Launched in the Spring of 2020, the Race and Climate Reading group was created in response to Cooper Union student requests to invest in discussions that center issues of race and social justice and how they intersect with the climate crisis that we are all deeply mired in at the moment. As we all know, the climate crisis effects communities of color first, and disproportionately. And, as the readings all attest, this is reflective of and a culmination of centuries of oppression, and settler colonialism. The concept of the group:

• We read about the intersection of race and climate across multiple genres
• We privilege writers and thinkers of color

Friday, October 28th, 1 pm – 3 pm, The Cooper Union Library

A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis by Vanessa Nakate

In A Bigger Picture, Vanessa Nakate shares her story as a young Ugandan woman who sees that her community bears disproportionate consequences to the climate crisis. At the same time, she sees that activists from African nations and the global south are not being heard in the same way as activists from white nations are heard. Inspired by Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, in 2019 Nakate became Uganda’s first Fridays for Future protestor, awakening to her personal power and summoning within herself a commanding political voice.

For questions, and for the texts, please email nada.ayad@cooper.edu