© 2024 Aspen Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Hip-Hop, Civil Rights And Environmental Activism Meet In Aspen

Courtesy photo

When Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Jr., founded the political action organization Hip Hop Caucus, his focus was on inspiring young people to get involved in civic issues.

Climate change is now a top priority for the group, and Yearwood is in Aspen to discuss the connections between environmental advocacy and civil rights.

Yearwood first got involved in climate activism after Hurricane Katrina. He said that’s when it became clear that the damage from climate change is intimately connected to civil rights.

 

“Literally seeing families, friends, neighbors drowning, and in many cases, particularly poor people and people of color, left behind — it was just horrifying,” Yearwood said.

The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies is hosting Rev. Yearwood’s talk Thursday at 6 p.m. at Harris Concert Hall.

 

 

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.