Nos Quedamos hosts first annual youth symposium in the South Bronx
Mott Haven Herald
By: Rebecca Raghunath
On a recent Saturday morning in Mott Haven, Leila Tazi, who works as an environmental organizer at Brooklyn College, was among a group of climate activists speaking to an auditorium full of high school and college students about the high stakes facing her generation due to climate change. Then she rose from her seat, delivering a call and response invoked at a previous rally.
“The oceans are rising, and so are we,” she said.
The crowd of teenagers rose from their seats, fists in the air, and repeated “The oceans are rising, and so are we!”
It was a dramatic beginning to the daylong youth environmental justice symposium, organized by the storied Melrose community group We Stay/Nos Quedamos. Jessica Clemente, Nos Quedamos’ CEO, referred to the Youth Environmental Justice Symposium as a symbolic “passing of the baton” from one generation of Bronx advocates to the next. The symposium was created to build community by inspiring the next generation of leaders to advocate for environmental justice in their neighborhoods.
“The Youth Symposium matters because it’s the youth really taking control of their voice and their power,” Clemente said.
