Environmental Justice
In 2006, we embarked on our first multi-year project, turning our focus to a critical look at our location in the world: geo-political, social, and economic, with particular reference to the environment.
Conversations with Shalini Gupta, a founding company member now fully focused on environmental work, and her colleague, Cecilia Martinez, led us to research and explore particular environmental hazards in our local communities and how these were replicated on a transnationally on a global scale. What began as a one-year thematic focus grew into a sustained exploration, resulting in a trilogy of works on environmental justice and a perspective that continues to inform our work through the present.
Dialogues and workshops with researchers, activists, and organizers nurtured the creation of this trilogy. We formed relationships with people and organizations at the forefront of environmental struggles, such as the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy, Women’s Environmental Institute, and Environmental Justice Advocates for Minnesota. Even as we were overwhelmed by the disastrous consequences of environmental crises, particularly for impoverished communities of color around the world, we found hope in learning about the work being done at grassroots levels by global marginalized communities to urge sustainable solutions.