August 08, 2007 @ 12:59 pm

Majora Carter: The Green Thumb

Email this article Print this article Send us a tip

Creating a Sustainable South Bronx. From our September Juice list.

Since 2001, Majora Carter's grassroots organization, Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX), has challenged power plants, sewage-treatment facilities, landfills, diesel-truck fleets, and government officials to clean up their acts, often with phenomenal success. Carter's South Bronx Greenway Project, secured $30 million to create a bicycle/pedestrian path along the South Bronx waterfront. Carter has also made the largely white environmental movement a cause that people of color can get behind. SSBX has raised millions to train people for "green-collar" jobs in the Bronx as part of its three-month River Heroes program, schooling residents in riverine and estuarine restoration. "We realize that people just don't know what's happening," Carter says of her beloved Boogie Down 'hood. "We want to make sure they're empowered." For more interviews from our Juice list, click here. NAME: Majora Carter
AGE: 40
BORN: South Bronx, New York
RESIDES: South Bronx, New York PERSONAL MOTTO:
"Remember who you are. It's about being black; it's about being a woman; it's about being from this poor neighborhood [in the South Bronx]; it's about being smart; and it's about never forgetting that." SOMETHING I DO EVERY DAY FOR SANITY:
"Laugh with my husband. He's one of the most stabilizing and funny forces in my life." PLACE WHERE I'M MOST PRODUCTIVE:
"I just need a desk. It doesn't matter if it's a picnic table." FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING:
"I have a friend who runs this theater called B.A.A.D. [Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance] and they created a line of clothing of underwear. I have a pair that says "Baadass Woman." [laughs] MOST FRUSTRATING MOMENT:
"Working on trying to build green collar jobs in the community, but having the city decide they'd rather build a jail in the same place." PERSON I ADMIRE MOST:
"There's this group that I meet up with called the 'Tini Club, which is short for martinis. It's a group of older women that [have been] involved in social justice, and some of them are lawyers and some of them run media [outlets]. They've literally been amazing." 5 YEARS AGO, MY GOAL WAS...:
"To continue to create the most amazing organization that changed the environmental and economic quality of life for people in the South Bronx." 5 YEARS FROM NOW, MY GOAL IS...:
"Ultimately still working to improve the quality of life of poor people of color." BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING OUR GENERATION:
"I find that for the teenage boys that live on my block, they think that the most they can grow up to do is sell drugs." FAVORITE BOOK, AND WHY:
"It's called Open House (Picador). The author, Patricia Williams, is a brilliant black woman, academic, who openly examines race in the black middle class. It's just brilliant." FAVORITE MOVIE, AND WHY:
"Raging Bull (United Artists). It's possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen."

Page printed from:
http://www.vibe.com/juice07/2007/08/majora_carter_npg/

Return to previous page