African Americans and the Search for Climate Justice

1400 Wheat Street,Columbia SC 29201

30 November, 2021

Description

This event will feature the film, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, followed by a conversation with Michelle Lanier, Executive Producer. "Mossville, Louisiana: A once-thriving community founded by formerly enslaved and free people of color, and an economically flourishing safe haven for generations of African American families. Today it’s a breeding ground for petrochemical plants and their toxic black clouds. Many residents are forced from their homes, and those that stay suffer from prolonged exposure to contamination and pollution. Amid this chaos and injustice stands one man who refuses to abandon his family’s land - and his community." This is a story about climate justice and environmental racism. What are the short-term effects of harmful chemicals being released into water supplies and the ground over time? How do these chemicals contribute to cancer and other diseases in African American communities? How do members of the community resist the efforts of companies to displace them? What are the calls to action? The film, Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, will give us a chance to discuss what happened in Louisiana and also think about similar issues facing African American communities, in the South and other regions, due to pollution, floods, and contaminants in food and water. Learn more about the Mossville Project here. Michelle Lanier is an AfroCarolina folklorist, oral historian, museum professional, filmmaker and educator with over two decades of commitment to her callings. Raised in both Columbia and Hilton Head, South Carolina, and having ancestral roots in the sandhills, coastal plain, and upper piedmont of North Carolina, Michelle's ancestral geography guides much of her interdisciplinary work. Michelle is a graduate of Spelman College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a seasoned public humanities professional, in 2018, Michelle was named as the first African American director of all of North Carolina's 25 state-owned historic sites. She has also served on the faculty of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University since 2000. This work has led to Michelle's role as Documentary Doula (aiding the birth of films) most notably the award-winning Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, which reveals a global south story of resistance to environmental racism. Mossville has been translated into five languages, screened on six continents, and chosen by the United Nations in an effort to raise awareness about the climate crisis and it's impact on the lives of people of African descent. This event is part of the Arts and Sciences 2021 Theme Semester Events on Climates at the University of South Carolina.