “total resignation,” Carter saw reason to hope. When people were given enough

information to “recognize the links between all the facilities in this industrial area and their health—in particular, their children’s health—they began to say, ‘That can’t happen.’ That was a powerful place to be, to see that happening. It took us years to fight, but we did, and we won.” A PROJECT TO SEE AND TOUCH

During the fight against the waste plant, Carter realized, as she likes to say, “that to reach and inspire my community on these issues, we needed to do more than just block the bad stuff.” In 1998, Carter found an opportunity for doing so when she met a New York City Parks Department coordinator in charge of seed money for groups doing Bronx River restoration projects who offered her a $10,000 initiative to develop waterfront property. It was an offer she described in her TED talk as “really well meaning but a bit naive”—who could even reach the river? “The waterfront was blocked by industrial facilities,” she recalls. “Consequently, I didn’t really know where to use the money.” Then one morning while she was out jogging, her new puppy, Xena, who she’d found one rainy night tied to a post near her home and named after TV’s warrior princess, pulled her into an abandoned lot that she assumed at first to be “just another illegal dump.” It turned out to be a section of an abandoned Robert

SSBx’s demonstration project on the American Banknote Company Building.

GREEN ROOFS

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NO MORE GARBAGE

Hunts Point Riverside Park is now a place to enjoy outdoor activities. These kids in a boatbuilding program are off to explore the river.

Moses–era bridge project. “There were weeds, piles of garbage, tires, and other stuff I won’t mention here. But she kept dragging me through all this and, lo and behold, at the end of this lot was the river,” Carter reports on the SSBx website. “It was beautiful in the early morning light, it was inspiring; and I knew that this forgotten little street end, abandoned like the dog that brought me there, was worth saving.” Armed with the seed grant, Carter “leveraged it 300 times” and raised $3.2

Like her new dog—who now, at age 10, weighs a healthy 80 pounds—the Hunts Point waterfront revitalization is “an idea that got bigger than I had imagined,” she says. Since then, the city has opened Barretto Point Park, and several more are in the planning stages. And on October 7, 2006, Carter married James Burling Chase, a filmmaker and SSBx’s director of communications—in a ceremony at Hunts Point Riverside Park. Although Carter acknowledges her agency’s having “lost a couple” battles,

don’t jeopardize kids as they walk down the street, that’s been helpful.” CREATING GREEN JOBS

Carter is unabashed in her enthusiasm for what is perhaps her personal favorite SSBx project—the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program, an ecological restoration workforce that provides jobs to local residents. Begun in 2003, it got support from a private donor through the Clinton Global Initiative. The program exemplifies one of Carter’s core beliefs:

“It was beautiful in the early morning light, it was inspiring; and I knew that this forgotten little street end, abandoned like the dog that brought me there, was worth saving.” million to establish the area’s first new park in 60 years: Hunts Point Riverside Park is “two acres of open space, really gorgeous, beautifully designed,” she says. The park’s groundbreaking took place in August 2004; it opened in May 2007. “To try to mobilize people around the development of parks when we didn’t have any was incredibly difficult,” Carter admits. “We’d ask people, ‘What would you like to see in your neighborhood?’ and they didn’t really have an answer. They’d never been asked that question before. Because [the parks] just weren’t there for people to be a part of or to appreciate. It was as if having parks was almost too far in the future for them.”

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like the one against a power plant being built in the South Bronx, she is proud of SSBx’s numerous and diverse accomplishments. Following the successful defeat of the plan to build a waste facility, SSBx has been working to ensure that New York City’s garbage is distributed equitably throughout the five boroughs and to make garbage export less polluting by replacing long-haul diesel trucks with barge and rail export options. “Seeing is believing,” Carter says. “When people understand the relationship between the truck traffic in front of their houses and their children’s asthma, and now see less of that in their community because our agency and others made sure that the trucks’ routes

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“We can’t figh t this battle at the expense of jobs,” she told the New York Times. “We need to work; we also need to breathe— our goal is to find a way of doing both.” These highly trained workers are also “Greenway ambassadors,” as Carter calls them. In their uniforms, doing outdoor work, they serve as SSBx’s liaisons to the community and, in turn, the South Bronx community’s representatives to the outside world. “We were really concerned about building all these parks and planting street trees and not having any way to maintain them,” she explains. “Unless you’re in a natural environment, where nature takes care of itself, you need maintenance. Parks aren’t just amenities for

Hunts Point Riverside Park, the Bronx, NY: Librado Romero / The New York Times / Redux; Majora Carter with her dog Xena: James Burling Chase / Courtesy of SSBx

us; they’re integral to life. So we figured we would show the value of having people from the community do this work, people who go through our ecological restoration job training program and know the difference between weeds and native grasses, and understand the science behind taking care of the urban forest and the structural park system. “Now we’ve got these young men out in the community showing that caring for living things that aren’t human is an important thing to do, and they’ve got fans in the community,” she continues. “People call me up all the time, saying, ‘Those young men were on my street today—they’re so handsome in their uniforms,’ or ‘They told me all about my tree.’” GREEN: IT’S THE NEW BLACK

In 2005 Carter founded the South Bronx Green & Cool Roofs Demonstration Project, which offers cool and green roof design and installation and serves as a foundation for promoting the awareness and practice of green roofing. Rooftops are planted with baby sedum and wildflowers to retain storm water and provide insulation and energy savings and improve the environment. The American Banknote Building in Hunts Point, where SSBx has its offices, serves as a demonstration model. Last fall, Carter’s own brownstone home in the South Bronx became the first home in the Bronx to feature such a roof. But perhaps Carter’s crowning achievement is her writing of a successful $1.25 million proposal to conduct a feasibility study for the design of the South Bronx Greenway Project. This community-led plan for 1.5 miles of waterfront greenway, 8.5 miles of green streets, and 12 acres of new waterfront open space includes a landscaped, multi-use, bike-andpedestrian pathway running along the Bronx River waterfront, with on-street connections like Hunts Point Riverside Park, as well as a connection point to Randall’s Island sports complex. The plan, which now has $30 million in secured funding, will also provide economic development opportunities. Carter is hoping to include a food market at Hunts Point

Riverside Park like Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver. KEEPING A LIFE, TOO

Right now, Carter is involved in fighting the construction of another prison in the South Bronx, as well as co-leading the fight of the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, a grassroots campaign, to decommission the poorly planned 1.25mile Sheridan Expressway, built by Robert Moses in 1963 as one of four expressways that bisects the Bronx and has contributed to the area’s blight. The coalition’s plan is to replace the roadway with affordable housing and economic development as well as create parklands with river access. Both fights are being funded in part with the revenues from Carter’s speaking engagements, which are becoming all the more frequent as her celebrity grows. Her personal time keeps diminishing. As with all subjects, she is nothing less than forthright in acknowledging that her calling as an activist can take its toll on her health and spirit. “Saving the world isn’t [supposed to be] easy, I know that,” she says. “I feel great about what I’m doing; I don’t feel so great about what I’m doing to myself. I used to take time to work out, which was incredibly helpful. And yoga was the only thing that made my other workouts remotely palatable. Now I’m trying to learn how to meditate. I’m up to five minutes a day. It’s really, really hard. You can feel your thoughts in your head. ‘Go away, I’m meditating, I’m listening to my breath. I’m counting one and two, and that’s all I’m going to do.’ I can do five minutes of that now, which makes me really happy. But sometimes I just say a centering prayer, Om Nama Shivaya—“I honor the God within me”—and call it a day. If I’m honoring the God within me, then I’m honoring the God within you, and I’m also taking care in this little bit of time that I’m giving myself, and it isn’t taking me away from the world-saving thing.” Carter appreciates the validation of being a MacArthur winner. “The ‘genius’ thing has opened up all kinds of media opportunities,” she says. And she now has

the clout to say what’s on her mind publicly, knowing she has listeners. At the close of her TED talk, for instance, Carter chided Al Gore for having given her the brush-off earlier in the conference. When she had attempted to talk to him about a strategy for including environmental justice activists, she told the TED crowd, he suggested a grants program. “I don’t think he understood: I wasn’t asking him for funding—I was making him an offer. Grassroots groups are needed at the table, during the decision making,” she said, ending her speech with the plea: “Don’t waste me.” It won her a standing ovation, with immediate applause from Gore himself , who later invited her to join the board of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a global-warming group he helped found. Yet Carter also remains wary of her growing celebrity. “I’m still just a squirrel trying to get a nut and help people remember the plight of environmentally disenfranchised communities after I leave the

GOOD DOG It was Xena who led Carter to the site that became the Bronx’s first new park in 60 years.

stage,” she says. “I’m just there because the universe said, ‘Okay, it’s going to be Majora Carter.’ I’m an ordinary introvert who’s been called into an extraordinary situation. I know that I’m in a particular position that a lot of people will never get to be in. I have to represent their needs because I know them. So I am them. Period.” + To learn more, go to www.ssbx.org or www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/53.

MARCH 2008

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Leading By Example

CARTER MAJORA

NOT YOUR ORDINARY ENVIRONMENTAL LEADER Don’t let her looks deceive you. She is a force to be reckoned with as she helps “Green the Ghetto.”

BY ANDREA DOYLE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARIA AMATO

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This native South Bronx resident is leading a crusuade for environmental justice in her inner-city neighborhood.

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HERE IN THE BUSHES, ACROSS FROM her house, Majora Carter spotted a puppy haphazardly tied to a tree. It was obvious someone abandoned this small, frightened creature. Not such an unusual occurrence here in the South Bronx, a crime-ridden, poverty-stricken inner city. “I wasn’t looking for a dog but I couldn’t just leave her there, so I took her home,” she said. She named her Xena, like the warrior princess. It’s a fitting name for both dog and owner. Carter had no idea how the puppy would change her life. “We were out jogging one morning and she pulled me into what I thought was another illegal dump. She kept dragging me through weeds and other garbage … and low and behold at the end of that lot was the river. I knew this forgotten street end, just like my abandoned dog that brought me there, was worth saving. And just like my new dog, this idea got bigger than I had ever imagined,” explained 40-year-old Carter. Today, that “puppy” is more than 80 pounds and Carter has morphed that “park project” into her own agency, Sustainable South Bronx (SSB), where she is executive director. SSB is dedicated to holistic community development, sponsoring projects that create jobs, protect the environment, and bring green space to the inner city. At the time she found Xena, she was program director at The Point Community Development Corporation, an artsbased youth development group based in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. This organization was actively battling a waste facility that wanted to relocate to the South Bronx, her first foray into activism. “If I looked at a map I knew there was waterfront there but I didn’t realize you could get to it from where I lived. There was so much industry and industrial waste that there was no access. If Xena hadn’t pulled there I wouldn’t have known,” she said. After a great deal of research, she wrote a proposal to get funding to help clean up this waterfront area. She started by getting a $10,000 grant. “We were able to energize and inspire agencies, public and private, to help out. There was 40 years’ worth of garbage there that had to be cleaned out,” she explained with her trademark radiant smile. She leveraged that grant 300 times and that garbage-strewn lot led to the creation of the $3 million Hunts Point Riverside Park, the first waterfront park on the Hunts Point peninsula in more than 60 years. That small park also launched a green movement in South Bronx. “Green. It’s the New Black,” is one of the SSB’s slogans. “In April of 1999 the park debuted. It was the first time residents connected to the waterfront in this way. People were out on the water in canoes and kayaks, Carter recalled. “They were saying, ‘Wow, oh my gosh, there’s water here.’ It was a very beautiful moment.” It also served as Carter’s inspiration to reconsider her vocation. “Helping to transform that space was absolutely inspiring. It wasn’t a huge stretch to think about doing this as part of my work,” she said. Carter has an intimate relationship with the South Bronx. Her parents settled here in the 1940s and raised 10 children, Majora being the youngest. She graduated from the Bronx

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High School of Science. Community activism was not a career path she planned. “I never envisioned I’d be working seven days a week for a nonprofit,” she said with a laugh as she sat behind her desk in her office, the walls covered with colorful vines and greenery she painted herself. She is in touch with her artistic side, comparing her life to that of a canvas at that time, just waiting to be created. As colorful as her life has been, she has never strayed far from home. Today, she lives across the street from the house she grew up in, around the block from her office. Poor Black Child From the Ghetto Few can fathom the heartache of inner-city life. “I watched half of the buildings in my neighborhood burn down. My brother Lenny fought in Vietnam only to come home and be gunned down a few blocks from our home. I grew up with a crack house across the street,” she said. “Yes, I’m a poor black child from the ghetto. The common perception was that only pimps, pushers, and prostitutes came from the South Bronx. It was the love inside that home, with the encouragement of teachers, mentors, and friends along the way,” that Carter said helped her prove that perception wrong. Carter earned a B.A. from Wesleyan College in cinema studies and then went on to New York University to earn a graduate degree in English with a concentration in creative writing. After her studies, she returned to the South Bronx with a fresh perspective. It had always been appalling to her that her relatively small neighborhood handles 40 percent of New York City’s entire commercial waste but now, that fact was more glaring to her than ever. The South Bronx houses a waste sewage treatment plant, a sewage sludge plant, four power plants, the largest food distribution center in the world, and close to 60,000 diesel trucks maneuver its streets every week. The area also has one of lowest ratios of parks to people anywhere. Obesity, asthma, and diabetes are prevalent. “Why would someone go for a brisk walk in a toxic area?” she asked. “It was good to come home. I understand why this neighborhood developed the way it did. Regulations were passed, laws were just accepted, because we were a community that is poor and of color and because of that we had less of a political voice. At my deepest level, I don’t believe just because you have the ability to discriminate against a group of people that you should,” Carter said. “I decided I would like to be part of something that actually makes life better for people as opposed to doing nothing.” Civil Rights Movement Continues “No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than anyone else,” she said. “The work we do is an extension of the Civil Rights movement. It’s about equity, it’s about equality, it’s understanding everyone deserves the minimum standard of support and equality of life improvements. Economic degradation begets environmental degradation begets social degradation.” She formed SSB in 2001; today there are six full-time employees and two part-time employees on staff. SSB, Carter said, was formed “not as a moral crusade but as an economic-

Carter may have used a paint brush to green the walls of her office but it has taken a whole lot more to green the South Bronx.

development group that was about planning our future, not just reacting to environmental blight.” The accolades she has received have been many. In 2005, she won a MacArthur Foundation “genius award” for her environmental activism. In 2002, she was named an Open Society Institute Community Fellow. Other honors: 2002 NYC Council Women’s History Month Pacesetter Award; 2000 Environmental Advocate Award for Achievements in Community Development; and the 1999 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Quality Award. Projects Green the South Bronx Another feat she is particularly proud of is writing a successful proposal for $1.25 million in federal planning funds to design the South Bronx Greenway Feasibility Study. This community-led plan encompasses a bicycle/pedestrian greenway along the South Bronx waterfront providing open space, waterfront access, and opportunities for mixed-use economic development. Eventually, she hopes to help connect the South Bronx to Randall’s Island and its 400 acres of parks. The two are separated by 25 feet of water. She has also spearheaded a green roof project. There, on the top of the American Banknote Company Building that houses her offices in the South Bronx, is a 3,000-square foot thriving garden. Living plants here replace the all too familiar traditional petroleum-based tar roofs. She has turned this into a community-based research project, recently adding a temperature study component. “We test different models. The green roof, the black tar roof, and see the differences. We track air quality, storm water improvements, and degrees of energy efficiency here. It’s all about the urban heat island effect and how that’s contributing to global warming,” she said. “I’d like to see green roofs all over the city.” It’s not an easy feat. A green roof costs more than a conventional roof, but yields cost savings over time through energy conservation and rooftop longevity. The main benefit of green roofing is energy savings because the vegetation reduces the heat from the sun in the summer and acts as an insulating blanket in the winter. It also helps rooftops last up to 50 percent longer. Another added benefit is that the green area diverts storm water that can cause sewer overflows. SSB is also creating its own green roof installation program. The Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (B.E.S.T.) is another SSB creation. This program, particularly aimed at South Bronx residents, offers opportunities to gain skills and certifications in ecological restoration, hazardous waste

cleanup, landscaping, and similar fields through a 12-week intensive program. The goal is to provide “green-collar” jobs for residents. Another one of her current projects deals with the building of a state-of-the-art recycling complex that she says would create between 300 to 500 jobs. Unfortunately, she just got word that in its place the city is planning on building a 2,000bed jail. “The way we look at it, the best alternative to incarceration is a decent job, but the city doesn’t look at it that way,” she explained. Carter has become a well-respected leader in the South Bronx, but not in the political or celebrity sense … and that’s fine with her. “Being a black woman as the head of an organization that has the visibility we have, it is sometimes good to be underestimated,” she said. “It has served me very well.” “A successful leader is somebody who follows the needs represented by the population. Everybody has the capacity to be a leader. It’s just stepping up to the plate when something has to be done,” she said. Along the way, she has come to realize the importance of listening, not to be so defensive, and not to take things personally. She has also been “collecting mentors.” According to Carter, “you never know who is going to be your mentor. I’ve had people I’ve only met a couple of times give me invaluable pearls of wisdom in the most remarkable ways. They have been just as important as the people who have been there watching me grow up,” she explained. Leslie Lowe, former executive director of New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, a coalition of 12 neighborhood groups from all over New York City, has been not only a mentor to Carter but a confidante as well. “She was the first person I told about my plan to start this organization and she couldn’t have been more supportive.” Carter hopes to return the favor. “I hope to be a mentor to everybody on my staff, my family. It’s about the next generation coming up. Hey, I’m getting old and tired,” she said with a laugh. Motivating her staff requires next to no effort. “They all know we’re building something vitally important that we can all contribute to it. There are so many folks who pcma convene December 2006

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Not one to let the weather dampen her spirits, Carter happily shows off SSB’s green roof project — in sharp contrast to the industrial blight beyond.

are depending on the work we do.” This is a group that practices what they preach. Each employee has his or her own thermos and mug (no cans or plastic cups). A favorite mode of transportation is bicycle. Propped up by the front door is Carter’s, in hot pink. Unfortunately, sustainability is all too often for the privileged, something Carter is trying to change. “Hybrid cars like a Toyota Prius don’t come cheap. Heck, most people in this neighborhood don’t own a car at all, let alone a hybrid,” she stated. Like the artist’s canvas, she sees her work not as wide sweeping brush strokes but as individual dabs of color contributing to the whole composition. “Our mission is project based, we don’t just do advocacy. We do the kind of work that at the end of the day, at the end of the year, people who walk around the streets of the South Bronx will see in a new park that has been built, or smell because we’ve done some advocacy of cleaning up one of the polluting facilities. These are real tangible things that impact people’s lives. Environmental justice is about people and making their lives better so they can tend to each other as a community.” Full Circle It was on that garbage-strewn lot that inspired Carter’s life work that she gathered with 300 of her closest friends and family members one day this past October to exchange marriage vows with James Chase. He works in film and television and consults with SBA as a communications director. True to form, Carter did her best to make the reception a Zero Waste event. All the paper goods were compostable and all the food waste went to the Lower East Side Ecology Center to be composted. Cutlery, tablecloths, glasses, and dishes were all rented. “We came pretty darn close to be being zero waste but there was some packaging material that we had at the end,” she said. There are not many who worry about the garbage at their wedding but Carter did. “It’s horrific to think how much garbage we would have produced if we didn’t make this effort.” The two honeymooned in Belfast where Carter was speaking at a conference and then they went on to Paris, and Senegal.

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A recent meeting she attended that impressed her from an eco-friendly standpoint was the Clinton Global Initiative held in New York City. Started last year, the conference brings together government, business, and nonprofit sectors in an effort to spur action on poverty, health care, global warming, and ethnic conflict. Participants are expected to make a specific commitment toward advancing the solutions to the problems identified during the conference. She said it was a Zero Waste event. “There were linens on the table. Everything was recyclable and reusable and I believe there was a carbon offset program put into place to make up for air travel although I took the subway down,” she explained. She is not a big proponent of convention centers and stadiums that are not multi-use areas. When you mention the rebuilding of Yankee Stadium, also in the Bronx, she becomes incensed. “They are building a brand new Yankee Stadium and parking garages on a 20-acre park that had 400 older trees in it. They are going to be cut down, just like that. That’s obscene. We are not at a point in the history of our world where we can afford to waste resources.” As far as convention centers are concerned, she said, “To spend upwards of $800,000 on a building that only gets 80 days of use; I find that offensive as a taxpayer.” She is a proponent of multi-use areas that create full-time permanent jobs for the local community. She is encouraged by the improvements she has seen in her neighborhood that is undergoing a slow but sure revival. “The abandoned buildings I grew up with have been rehabbed. Some of the people who left the area have found their way back. Our crime rate is the same as Riverdale, a pretty wealthy area. It’s not perfect here, we have our issues, but our reputation is a little overblown in a lot of ways.” But, for better or worse, the South Bronx is her home. She does see SSB, much like the green roof above her, as something that can be replicated in other neighborhoods across the country. For more information on SSB and the work Carter has done, go to www.ssbx.org. ■ ➻ Andrea Doyle is Convene’s senior writer.

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POST SALUTES 'ANGELS' OF NY WINNERS UNITED AT GALA FOR UNSUNG HEROES

October 21, 2008 By RITA DELFINER Nine of Gotham’s guardian angels were honored yesterday as recipients of the seventh annual New York Post Liberty Medals. The winners, epitomizing the legion of New York’s humble heroes who champion us with their goodness and grit, were recognized at a reception emceed by TV host Regis Philbin at the Midtown headquarters of News Corp., which owns The Post. “It’s an honor to be with these people,” said Philbin. Hassan Askari, a Muslim college student who jumped in to help four Jewish subway riders under attack, said he would accept the Courage Liberty Medal on behalf of “the many other people out there” who don’t hesitate to stand up for others. “New York’s a great place and there are always people ready to help you out,” said Askari, who

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THEY’RE TOPS: Seven of the winners yesterday prove their “medal.” From left (front row): Jane Katz, Educator; Majora Carter, Lifetime Achievement; Ruth Silber, Leadership; and (top row) Craig Roeder, Bravest; Hassan Askari, Courage; Frankie Gaetani, Young Heart; and Michael Cook, Finest.

was born in Texas, grew up in Bangladesh and now lives in Brooklyn. Brooklyn great-grandmother Ruth Silber, an 83-year-old volunteer who runs the library at PS 273 in East New York, was “shocked and thrilled” to win the Leadership Medal.

Silber, who volunteers through the nonprofit Learning Leaders, urged New Yorkers to volunteer “rather than sitting home thinking of your aches and pains. Volunteering keeps you functioning, it keeps your mind alert.” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly presented NYPD Emergency Ser-

vice Unit Detective Michael Cook with the Finest Medal.

on to achieve something for the rest of my life!”

Cook negotiated for seven hours with a Queens man who was holding his toddler daughter hostage, and finally convinced him to release her unharmed.

Billionaire financier Jerome Kohlberg, 83, won the other Lifetime Achievement Medal, for helping push the new GI bill and setting up his own $8 million Fund for Veterans’ Education.

“My whole unit deserves this award, and especially the guys that were on the job that night,” Cook said. Long Islander Frankie Gaetani, 11, snagged the Young Heart award for putting together a 40-member team for the Long Island National Kidney Foundation walkathon. His father has diabetes and endstage renal disease, and Frankie wants others “to understand what my dad goes through every day. It’s important to understand, because it could happen to anyone.” The Post launched the Liberty Medals program seven years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, to salute the selfless New Yorkers who go the extra mile to benefit others with resourcefulness, empathy and valor. A panel of prominent New Yorkers - including George Steinbrenner, Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis , and city Comptroller Bill Thompson - selected the winners in each of the eight categories. Because of a tie, two Lifetime Achievement medals were awarded. Majora Carter, who took one of those medals for her crusade to make the South Bronx greener, said it was an honor to win it “at the age of 41, but it really puts the pressure

rules that were taught in the water carry over to their daily lifestyle,” she said. Dr. Eduardo Marti, president of Queensborough Community Col-

“The most important gift for the young people of our country is an education,” said Kohlberg, who was unable to attend the reception. Paramedic Craig Roeder snagged the Bravest Award for saving two teens trapped in a car that had flipped over. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta presented him with his medal. “Anyone who wears the FDNY uniform would put themselves in that same situation that I did,” said Roeder. “We care about our city. We love the CITY’S BEST: The Youngest Liberty Medal winner ever people of our city.” - Frankie Gaetani goofs with Regis Philbin yesterday.

Former Olympic performance swimmer Jane Katz, a professor of health and physical education at John Jay College, took the Educator Medal. She was saluted for her devotion to her students, including kids from Department of Juvenile Justice group homes who learn survival aquatic skills, as well as the art of “playing fair and the buddy system.” “When they re-enter society, those

lege and a Cuban-American, won the Freedom Medal as a champion of human rights.

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Environment: Majora Carter Bringing cleaner air and a bit of nature to a place where it's really needed

By Karen Breslau Alessandra Petlin for Newsweek local jobs. January, 2007 -- Growing up in the south Bronx, says Majora 'Poor communities deserve open space as much as the wealthier ones do,' says Carter For her pioneering work, Carter received a $500,000 MacArCarter, “it didn’t occur to me that what I had here was an thur Foundation “genius grant,” which she has used to expand environment.” Her neighborhood was surrounded by waste the work of SSBx. Among other projects, Carter has been talktreatment plants, garbage dumps and power stations, and she By Karen Breslau 2007: WHO'S NEXT? Morephilanthropic arm, ing to Google.org, the search company’s glimpsed nature only when visiting the blueberry patch in her Newsweek about ways to take the fight against climate change to poor aunt’s backyard in New Jersey. Since then, Carter, 40, has • Mitt Romney: America's First Mormon President communities. In the South Bronx, diesel trucks pass through been making up for lost time. An artist and urban planner, she Deval Starwaste. Politician onhere thearen’t Rise Dec. 25,Sustainable 2006 -South Jan.Bronx 1, 2007 - Growing 60,000•times eachPatrick: week hauling “People created (SSBX),issue an organization the idea,Bronx, says Carter, that “poor communities of "it going to solar panels on theirSebelius roofs or drive a Prius, • install Heartland: Kathleen up dedicated in the toSouth says Majora Carter, but they can demand institutional change and decent business color are just as deserving of clean air, clean water and open • Intel: Silvestre Reyes didn't to ones.” me that what I had here was practices.” SSBX and other environmental justice organizaspaceoccur as wealthier • The Military: ConradofCrane Carter, that has meant rallying residents to oppose even tions recently forced the operators a local sewage treatment an For environment." Her neighborhood was plant to• mitigate the gut-wrenching odors in the area. more dumping and waste treatment, while bringing na-ture International: Ségolène Royal surrounded by waste treatment plants, garbage Carter’s pride and joy is the South Bronx Greenway, a treeto urban neighborhoods. Carter helped design the “green • Business: Kim Ng dumps and her power stations, glimpsed lined pedestrian and bicycle path that connects residential roof” above headquarters and has and started she a “green col• Environment: Majora Carter lar” job-training program for Souththe Bronxblueberry residents to install nature only when visiting patch neighborhoods to the Bronx River waterfront. Carter discovsimilar roof gardens, consisting of a thin layer of soil and ered the to the water one day when herJefferts dog XenaSchori led her • way Religion: Bishop Katharine in her aunt's backyard in New Jersey. Since through a garbage-filled vacant lot. Inspired by the possibility dense vegetation, on other buildings. Green roofs generate • Islam: Ingrid Mattson oxygen and insulate buildings, which cuts energy use. They then, Carter, 40, has been making up for lost of open space, she helped raise more than $30 million in pubSpielberg Takes a Stab at Reality TV the also absorb rainwater, reducing the amount of runoff that city lic and•private funds to build the greenway and transform time. Anplants artist urban shea created lot into•aSports: park and playground. One day last October, Carter sewage mustand process. Carter planner, recently obtained grant Daisuke Matsuzaka and her fiancée, James Chase, exchanged wedding vows thereto design a factory that would transform recycled materials Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX), an Gymnastics: with a •perfect river view. Nastia Liukin into new products, and organization dedicated idea, says Carter, DECEMBER 2006 to thecreate some 300 to 500 • Television: Sarah Silverman

that "poor communities of color are just as 58 deserving of clean air, clean water and open

• Health: Nora Volkow • Education: The Rev. John Foley

LOVE

t?

January 2007, Switzerland, Davos - World Economic Forum: The “Book of Love” is an initiative of the Forum of Young Global Leaders and is directed towards the CEO’s of the most influential companies in the world. The 24” x 12” hard cover was design by Jung von Matt was supported by Al Gore and visualizes the urgent necessity for CO2 reduction with beautiful photos and quotes from people such as Joquin Phoenix, Cameron Diaz, Jackie Chan, and Majora.

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I LOVE THE SUN BECAUSE IT CHANGES EVERYTHING, AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF THINGS THAT NEED TO BE CHANGED.

– Majora Carter, Executive Director of SSB, www.ssbx.org –

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WESLEYAN ALUMNI GET THE TOUGHEST ASSIGNMENTS

South Bronx, New York, USA

MAJORA CARTER, Wesleyan Class of ’88, is a MacArthur ‘Genius’ and a passionate advocate of environmental justice who is redefining what it means to be a citizenentrepreneur. She founded Sustainable South Bronx, pioneered green-collar job training, and gave residents there a new lease on life. Majora Carter ’88 is changing the way we live – and thrive in our communities.

INSPIRING EFFECTIVE IDEALISTS SINCE 1831

RIGHT, May 2006: Cover story in the Weslyan Univ. Alumni Magazine. ABOVE, JUNE 2009: One of two to be featured in a full page inside cover advertisement to launch a series on notable Wesleyan alumni, along with fellow alum Sebastian Junger. 70

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SCRAP BOOK SECTION

From Top: Barry Segal & Bill Clinton at CGI, Madeline Albright, Barak Obama 88

“We are inspired by Ms. Carter’s example of community-based

projects that merge environmental ideals with tangible action.” — Toronto Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone “Majora has more of what Gandhi called ‘satyagraha’—a palpable, almost physical projection of the feeling and power of truth—than anyone I have met in decades.” — Dr. Larry Brilliant: Google.org “Her holistic approach has fundamentally altered the way planners think about regenerating impoverished, environmentally blighted cities here and abroad.” —BusinessWeek.com

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NYC’s most influential environmentalist — BBC World Service

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“Urban Revitalization Strategist, Genius.” — MacArthur Foundation

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