Deborah Shariff speaks to the president and co-founders of Black Coral Inc., a nonprofit on the frontlines of climate action. Pam Goncalves, J. Lynda Blake, Mic Theirry, and Hank Ebanks discuss how they are preserving indigenous knowledge and empowering people to improve their communities and environment.
WBCA Podcasts
Urban Empowerment Today
(upbeat music) - Boston, we're back. This is Urban Empowerment today on WBCALP102.9 FM. I'm your host and producer, Debra Sharif, bringing you the conversations that matter, uplifting the voices that inspire and empowering the change makers in our community. After four years away, I missed you guys, and we're here to tackle the real issues. Break down barriers and build the future we deserve. The movement starts now. The power is ours. Are you ready, Boston? Let's go. (upbeat music) I'm excited to introduce you to today's special co-hosts. None other than the co-founders and president of Black Coral Inc., a phenomenal nonprofit organization committed to saving our planet one ecosystem at a time. Black Coral Inc. is on the front lines of climate action, raising awareness about the environmental impacts of pollution, rising sea levels, and destruction of our fishing practices. But they don't stop there. This organization is also preserving the cultural knowledge of indigenous communities and offering opportunities for education and economic empowerment. Ensuring these traditions help heal our planet. Get ready for an inspiring discussion on how we together can make a difference. Right now, stay here. Stay with us, Boston. Urban empowerment today starts now. But let me introduce you to the two co-founders and the president of Black Coral Inc. I'd like to first introduce Pam G. (laughs) Who is the president? And as a matter of fact, Pam, if you could say your full name, that would be awesome and tell us why you're here today. - Good afternoon. My name is Pam Goncovis. And why am I here? Because I love Mother Earth. And I love, I can work to save, and make sure this is some place for my children, your children, grandchildren, and generations of humans to walk. - Absolutely, thank you, Pam. And we have the two co-founders, Linda Blake, welcome to Urban Empowerment today. - Glad to be here. - And Michael Theory, who is the other co-founder of Black Coral Inc. Thank you for having me. - Oh, it's a pleasure. So I'm gonna ask, anyone can chime in. But the first question that I have would inspire the creation of Black Coral Inc. And how did the journey from idea to action unfold? - Well, it began because we were artists. We were our creators. Linda used to work with me on several platforms, including magazine publishing and radio. And we started dealing with millennial issues and Gen Z issues and found out, you know, what these young people really concerned about is the future of the planet. And it had been a passion of ours for a while as well. So we said, if we can get more people involved by starting a nonprofit, then maybe we could make some real changes that change lives for the better. - Linda, do you wanna add to that vision? - Yes, thank you for having me. Yeah, one of the things that really inspired me the most as a mom and as a grandmother is that my young people always come to me and say, "Hey, you know, I would love to do this or do that." But one of the things that they were concerned about is what's gonna happen when they grow up? What's gonna be going on with the planet when they grow up? And that's almost like a fear of theirs, that, you know, how everything is going now with the pollution and all of the different things that are happening, you know, they're concerned about, will there be a planet when they get our age? And so that inspired me to be one of the crusaders as I would call us to, you know, save the planet as a builder. Because if I have nothing to build, there's no planet, I can't build anything, you know? So, absolutely, wow, Pam. Well, my journey is, I'm an artist, and from looking at the environment from doing public odd and seeing the corrosion and experiencing change, it made me wanna be involved in how important it is. I'm also a gardener, an urban farmer, and I dabble in some herbalism, a little bit, and watching and learning and seeing how things are not producing on this earth due to pollution, how things are not thriving. I'm looking for bumblebees, they're disappearing. That's one of the things, I'm in love with bees, so that's one of my calling cards. You know, I hear that all the time, but can you let our listeners know why is it important to keep our bumblebees on the planet? Well, the bumblebees are gonna fertilize our crops, the bumblebees are gonna bring you fruit, the bumblebees are going to keep our food prospering and growing and have, it's economics about our bumblebees, we have to take care of them. We have to protect the pollinators. The pollinators, I'm sorry. The butterflies, anything that promotes natural growth, the natural world, as a matter of fact, most cultures, most indigenous cultures, see that part of humanity's duty is to protect nature because we're all part of it, we're not separate. And if we don't, we'll suffer for it. Yeah, absolutely. The next question I have is how do environmental changes, I should say challenges like the ocean or the rising sea levels impact marginalized communities differently? Well, I'm always asked to answer this one. And I get, I'm trying not to get too impassioned about it, but it's a serious thing. Global warming affects ocean acidification. Ocean acidification affects coral reefs. Coral reefs affects the flora and fauna, the animals of the sea. And we're all part of a chain. The smaller animals, the algae, the plankton, affected by the change in temperature, will get blooms that then destroy the productive algae that create our air that we breathe, the fish that we eat. Now, who here on the planet can survive without air or food? If you can, you don't have to worry about climate change. Wow, anybody wanna add to that? Ditto. (both laughing) Wow. Pam? I think Mike said, he said it all again. Yes, he did, he said it all. And the other conversation that I wanna have, and I do have other questions, but there's so much mixed messaging that's going around about climate change. Some people say it's a hoax, particularly, well, I won't say which party I won't get into that politics, but they're saying it's a hoax, is it a hoax? Absolutely not. I can give you a story from when Mike and myself in Hank had traveled to Honduras and to help out with cleaning the, around the coral reefs. And one of the things that we realized is that most of the locals knew nothing about climate change, knew nothing about global warming. And I tell you, after we went through, we were there for about a week, and we went around and started to spread awareness. When we left there, like maybe a month or two afterwards, we got phone calls, one of the beaches, like one of the major beaches there was swallowed up. It's not there anymore. That was one concern. There was another thing where they had, they had not a hurricane 'cause they used to that, but they had an earthquake. Okay, never had that before in a long time. So we started to, they started to understand the importance of, you know, knowing that it's not just touching, you know, in other countries, but it's also impacting them as well. Wow, that's serious. And we don't get as much into politics because politicians will tell you anything to get a vote, to get in. So we listen to the people and we listen to the scientists. And the scientists are telling us, "Hey, if you don't do something about this now, "in a big way, we're gonna have more storms, "we're gonna have more hurricanes, "we're gonna have less food, "all these extreme weather events, "you're gonna have less snow in the winter, "forget about going skiing." You know, all these things are gonna be, in fact, gonna have less fishing in the summer. I was down in Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, just last year when it was 103 and above temperature in the Gulf. I'm on a jet ski, I'm checking out the sea, seeing dolphins are next to me, looking at me with expressions of what are you guys doing? That was just in my mind when I saw them, it was like, it's not me, you know, but it is, it's all of us, it's off the planet, it's everyone's concern, there's no other planet, I don't care what Elon Musk says, we're not gonna be on Mars living, it's not gonna happen, there's no other place to go, we're not gonna be on the moon, and I'm not into living in a missile silo. So all those movies that you watch thinking, oh, this is never gonna happen, it's not. You're not gonna be going to these weird places or underground or to the North Pole or whatever, no, we're just gonna be really in a messed up situation, and you're gonna be on survival mode. Do you want that for your great grandchildren, even your children, is that what you want? So I'm not trying to scare people, educate them and prepare them, but I always end up scaring everybody. (laughing) It's not my intention. - Well, it's, you know, it's not a sense of scaring, it's educating and also letting the public know the urgency of how important it is that we, you know, that we actually have a plan of how we're gonna resolve this. I mean, if everybody goes silent and says, okay, that's Greta, what's that young girl that goes around the world that talks about, she's like the poster child for climate change. I don't see her that much anymore. I know she got a couple of medals, but I think it's really serious. And I have to say that as long, and I'm saying this to the listeners, as long as I've known Mike Therrey and he was so excited about Black Coral, I really didn't know what Black Coral did until we had a real sit down conversation. And I said, oh my goodness, this is a sense of urgency. You know, we can talk about politics, we can talk about religion, we can talk about education, but we won't have any of that if we don't have a planet. So I think, you know, the people of the planet, they need to know about this information. I'm gonna circle back with what Linda mentioned and ask this question to all of you, 'cause just chime in, 'cause I know you all have so much information and so many responses, but can you share any success stories where indigenous knowledge played a crucial role in solving environmental problems? - I see it's turned over to me. (both laughing) I think the indigenous role would be when we're looking at the welfare of communities, when we're seeing higher rates of asthma and respiratory conditions and lack of trees and trees being cut down and housing going up and supposedly green housing, are we getting the best quality for these green rules? Are we getting what's left over just to make it sound like a job is being done? Health care, infant mortality, so much of this has to do with lack of food, lack of environment, the air that we're breathing. It's all chimed into one without climate change. - Now Pam is being modest because she just went down to learn and study with the Gula Nation. - Wow. - And she met some really amazing people just specifically to learn what they know about keeping the ecosystem vibrant. So, it's not just about the problem. We do go seek out knowledge and once we get the knowledge, we inform the people that work with us. We just finished working with the city of Boston, with a couple of other organizations you may be familiar with, like speak with the trees. Sabrina's garden in Dorchester, different places, different people. And we gave out free fruit trees because we don't need fruit deserts in urban settings. And one of the things about climate change is it causes, because in urban settings, we get rid of the trees, we get rid of the shrubbery, we get rid of the flowers, and we make everything paved. What we end up is these places where heat is absorbed all day and released all night. So now you've turned it into basically a stiff desert. And then we have lack of food access in these areas if it's low income. The simple thing like planting a tree provides a canopy for cooling and fruit for feeding people. So we don't have to have that worry if we just do simple things that any individual can do. - I just want to mention, I know Pam's ready to respond, but I just, just in case I listened to the saying, "Wow, this is some powerful information." But you're listening to WBCA LP, 102.9 FM Boston, I'm Deborah Sharif, and we're talking with the black coral co-founders and president of this phenomenal organization, Pam, your response. - Well, my response would make, yes. The trees, but what do we need to pollinate the trees? - The bees. (all laughing) - I'll tell you, I'm gonna chime in on the trees really quick. At first, you know, I'm usually the behind the scenes person. This is Linda here. And I got so much joy at the fact of just going around to the neighbors and the looks on their faces when we were giving them their trees. Okay, it was like everybody was full of smiles. And even me, I mean, I got great joy out of it as well. And so I would say that, you know, that there's like, no one ever gives me anything like this, like a tree, a fruit tree at that. How long they were asking all types of questions, so we had to make sure that we were knowledgeable about growing the trees. How long is it gonna take and all of that? So I learned a lot about fruit trees and how long it takes for them to grow and how you plant them and all of the stuff that was so great to be able to be a part of in the community. - I want a fruit tree. (all laughing) - We got one for you. - We got one for you. - Now, if somebody wants to get a hold of you, can someone give me that information? - That would be www.blackquoinc.org. The blog read about us some of the images from the art installations, because we all, everybody, even the board, started out as artists from musical art to literature, to visual art. Our artists are artists like Gail Boss, our artist, Lemmerchy Frasier. These people have been seeing in a national level and they work with us. - So, Ruth Rosner, and she's also an author of children's book. - Poor Lemmerchy, and I mentioned Lemmerchy. (all laughing) - Cornell cold. Cornell is one of our people. - Drummer, Brazilian educator. - And let me know that website, Michael, that website, again, got to tag you. - It's www.blackquoinc.org. And also sitting here, it's Hank, he banks, and he's trying to avoid being on the radio, but I'd like him to introduce himself, if you may. - Like you put me on the spot. - My name is Hank, he banks, and I appreciate and love working with Black Quaro. And I went to Honduras, Rotan, and we did some work done. And the people, they were very involved and engaged. And I'm looking forward for us to get back over there and clean the reef, 'cause we got the second best reef in the world. So, I would love to preserve it. - Wow, that's awesome. Thanks, Hank, for your voice. We appreciate that. I know Pam has her hand up, they're like, "She's in school, go on, Pam." (all laughing) - Well, I'm kinda calling for an action. And I think we have to have some action. We have so much blight, and Dorchester Roxbury, Madapien. And we wanna pollinate. - I'm a bee lover, okay, I've already said it. I'm a mother bee, a bumble bee. - To me, if we're gonna really work to change some of the blight that's going on in our neighborhood, we need to call on this city to clean up some of these lots and we start planting wildflowers. So these bees can start pollinating all these wonderful trees that lender and Hank and Mike have contributed to the neighborhoods. If you don't have that, we're not gonna have anything. So, you start an action. Neighborhood people start needing to call not three one, when they need to call their legislators. They need to call their senators and say, "Hey, how can we clean up these lots? How can we get seeds? How can we get the kids out here, the seniors out here, to start planting and beautifying our neighborhood along with cleaning it? We're beautifying it and we're making people healthy. Give us more trees. Do something about the air pollution that we have, the noise pollution that we have on our streets. Stop and pick up. Stop throwing these plastic containers down. Have street cleaners come. Have designate jobs to people. We have so many homeless people. Give them jobs. Have them go around and help clean up these streets. Have them plant. There are ways that we can contribute to people that are less fortunate. We need a call for action. I mean, we all know that, but it takes not me, not the four of us in this room, it's going to take our community. And that's the only way it's going to get done. Go to your urban garden and get involved in planting. Get a garden bed in your backyard. You have the food project. They'll come in and put you a flat bed in if you really call if you're interested. Easy enough to do. So don't sit back and say, "Oh, what's not affecting me? Yes, it is affecting you." Each and every day, every breath you take is affecting you. Pam, you know, that's the question I had. And if you want to add to it, but you, I pretty much answered it, but I was going to ask what barriers do communities of color face when trying to participate in environmental conservation efforts and how can we remove them? That's a question we could be here all day long. Exactly. We need to have action. We need to involve people. We need to educate. We need to just not walk by something if we see it on the ground. We need to pick it up. We need to put it. We need to understand what recycling is about. I mean, me and myself, I see people taking garbage bags and putting them in recycling bins. I mean, they've given us recycling bins. We're not taking care of it. I see things left on the street that are not designated for the days to be picked up and they sit there and they sit there. I just see, you know, we are infested with rodents in the city, infested with all over, just in our certain neighborhoods everywhere. This gets some control on that so people are not afraid to go outside at night or in the daytime to plant. You know, they say, well, they're not out in the daytime. Yeah, they are out there out all the time now because they know what their food sources live. Especially on trash day. And especially on trash day, they're smarter than us. They are. You know, I remember a time, this was several years back, and my landlady, she must have been, oh my goodness, she was close, she was close to 91. And I remember her hobbling down the stairs. She had her recycle bin and she had her garbage bin. And I think I put something, I was down there with her. It was the time we used to meet, right? Just to see her and say hello. And she said, Deborah, that does not go in the recycle bin. And I said, oh, Lorraine, I'm sorry. You know, she was so adamant about it. And here she was in her 90s, making sure that the planet stays safe. And even though she won't be around that much longer. So, you know, so again, everybody can participate. And even though it's a small thing, but it's really a big thing. Because it's habits that all of us should have. And it's something we should, you know, teach our children. And I'm not sure, I mean, I've been a Boston Public School teacher for over 15 years, but I'm not sure if they have any curriculum, they probably do, and I will seek out. But hopefully they have a curriculum for Boston Public School children in terms, or, you know, I know this goes all over the country. So let me just say in America, American students, there should be a special curriculum that teaches young people about this. Your thoughts? - If I could just, if Mike doesn't mind. Yeah, of course we do, Boston Public Schools, all public schools have something. There's so many after school programs. When the kids are just running around, doing whatever, out of control. Take some of that time. Have them, educate them at that time when they're there and they're hyped up and they wanna get out there. Get some cameras, give gifts, cameras. Have them get in their neighborhoods and take pictures of the pollution they see. You know, start exhibitions. I'm an artist. I'm coming from a whole another perspective. I'm visual. Have children, have adults. Start taking pictures, community exhibitions on what we see that's damaging our land, what's damaging our community. Old cars sitting here, cars with low mufflers sitting here. Take pictures of this stuff, expose it. You know, it's like, they used to say, oh, call their name. Yeah, cut this, call it out. Let's call it out. Let's let people see it. If we don't see it, we don't understand it. Most of this world is visual. We have to see it. - That's cool. - The public God. I mean, try one more thing. Many years ago, I worked with a group of young ladies and we did good, we did trash and we collected trash. Then we made two piles outside to see which ones we're gonna decompose quickly. Have kids start looking at that. What is not good with this planet? Start having gorilla odd. Build some of these on the corners. I'm just saying people sitting here at nothing to do, get out here and straighten up your neighborhood. - Any other feedback, Linda, Mike? - Yes, part of our mission is to create programming, especially for youth. We did an installation, and our installation to inform people about not only the history of the people, the indigenous people and the people of the BIPOC community of Cambridge and Boston, but we worked with history, Cambridge to present bottle trees that were designed by Pam Glunkalves and inform youth at the local schools and educate them about the history and about what we can do to do positive things in our community. So that's a key point, what you're talking about is reaching out to the youth and getting them involved. And what we wanted to do is use the arts as a way to grab them and take them away from the negative perspectives and say, okay, this is something that can empower you, empower your community and also get you some positive feedback from the community at large. So Blackquill Inc, it's essential that we utilize our creativity, our artistry to get youth, to understand that this future is not what the older people tell you it is, it's what you want it to become through your work, through your efforts, through your ethics. And so that's-- - Wow, that's awesome. We have about a minute left for the program. So I just want to, nonetheless, Linda, if you have something you wanted to add. - Yeah, I just wanted to just add something really quick to that. Program is very important, bringing awareness is very important, giving people the knowledge, getting more people to be involved. But the major issue and challenge is having the funding to do all of that. - Wow, I hear you. Well, we have maybe a half a minute left. I guess that will sort of wrap it up, but I did have a question about the top priorities for the next five to 10 years, but you guys got to come back. So I want to thank Pam. - We're talking about scuba diving next, so come back. - I love it, love it. So thank you, Pam, thank you, Linda, thank you, Michael and Hank, I know you're in there. And I want to thank my guests and also the listeners. This is Deborah Sharif, you are listening to WBCA, LP102.9 FM Boston. Until next time, I'm on Mondays from seven to seven 30. Thank you for listening.