Image credit: GCF Office Coordinator and Special Projects Assistant Michaela Jarvis
Dear GCF Community,
Happy Women’s History Month!
Among the many past and present, local and national, sung and unsung “sheroes” who inspire us here at GCF in their leadership for a better world starting with our equitable, inclusive green city, we hope the below words from these highlighted female change-makers across social, economic and environmental justice spaces speak to you as much as they speak to us and our movement-building at GCF.
“I am a Black Feminist. I mean I recognize that my power as well as my primary oppressions come as a result of my Blackness as well as my womaness, and therefore my struggles on both of these fronts are inseparable.” – Audre Lorde, self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”; writer, scholar, activist who advocated for equal rights and equity across intersections including race, gender, sexual orientation, class
“Sí se puede” “Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” – Dolores Huerta, Latina civil rights activist, advocating for farmworkers, laborers and environmental justice, women, immigrant, Latine, LGBTQ and other marginalized communities’ rights
“Food sovereignty is an affirmation of who we are as indigenous peoples and a way, one of the most surefooted ways, to restore our relationship with the world around us.” – Winona LaDuke, Anishinaabe activist, writer, economist, advocating for Indigenous, women’s, environmental and economic rights
Photo Credits (starting from top left): Audre Lorde – Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; Dolores Huerta – George Ballis//George Ballis/Take Stock/The Image Work via NPR; Winona LaDuke – via the Heroine Collective; Yuri Kochiyama – via Zinn Education Project; Grace Lee Boggs – the Boggs Center via Declarasian.org; Hattie Carthan – via the Brooklyn Library.
“So, transform yourself first…Because you are young and have dreams and want to do something meaningful, that in itself, makes you our future and our hope. Keep expanding your horizon, decolonize your mind, and cross borders.” – Yuri Kochiyama, Japanese American civil rights activist and former Manhattanville Houses resident who advocated for social and racial justice
“We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously.” – Grace Lee Boggs, Chinese American civil rights activist and writer, who advocated for racial, environmental, feminist and labor justice
“We’ve already lost too many trees, houses and people…your community – you owe something to it. I didn’t care to run.” – Hattie Carthan, Black environmentalist and Brooklyn organizer, who advocated for the importance of neighborhood trees, economic development and community empowerment
With much appreciation and admiration for all the inspiring women in our lives who have influenced the course of our collective work,
The GCF team