Ocean Filibuster Resource List

Here are ways you can get closer to the Ocean by reading, watching, listening and doing

Right now I want to:

Read

Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations, by Monique Verdin

Environmental Justice

Voices from the Bayou: Baton Rouge Students Confront Racism, Police Brutality, and a Historic Flood, by Baton Rouge Students

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice Report: ​The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same: Living and Dying in Cancer Alley​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A Line in the Tar Sands:  Struggles for Environmental Justice, edited by Stephen D'Arcy, Toban Black, Tony Weis and Joshua Kahn Russell

The World We Need: Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movementedited by: Audrea Lim

Floodlines:  Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six, by Jordan Flaherty 

The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities, by Dr Robert Bullard and Beverly Wright.

Night Fire: Big Oil, Poison Air and Margie Richards Fight to Save her Town, by Ronnie Greene

A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and the Assault on the American Mind, by Harriet A. Washington

A Billion Black Anthropocene or None by Kathryn Yusoff

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

Indigeneity

Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations, by Monique Verdin

Louisiana Creole Peoplehood: Afro-Indigeneity and Community edited by Rain Prud’Homme Cranford, Darryl Barthé, and Andrew J. Jolivette

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South by Elizabeth Ellis

Individual Impact on Food and Ocean Ecosystems

Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have, by tatiana schlossberg

What your food Ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health, by David Montgomery and Anne Biklé

The Gulf and our Changing Coastline

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Coasts by Mike Tidwell

Rising Tide, by John Barry

The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea, by Jack Davis

Draining New Orleans: The 300-Year Quest to Dewater the Crescent City by Richard Campanella

The Gulf South: An Anthology of Environmental Writing edited by Tori Bush and Richard Goodman

Check out a book at your neighborhood library, or head to the Community Book Center on Bayou Road, Octavia Books, or another local bookstore.  Not there? Ask them to order for you!  #librariesrule #BuyLocal

Right now I want to:

Watch

Check out these recommendations from our partners.

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts by Spike Lee (stream on hulu or rent from various streaming platforms)

Big Chief, Black Hawk by Jonathan Isaac Jackson

The Short Films of Kevin McCaffery Local Documentarian Kevin McCaffery has been making film shorts about the food, art, fisherman and culture of South Louisiana for more than 20 years.  A selection of his work is available to view for free on the eprime media website here.

The Women of Cancer Alley A first-ever collection of films made by a group of women who live adjacent to chemical plants, tank farms and refineries along the Mississippi River in south Louisiana. Seven two-minute films, made by the women in a workshop facilitated by the Berkeley based StoryCenter, depict the lives, concerns and activism of eight women. The project was organized by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.

L’eau est la vie Mutual Aid Media In Association with L’eau EST La Vie Camp "If our leaders won’t stand up to stop this pipeline and protect our water, then we the people of Louisiana will. We are building the L’eau Est La Vie camp to protect our water and our way of life from the Bayou Bridge pipeline." -L'eau Est La Vie Statement

My Louisiana Love by Monique Verdin. Keep your eye out for a screening near you.

AND MORE:

Mossville: When Great Trees Fall

Hollow Tree directed by Kira Akerman

Station 15 directed by Kira Akerman

A Village Called Versailles directed by S. Leo Chiang

Beasts of the Southern Wild directed by Benh Zeitlin

Listen

PODCASTS WE LOVE:

Agents of Change - Biweekly conversations that dive into the career paths, the research, and the big ideas from past and present fellows and other leaders in the field of environmental justice.

Audacious Water - A podcast about how we can build a world of water abundance for everyone.

Sea Change- WWNO New Orleans

A Sustainable Mind- Marjorie Alexander 

We All Live Downstream-Clean Water Action

Right now I want to:

Volunteer

Image courtesy of Healthy Gulf

Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana

You can plant trees or marsh grasses, combined with an airboat trip through the swamp. Join CRCL on an oyster boat as they deploy a reef. Or help them prepare oyster shell by shoveling it into marine-grade bags so it can be dropped into the water.  Join more than 15,700 CRCL volunteers by clicking HERE

Glass Roots Glass Recycling

Sign up HERE to help recycle glass and help our coastline thrive.

Common Ground Relief

Over 70,000 volunteers have helped Common Ground Relief by contributing to the tangible rebuilding and restoration of homes, communities, and surrounding wetlands. Each volunteer and volunteer group receives training and education around our projects and programs, is provided with the necessary tools and supplies, and is immersed in a tactical, task-specific project. For weekly updates about individual volunteer opportunities, email volunteer@commongroundrelief.org or follow us on Facebook or Instagram. We also post recurring volunteer opportunities on HandsOn.

Healthy Gulf

Healthy Gulf has a variety of ways for you to take action and work to keep our Gulf healthy. Get Involved Now!

And more:

Sustaining All Life

Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana 

The Water Collaborative

Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy

NOLA 350

Louisiana Bucket Brigade

New Orleans Center for the Gulf South

Green Light New Orleans

The Nature Atelier

Water Map New Orleans / Bulbancha

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

Louisiana Bucket Brigade

Another Gulf is Possible

Taproot Earth

Restore the Mississippi Delta

A Studio in the Woods

Mississippi Rising

A Studio in the Woods

‘Sipp Culture

Get informed about the current Clean Water Act— read more here.

Right now I want to participate in:

Events & Experinces

DON’T FORGET: VOTE!

A crucial way to help the natural world is to support local politicians who stand up for the environment. Texas has local and statewide elections coming up soon! Make sure you’re registered and ready to vote at vote.org/state/louisiana

  • The City of New Orleans does not recycle glass, but Glass Roots provides easy drop off spots in many neighborhoods in New Orleans. The glass is processed into sand right here in New Orleans and used for coastal restoration. Find your neighborhood drop off center here:

    https://glasshalffull.co/

  • LSU Science Café: Battling Coastal Land Loss. It’s no surprise that Louisiana is losing coastal wetlands faster than anywhere else in the U.S. The solution may sound simple: find the sediment to build or sustain the land. But the price tag is hefty. Join coastal scientist Kevin Xu to learn more about Louisiana’s dynamic coast, its nuances and challenges in the battle to preserve land and manage sediment.

    Tuesday, August 29 5-7pm CDT. Varsity Theatre & Facebook Livestream - 3353 Highland Road Baton Rouge, LA 70802

    https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lsu-science-cafe-battling-coastal-land-loss-registration-608103703547?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

  • Halloween Art and Nature Festival: Saturday, October 28, Atelier de la Nature. This one-day free event is designed to celebrate Halloween, Louisiana's special natural surroundings, and planet Earth, through a variety of educational art, science, food, music, and hands-on activities.

  • A Studio In the Woods, FORESTival is the only time during the year that A Studio in the Woods is open to the public at large. This signature celebration of art and nature is fun for the whole family.

Right now I want to:

Get to Know Local Organizations

Green Light New Orleans - Green Light households use rain barrels for two main reasons: to conserve water for gardening and to manage stormwater, helping to mitigate some of its negative effects. By installing a rain barrel or two at your home, you can play a significant role in helping to reduce localized flooding and reduce the amount of rainwater that carries pollutants to our local waterways. In addition, stormwater management helps limit subsidence (the sinking of soils due to the pumping of stormwater) and reduces the city's carbon footprint.

The Nature Atelier - The Nature Atelier was born out of a desire to connect more deeply with nature and my community. We use art, movement, and sensory experiences to grow and inspire a passion to protect our planet in the hearts of children and adults alike.

Land Memory Bank and Seed Exchange - The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange supports community-built record making, education, research and site-activations celebrating the unique coastal cultures and native ecologies present in the climate-challenged wetlands, swamps and prairies of south Louisiana.

Grow Dat Youth Farm - The mission of Grow Dat Youth Farm is to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food.

At Grow Dat, people from different backgrounds come together to create a more just and sustainable food system. On our farm, we work collaboratively to grow food; educate and inspire youth and adults; and build power to create personal, social, and environmental change.

Civic Studio - We are a worker cooperative based in New Orleans, Bulbancha, and the Gulf South. We co-create bold ideas and solutions through storytelling, art, design, and community-based planning with diverse partners across sectors and issue areas."

New Orleans Center for the Gulf South - The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University (NOCGS) is an interdisciplinary, place-based institute that promotes the understanding of New Orleans and the Gulf South region. We support research, teaching, transformative pedagogies, and community engagement that relate the local to the global and planetary. All of our programming is based on the belief that the more we understand where we are, the more fully we can engage in our democracy and collective destiny.

See how else you can get involved!