IN BLOOM
A series dedicated to digging deep with movement makers rooted in our Los Angeles community.
A series dedicated to digging deep with movement makers rooted in our Los Angeles community.
Q: If you could use three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
A: Inquisitive, Bold, Ambitious
Q: What have you changed or done in your life that helps you thrive?
A: Knowing my power & setting boundaries! We simply can not be everything to everyone and that’s ok. I use my energy for the things that I believe will serve and bring abundance to me and the people around me and everything else is an unapologetic no.
Q: What’s a life hack you swear by?
A: Rest. Social justice work is heavy and no matter how much we put in a day, there will be more tomorrow. Self care is an act of resistance and if we are not rested we will not have the strength to push the movement forward
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles, what’s your wildest dream?
A: Inclusive, drama free, community spaces. Community really will change everything and we’ve gotten so far from knowing our neighbors, especially with the large number of transplants that move here. I wish there were more intimate spaces where people felt like they could really connect with others and build strong communities.
Q: We envision a community-centric future for Los Angeles. What’s one activity you would like to see in community spaces?
A: Bring back bartering!! We are all great at some things and not so great at others, but collectively we are great at all things. If we pooled together and started sharing resources that didn’t require an exchange of money. I think we could change the game.
Q: What person or organization doing work in Los Angeles do you admire and why?
A: I am inspired by SO many people in LA, so many! But I would have to say Asha Grant, owner of the The Salt Eaters Bookshop in Inglewood (prioritizing books by and about Black women and girls, femmes, and gender expansive people). Her space is a nirvana, it’s all about community and it has rekindled a love of reading that I lost years ago and I’m so grateful.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: If you could use three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
A: Listener, Compassionate, Warm, Driven (That’s 4!)
Q: Can you tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions?
A: I’ve had all different backgrounds. The through-thread for me is community building. I grew up in developing countries representing the US. My mom was a diplomat and, as guests in another country, we had to connect to the community as soon as we were on the ground. I never thought I’d work with an environmental organization because the movement seemed so rooted in and built off of stuff that didn’t speak to me. But when I realized the scale of the crisis we’re in, I knew we needed to prioritize community. That’s where I found my niche. I saw the movement having a reckoning about its origins and it called to me. I really see how people who understand community are important to this movement. You don’t have to be composting or have your water bottle or Tesla all the time to be a part of this.
Q: Q. If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: I would tell myself to trust my gut. When you’re young a lot of people tell you what to do and how to do it. You feel all this pressure. But your gut knows what’s best for you. Also, I’d explore my identity. Get to know who I am. It was only through experience that I realized just who I am as a woman of color in this world. If you are sure about your identity and learn about it and understand it when you’re younger, you can skip a lot of steps and pain that comes from not doing that.
Q: Can you share a piece of advice you’ve been given and that in turn you’ve passed along to someone else?
A: A colleague, Marcos, once said something to me that really hit home. He said that his grandma using her butter tub over and over is just as much a legitimate part of the environmental movement as buying a Tesla or a reusable water bottle. Environmentalism is really shaped by the narratives we tell. So when we talk about inclusivity around this movement, I tell this story
Q: How do you feel connected to the natural world here in LA?
A: I define nature as our environment. There are places of solace in every neighborhood I’ve been to. From a street that has a calmness to it, to my special place in Griffith Park. Treepeople has taught me to notice every tree. I didn’t before. But when you shift your mindset, you feel like you can connect anywhere. We do a lot of incredible work with tribal and indigenous organizations who have shown me a lot. You look at the LA River and see concrete, but there’s a river there. Take away what society did to that river and think about and feel the river itself. That river is not just water that we commoditize, it is a spirit. All of these things are nature and we can connect to them wherever we are.
Q: If you could raise a billboard for all of Los Angeles to see what would it say?
A: A lot of us have fundamentally lost our connection to trees. I don’t know if I could convey this on a billboard, but I'd like it to be an image or question that really cuts to your soul to reevaluate your relationship to trees. I don’t like to be fear-based, but I don’t think people realize how much trees are our frontline defense. When it’s 100 degrees outside, it’s usually 140 on the street and 75 under a tree. That difference can literally be life saving. LA is a city that was not built with air conditioning. We are not prepared for these heat waves that will just keep coming harder and harder. These are public health life or death situations, and I’d want to somehow convey that on a billboard.
Q: Q. How do you sustain joy in your work?
A: I sustain joy by being my authentic self. When I first became a director, I was nervous because most directors I’d seen wear ties or business attire. They don’t talk about going to concerts or send TikToks or crack silly jokes. I was worried I’d have to be a different version of me. But you can be yourself and be professional. And when you can be authentic and have fun with your team, it keeps you going. It’s about relating and being humans.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: What’s something about yourself that you’ve come to value over time?
A: I was floundering a bit when I was young, working many different jobs and going down many different roads trying to find myself. I thought that aimlessness was a liability for a long time, but now I look back on that experience as truly valuable and fulfilling. The wide diversity of things I learned and the people I met- all of it has given me a broader and deeper understanding of things I care about. And I did find myself - I know myself so much better now and the road has narrowed. I have a clarity about life I just couldn’t have gained without making mistakes. I’ve come to value “failure” - nothing’s taught me more.
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: I’m going to cheat and say if I could go back 15 years, because I’m old:) It was 2007, I just saw An Inconvenient Truth and it was an epiphany - I wanted to dedicate my work to fighting climate change. But rather than stay in government, I would make a stronger effort to join a cleantech start-up. I love working in Environmental Justice and fighting polluters, but there are so many opportunities and creative solutions to the climate crisis - I think it would’ve been a more rewarding path to take.
Q: Name what you’ve been diving into lately.
A: I’ve been rediscovering Stoicism. There are podcasts and the classics (Marcus Aurelius ‘Meditations’, Seneca, Epictetus, etc.) that provide great principles to live by, like don’t waste your time on things you can’t control and don’t avoid things that you fear or are hard. There’s a lot of ancient wisdom there.
Q: What do you wish more people in Los Angeles were talking about?
A: Obviously, I’d like people to be talking about what a climate resilient future would look like. Mitigating the extreme heat, the monumental switch from natural gas to electrifying, etc. But I’m more interested in people having more introspection on our own behavior. We are very liberal as a whole, but in practice, we don’t want to sacrifice much for those liberal ideals. We want new housing, but not in our own neighborhoods. We want to save water, but we won’t get rid of our lawns. We need leadership from the city to show people what a sustainable city could look like, but be honest about what sacrifices that would mean.
Q: Q. What have you changed or done in your life that helps you thrive?
A: I went for a heart exam and found out I have high cholesterol and I’m pre-diabetic. So that was enough of a scare for me. I started exercising more and changing my diet. It’s only been a few months, but I feel much better already. Now if I could just get to sleep at a decent hour! I’m such a night owl, it’s killing me. That’s my next goal. LOL
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles, what’s your wildest dream?
A: I dream of an LA that is fully powered by utility scale renewable energy, so energy is plentiful and cheap. We power our cars and our homes and there is enough distributed rooftop solar all around the city so when disasters occur, we can still power ourselves and critical infrastructure, like hospitals. I dream of an LA where getting around is easy, cheap, and clean; the trains, monorails, and hyperloops are easily accessible and fully powered by renewable energy, and there is a massive bicycle highway system where riders are connected and protected when traveling anywhere in the city. Lastly, I want us to change our infrastructure so that storm and wastewater is captured and reused, and we mitigate heat with tree canopy and white roofs and parking lots, bringing the temperature down by 15 - 20 degrees all around the city.
Q: We envision a community-centric future for Los Angeles. What’s one activity you would like to see in community spaces?
A: Well, funny you should ask. Climate Cents partnered with Breathe SoCal to form Blue Sky LA (www.blueskyla.org), where we organize community-based climate projects (tree plantings, urban gardens, etc.) that drawdown carbon, mitigate heat, and improve air quality. These are all volunteer driven projects that aim to bring people together. We’ve learned that the best determining factor of a community’s ability to withstand natural disasters and to rebound from them, is how closely knit that community is. Please come out to a Blue Sky LA project near you, meet your neighbor, and help us make LA a better place.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: Tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions.
A: I’m a Chinese American immigrant, and I was raised in the San Gabriel Valley by parents who had a very singular vision of the “American Dream” but who acquiesced to my insistence on firing my own dreams in their kiln. I wove through a short but transformative time as a biologist then into a radical introduction to urban ecology before I landed in local organizing for climate and labor wins. Having glimpsed the inadequacies of technocratic solutions to the climate crisis, I’m now turning fully towards people, communities and transformation centered reimaginings of our world, starting with my home Los Angeles!
Q: What themes or questions have been most emergent for you of late?
A: “In essence, I think of movement work as being rooted in love. And how to love, how to feel into love are questions that are always coming back to me.
Q: Name what you’ve been diving into lately.
A: With the RePower LA Team at the Los Angeles Alliance for the New Economy, I’ve been thinking a lot about energy justice as a cornerstone of liberation! We are working not only to build coalition and community power to fight for utility justice for ratepayers but also on labor standards for decarbonization efforts in LA and more. Chat with me about it!
Q: How do you feel connected with the natural world here in LA?
A: When I think of the natural world I always think about food. My relationship with food has most always been a grounding one that reminds me of how I am connected to the land. Finding a homebase taco spot makes me feel very connected to LA, as well as starting to garden and share harvest with neighbors. One aspiration I have is to forage more around the city and build knowledge with other people about how the city can nourish us!
Q: How does self care play a role in your activism?
A: I am growing in practicing self care in the context of community care, where I know that my own needs have inherent importance and also that I must exist in interconnected and reciprocal relationships with my chosen communities. I hope to practice care in ways that move away from care as individual responsibility and move towards care as something practiced together - in mutual aid networks, expanded family circles, etc. -for collective liberation.
Q: What’s your dream/vision for LA in the coming decades?
A: Community-owned renewable power; a restored LA River; Indigenous sovereignty and land stewardship; widely accessible public housing; more people biking/transiting than driving on a typical day; basic income and healthcare for everyone; worker cooperatives; lots of outdoor dancing!
Q: We envision a community-centric future for Los Angeles. What’s one activity you would like to see in community spaces?
A: Being in movement spaces I feel that there is an identity of an organizer that is something that only some of us take on as an external characteristics. But I think everyone who exists in community (which is all of us, whether we believe it or not) is an organizer, and that the activities of organizing -communal learning, mutual support, identifying shared stakes through one on one conversations, and advancing collective liberation-should be an essential part of living in this world together.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: If you could use three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
A: Patient, Creative and Flowy
Q: What have you been diving into lately?
A: Diving into pools! Swimming, floating and feeling weightless is the best.
Q: What is an epiphany you’ve had in the last year, large or small?
A: There are a lot of broken systems within the U.S. and instead of criticizing/destroying those systems we simply blame ourselves for not being able to succeed within them. We are not the issue, the system is the problem and it must/can be destroyed and reimagined.
Q: What have you changed or done in your life that helps you thrive?
A: I have learned to say “No”. Not every opportunity is worth my peace, sleep, energy etc.
Q: What does nature in LA mean to you?
A: Nature in LA is a commodity. I very much feel a difference when I am in parts of LA with no green space or tree canopies. I feel at ease when I can walk to the park and put my feet in the grass. Nature in LA is too far and few between.
Q: What advice have you been given and that in turn you’ve shared with someone else?
A: The only lasting truth is change.” - Octavia Butler I tattooed it on my arm and will be shouting it from the rooftops to anyone who will hear me. Change will come whether we like it or not and we need to be able to adapt.
Q: If you could raise a billboard for all of Los Angeles to see what would it say?
A: Land back to the original caretakers!
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: If you could use three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
A: Passionate, tenacious, and curious!
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: Ten years ago I was 15, still discovering my voice, and just beginning to get involved in activism. I’d tell myself that sometimes the future is going to seem scary and uncertain, and that at many times I’ll feel afraid and unsure of what I’m doing. What matters is how I respond to that fear - getting involved with my community and fighting for our planet is life-changing!
Q: What book have you read recently that changed the way you think?
A: I recently finished All About Love by Bell Hooks and it’s one of the most incredible books I’ve ever read. Bell talks about the ingredients of love - care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust - and I can't help but immediately see this in all the work my fellow climate activists do. I truly believe that a love ethic is what can stop the climate crisis and heal our planet.
Q: How do you feel connected to the natural world here in LA?
A: “One of my favorite ways to connect with my surroundings is to work in my local community garden. There’s something so deeply fulfilling about working with your hands and nurturing the earth around you. Spending time growing fruits and vegetables with my neighbors brings me joy -community gardens nourish our bodies and souls!”
Q: We envision a community-centric future for Los Angeles. What’s one activity you would like to see in community spaces?
A: I’m very lucky to be a part of the CicLAvia Team. We’re a non-profit that transforms city streets by making them into public parks for a day! We encourage Angelenos to walk, bike, skate, and play in car-free roads, allowing folks to explore their neighborhood in an entirely new way. CicLAvia draws thousands of community members from across LA county together. It’s a truly special event. If we build the infrastructure for greener, alternative modes of transportation, we can have CicLAvia every day!
Q: What have you changed or done in your life that helps you thrive?
A: I’m very prone to overextending myself. Learning how to set boundaries and taking time to practice mindfulness allows me to avoid burnout and stay present in my organizing. You can’t pour from an empty cup.
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles, what’s your wildest dream?
A: My Los Angeles is a 100% clean energy city with robust public transportation and cyclist/pedestrian friendly streets. We can provide housing, healthcare, and quality public education for all. My dream for LA is an equitable city that protects our most vulnerable and gives everyone an opportunity for a safe and healthy future.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: What’s something about yourself that you’ve come to value over time?
A: Being bilingual. When I was a kid, I thought translating was so much work. I was my parents’ translator as soon as I learned how to talk. I still remember taking my dad’s phone calls from his clients to get addresses for his tree business job sites and understanding customer service skills in kindergarten. I am so grateful because I use Spanish so much. It allows me to communicate with so many more people in my community.” “Gracias mamá y papá.”
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: Don’t stop! You will find your way. I have always been fascinated by all things environment. I shifted gears within the field many times but at the end of the day, most environmental topics are interrelated. You can always find a connection.
Q: What book have you read recently that changed the way you think?
A: It wasn’t recent, but it was life changing when I read Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. It really shifted my perspectives on how I was approaching teaching workshops and providing environmental education and content to the communities I serve. I now aim to learn from and build dialogue and conversation with those I educate.
Q: What do you wish more people in Los Angeles were talking about?
A: Green spaces. Many of our communities in the LA region are suffering in many ways from the lack of green spaces. Things need to get done and they need to get done now!
Q: How does self care play a role in your activism?
A: Climate work can be both rewarding and draining. Rewarding because we know the impact we make but draining because of all the work that needs to be done. There are days I cry because I get so emotional about my community's suffering. There are also days I cry when I see active people trying to make a difference in the community because they care. To step away from all my feelings for a moment, I like to cook and spend time with my family. When I do that, I come back into my workspace more refreshed and excited.
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles what’s your wildest dream?
A: I envision a regenerative version of Los Angeles where we take many approaches to solve problems rather than thinking we have one solution. We need a diversity of solutions to problems because we all live differently and what works for one may not work for someone else. I don’t envision us all driving Teslas. I see some of us riding horses, biking, walking, and having the opportunity to work and stay in local communities rather than commute.
Q: What is your definition of community?
A: I define a community as a strong connection between a group of people. I show up for my community by sharing information on local resources, supporting local vendors, visiting local urban gardens and volunteering when I can.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: If you could use three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
A: Curious, Goofy, Hungry
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: The life you want is possible!
Q: What book have you read recently that changed the way you think about something?
A: Although I was already intellectually aware, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower really jolted me to my core in realizing just how severely political and climate instability could rock our worlds.
Q: What do you wish more people in Los Angeles were talking about?
A: How drastic of a disparity there is between our experiences as Angelenos based on the neighborhood we live in, the color of our skin and how much money we have.
Q: How do you sustain joy in your work?
A: Implementing play and rest as built-in structures of my day. I literally have a daily - drop everything and play alarm on my phone.
Q: What’s your dream/vision for LA in the coming decades?
A: Everywhere I need to go is accessible and safe by walking and biking. Everywhere I want to go is accessible and safe by efficient and affordable public transportation. I have access to multiple clean green spaces and public spaces. Farmers markets and concerts in the park are the most happening neighborhood events. Basically, my future LA feels like an idyllic childhood summer.
Q: We envision a community-centric future for Los Angeles. What’s one activity you would like to see in community spaces?
A: Vegan cooking classes and group arts and crafts!
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: Tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions
A: Art-making has always been my passion and my purpose. But making a positive, meaningful impact on the world around me has always been very important to me thanks to having grown up in a very progressive, politically-engaged home with an activist mother. I always knew I'd live a creative life, but in my early twenties I was at a loss for how to combine my activism with my creative drive in a way that felt truly authentic and productive. I feel immensely lucky that my work with RuckusRoots has helped me find that in a beautiful, dynamic hybrid of artmaking, sustainable community building, and climate resilience efforts.
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: Stay the course.
Q: What’s a life hack you swear by?
A: “Have a playlist in your arsenal that INSTANTLY turns your mood around. Also, get enough sleep.”
Q: How do you feel connected to the natural world here in LA?
A: Luckily, my work with RuckusRoots means I get to help design and implement arts programming that takes place in outside spaces about 6 months out of the year -so that’s an amazing gift. I am also lucky enough to have a car and a Chocolate Lab who loves the water, so I try really hard to get my toes in the Pacific Ocean and play at the beach a few times a month.
Q: What have you changed or done in your life that helps you thrive?
A: Scheduling in my studio time, sticking to it, and keeping that separated from anything admin-related to my art practice (emails, open calls, documenting work, etc.)
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles, What’s your wildest dream?
A: There is no car traffic… only foot traffic. Opportunities to create and connect each other abound in every single neighborhood - for folks of all ages, colors, abilities, and creeds. No one goes to bed hungry or without a roof over their heads. You can see the stars when you look at the night sky.
Q: How do you define sustainability and what does it mean to your community?
A: The concept of sustainability is multi-faceted and intersectional, and thereby not a one-size-fits all problem or solution. But I think that a sustainable future would be one in which all life on this planet has what it needs in order to live fully, happily and in a capacity that enables them to thrive.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: Tell us about your background and what shaped your current passions.
A: I grew up in Downey, in a middle-class tract home with lots of concrete and limited neighborhood trees. My experience of nature involved lots of man-made features, including a channelized San Gabriel River a few blocks away - A far cry from the river my father encountered as a child in Downey-which was surrounded by nearby orange groves, sandy shores to play on, and the sound of hundreds of frogs croaking each night.
Q: What themes or questions have been most emergent for you lately?
A: How do I and others resist burnout from daily news of climate disasters and climate deniers? I have to focus on the work that’s being done and the many successes that are still happening in spite of more dire news. It’s important to focus on the positive, and not feel like it’s completely futile, and it’s ok to take a break from news or screens on a regular basis for sanity’s sake.
Q: What is an epiphany you’ve had in the last year, large or small?
A: It’s ok to not be ok sometimes, and it’s important to speak up to ask for help or space when needed.
Q: What person or organization is doing work in LA that you admire?
A: The Arlington Garden in Pasadena is a wonderful space to walk around or relax in. Michelle Mathews, the current executive director, as well as friend and former colleague, has continued to enhance the space as an accessible and inclusive garden for all. Michelle’s vision for repairing and rebuilding socially, culturally, and environmentally at a local level is truly inspiring.
Q: What have you changed or done in your life that helps you thrive?
A: Prioritizing time with family and friends and trying to learn something new, and listening to new (to me) music each week.
Q: When you imagine a better LA, what’s your wildest dream?
A: Rivers and streams taken out of concrete, a series of parklands (and food forests) initially envisioned by the Olmsted Brothers, freeways dismantled, and major throughways filled with bikes, scooters, walking, rolling, etc.
Q: What’s one activity you’d like to see in community spaces?
A: I would love to see “food forests” with lots of edible plants and trees for everyone to share. Community gardens usually have long waitlists; the desire is there - more open spaces available to the community to cultivate.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: Tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions.
A: My background is rooted in food and service. I’ve always loved feeding people. During COVID, I found a home in gardening. Becoming a master gardener introduced me to new things and amazing people. I started Associated Mothers in Action during this time because I learned so much about how plants give back to the Earth and provide us with life. So what better way to share life with others who need it? Food Justice is a major issue and I love being able to take a passion of mine, growing fruits and veggies, to feed people. But my work is more than just feeding people, I’m teaching people how to feed themselves.
Q: What themes or questions have been most emergent for you as of late?
A: Equity has been a recurring theme. The George Floyd murder spurred so much. Many wanted to believe that our nation was beyond the racism that it was born out of, but it’s deeply rooted in our system. Our system was designed to perpetuate inequity and keep certain folks in certain spaces. This is why the work is so important. We need to perpetuate healthy eating, exercise, education, and entrepreneurialism. We need to see our own people doing this work so our kids can be a better generation than we are. We need to focus on rehabilitating, uplifting, and motivating one another.
Q: What person/organization doing work in Los Angeles do you admire and why?
A: I am constantly impressed with how selfless and giving Shannon Thomas is. She is on the board of an organization called Malikah and gleans food at farmers markets to feed several underserved communities. She motivates so many to do the work, all the while running her own business as a mediator (which she is damn good at, btw)! I’m in awe of how much she cares and gives all the time. TAWA Compost Food Rescue is a Waste Management Service in Watts. They do so much and serve so many. I’m excited to witness this amazing work.
Q: Name what you’ve been diving into lately.
A: Lately, hiking and taxonomy have been my thing! I love to go out and look at plants. I love to look at what’s edible and has medicinal properties. I’m still new to taxonomy and it’s extremely complicated so I rely on an app called “Seek” by iNaturalist. I do a lot of research afterward but I am definitely into it.
Q: What’s one relationship in your life that feels particularly nurturing?
A: Being a mother to my daughter is my most nurturing relationship. She is ten but she is my favorite person on this Earth and my best friend. I think becoming her mother helped me figure out who I am. Becoming a parent has a funny way of making you grow up. It’s not just because I’m responsible for her; she is incredible. Being in her presence brings me peace. We get to laugh, eat good food and enjoy each other's company as we teach each other things. She has taught me so much about myself and I am eternally grateful to be her mother.
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles, what’s your wildest dream?
A: I dream of an equitable LA. By design, LA is geographically separate. I hear so many folks say, “Oh, I don’t go south of the 10”. That’s hilarious. These differences were systematically designed for our neighborhoods to have different schools and food access than more affluent areas. I dream of a space with housing for everyone, where food is always readily available. If I could abolish traffic with an efficient public transportation system! Who wants to drive an hour and a half to go 12 miles? It makes no sense. I dream of an LA that provides a fair chance for all the folks in LA, not just the select few.
Q: How do you define sustainability and what does it mean to your community?
A: My goal for my nonprofit is to teach people to grow their own food to sustain themselves and avoid poison from pesticides. Single moms who work two jobs and have four kids aren’t thinking about buying organic. They buy what’s cheapest to ensure their kids don't go to bed hungry. I’m from Compton, and the four or five grocery stores here have the same fruits and vegetables. We suffer from so many health issues because we have to venture outside of the city. If we grow our own food and sustain ourselves, we won’t have to worry about these issues. I work to do my part to serve my people but I hope we can create access to better food, quality education, fulfilling jobs, home ownership and so much more. I think we can create a sustainable system within the community just as we once did on Black Wall Street. I am just a small piece in this puzzle.
Q: Tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions.
A: I landed in water resources after an environmental service year teaching environmental education and working in land conservation. I became fascinated with nature-based solutions for water management (shout out to living shorelines!) and followed that passion to grad school and ultimately to my current position.
Q: Name what you’ve been diving into lately.
A: I adopted a dog, Leia, from the Long Beach Animal Care Services a couple of weeks ago. So I have been diving into learning how to be the best human companion I can be for her.
Q: What’s a life hack you swear by?
A: Growing roots in a new place takes consistency. Anytime I move somewhere new, I try to identify a run and/or swim club (activities I love) and then consistently attend. Making friends and meeting new people can be daunting but showing up to an activity that I love inevitably helps me build relationships and feel more connected to my community.
Q: What’s one relationship in your life that feels particularly nurturing?
A: I have a group of women that I lived with in college that serve as sounding boards, comic relief, resume editors, advice givers, roommates, and even job hunters (one member of the group sent me the job ad for my current position). They celebrate my wins and raise my spirits when needed, and I do the same for them.
Q: What do you wish more people in Los Angeles were talking about?
A: Water in LA, specifically what a resilient water landscape in LA could look like! What would LA look like if we could naturalize more segments of the LA river or implement more nature-based stormwater captured projects especially in under-resourced communities?
Q: We envision a community-centric future for LA. What activity do you want to see in community spaces?
A: Gardening
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles, what’s your wildest dream?
A: Green space everywhere and a more naturalized LA River that is accessible to everyone!
Q: Tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions.
A: I went to film school and was at Green Media Creations as a media specialist. While I was there, I went to a composting class at the Burbank Recycling Center. I knew about compost because my father was a horticulturist and I’d always had a love for plants. After learning about California’s Landscape, I started to teach classes about drought tolerant plants and soil preparation and edible gardening. When Covid first hit, I was furloughed. I didn’t really have anything else. I turned to my plants and started educating people on how plants can help with your space, purifying the air and improving mental health.
Q: How do you sustain joy in your work?
A: Taking a step back to recognize a living thing, looking at nature - that’s joy. Nature unapologetically is there for us. It’s not our servant, but it’s serving a purpose. If trees could talk, they would probably cuss us out or slap the hell out of us. But they still unapologetically take up our carbon. I look at nature and see it’s just taking up all our BS - that’s joy.
Q: What’s a piece of advice you’ve been given that you passed onto someone else?
A: Write everything down. How you’re feeling, whether it’s a bad thought or a good thought. Keep it and date it. This can help you survive mentally, helping you see progress.
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: Keep believing in yourself. We mine for gold and rubies and diamonds, but treasure is within ourselves. It may not be tangible, but the gold is there and it’ll turn into something monetary if you have faith in yourself, your possibilities and in your dreams.
Q: Do you have a story of your community lifting you up?
A: Before I got into farmer’s markets, before the newspaper interviews and all of the opportunities I’m getting now, I went out and stood on the corner with my canopy and plant stand in downtown LA, South Central and Highland Park and everyone in those communities told me to keep doing it. They’d say, “It’s good to see some plants here because we don’t have a plant store in South Central”. They were just happy to see a brother out there with some plants. That’s when the community showed up for me.
Q: If you could raise a billboard for all of Los Angeles, what would it say?
A: Love thyself and thy neighbor.
Q: What person/organization doing work in Los Angeles do you admire and why?
A: There’s an organization in Gardena called Connected to Lead. I don’t care for the term “underserved community” . I think it’s a trope, but they help communities in low tax brackets by providing resources. Whether it’s education, food, clothing or environmental resources - they do it all. LA Compost is a really great organization too. They’re doing something amazing when it comes to teaching soil health and how to grow uncontaminated food. They are really showing you how to turn food back into soil and reuse and regenerate it.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?
Q: If you could use three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?
A: My original story is all about love. Both of my parents were born multi-racial in Texas when interracial marriage was still illegal (1960… yikes). My German-Mennonite grandmother got on her first plane ever to fly to India to marry my dark-skinned grandfather from rural Kerala. Historically, Black colleges and universities and Black church parishioners were the only folks to hire and house a Presbyterian minister with an accent and a mixed family in the Jim Crow South. A young Mexican girl named Carmen gave my mother up for adoption so she could have American citizenship. Mimi and Papa adopted that beautiful brown baby and raised her in New Orleans amid speculations from the neighbors. For obvious reasons, I dislike borders and grew up as a natural peace builder. Pursuing that path as a semi-adult, I studied Peace and Conflict Studies and Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley before earning my Master's in Public Policy and International and Global Affairs at Harvard. During that time, I lived in India for 8 months, traveled throughout Palestine four times, learned that U.S. foreign policy is rooted in imperialism, and watched Donald Trump become president. I realized that if I couldn’t serve the State Department in good conscience under Trump, I probably could not do so under any U.S. administration — not the way things are now. I became a speechwriter and fundraiser for women and people of color: Congressional candidates including Alex Ocasio, Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearenegin, and Amy Vilela. Then I moved home to Los Angeles to unpack my privilege, unlearn whatever reasons I thought peace should be sewn abroad, and start building abolitionist mutual aid networks in L.A. — which I soon came to know as unceded Tongva and Acjachemen Land. Over the last 3-years, my time has been consumed by two things: 1. Providing Transformative Justice (TJ) and Mediation services through my generative conflict agency, Just Media LLC (justmedia.online), and 2. Smuggling produce across L.A. County. That second project is really a labor of love / my love language in action on food justice. We have been trying to find the fastest, most nutritious, most delicious ways to close the gap between the food that is grown locally and the people who are hungry. Particularly, the anarcho-communal mutual aid collective I collaborate with has found that tapping Farmer’s Markets across the city is a great way to access guaranteed high-quality fruits and vegetables on a regular basis (We can always trust in LA to be bougie). We then ferry that produce from the various Farmer’s Markets to unhoused encampments or low-income housing communities. Folks living on WIC or Social Security often don’t have enough to budget for things like avocados or raspberries. Handheld foods like peaches and oranges can be eaten on the move and are great for meeting immediate hunger. In our experience, people being able to bag up their own groceries or cook for their community at a communal kitchen can mean essential nutrition and essential dignity.
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Q: Tell us about your background and what’s shaped your current passions.
A: I grew up in Boyle Heights, a small community in Los Angeles that has overcome decades of social, environmental, and systemic injustices. My parents are a huge inspiration in the work that I do now for Climate Resolve. I get to dive deeper into my passions of advocating for natural spaces in disadvantaged communities and bringing resources to community members that need them most. My mom’s passion has always been being involved in the community, joining different organizations and advocating for people in Boyle Heights. My father has a passion for growing various plants from fruit trees to succulents.
Q: If you could go back a decade, what would you tell yourself?
A: Read more books and follow your passion!
Q: Name what you’ve been diving into lately.
A: Climate Resolve is working with the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory on building a resilience hub in their office space. A resilience hub in an enhanced cooling center. With a resilience hub, you get the benefits of being able to adapt to natural disasters such as extreme heat, earthquakes, poor air quality days etc., but you also get the additional benefits of getting programming, resources, and many other services year-round. We chose the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory because they are dedicated to creating inclusive pathways to careers in film, television, broadcasting, digital content creation, and ultimately serving the community as a whole.
Q: How do you sustain joy in your work?
A: This work is my passion! I love what I do and the people I work with. Giving people a chance to be heard and bringing change to my community fuels me and brings me joy.
Q: When you imagine a better Los Angeles what’s your wildest dream?
A: Affordable housing, more trees, and a more connected transportation system.
Q: What do you wish more people in Los Angeles were talking about?
A: The importance of equitable, active, and public transportation.
Q: How do you define community? How do you show up for your community?
A: A community is a place that people call home. It is not only a physical space but somewhere where folks collaborate and lean on each other in emergency and daily activities/routines. For example, when I’m outside doing yard work in Boyle Heights with siblings, neighbors will walk by and offer advice and tools.
Q: Can you make us a playlist of 5 songs that have been making you happy lately?