Colorado artists, including Briget Law of Elephant Revival and Jonny 5 of The Flobots, and local community organizers have collaborated with Resonar Lab, an international artist collective, to create original music and accompanying video highlighting the plight of frontline BIPOC communities in the fight against harmful pollution and climate change.
Resonar Lab spent two weeks working in frontline communities in some of the most polluted zip codes in the United States, such as Denver’s Elyria Swansea neighborhoods, to meet and learn from impacted folks about their experiences of trauma, pollution, and politics. This neighborhood is surrounded by the railroad, highway, Purina plant, Xcel gas plant, Suncor refinery and sits on two EPA superfund sites. Local mothers describe Suncor as “the fire breathing dragon that is stealing the breath and life away from her children,” says Harmony Cummings, a local community organizer with The Green House Connection Center. The video features many impacted community members and activists and the common themes that were shared. The final artwork includes English, Spanish, and Nahuatl languages to represent the many people and cultures affected by industrial pollution in Colorado.
“The destruction of fracking, the interconnectedness of environmental and social issues in Colorado, disproportionate impacts on communities of color, particularly Afro-Americans, Latinos, Chicanos and Native People, the resilience and resistance of said communities, and the need to reconnect with nature for environmental protection were all common themes we heard from frontline communities throughout our time in Colorado,” said Ivan Txaparro, Director of Resonar Lab.
Community organizers featured in the video are calling on Governor Polis to take swift action to address the issue by first appointing BIPOC folks from disproportionately impacted communities to become commissioners and board members, especially in positions related to land, air, and water. “Healthy communities are our most precious resource and should be protected from predatory behaviors with constant awareness and analysis. Listening, learning, and modeling with communities lived experiences of folks on the frontline is critical to creating authentically equitable new regulations and enforcement to local protections of our air, land, water, and people. Appointing impacted community members in decision making spaces is the first step in doing so,” Renee Millard-Chacon, a frontline organizer at Womxn From The Mountain, Environmental Justice Action Taskforce Member, Commerce City Council Womxn working for equity in Commerce City Colorado, said of the matter.
The song is titled “Cumbia Chicanombiana”. Cumbia is an ancestral rhythm from Colombia that embodies Afro-indigenous resistance in Latin America through its cultural fusion, symbolizing resistance against historical oppression. Chicanombiana is a word that emerged during the participatory work with the musicians and artists, representing the mix between Chicano music and the ancestral Colombian origin of this musical genre.
Watch the video: https://bit.ly/chicanombiana.
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