Tell me about yourself? Where are you from, who are you?
I am Luna, I’m 17, any pronouns, and I’m from New York City. I am part of the climate justice group extinction rebellion. I’m the arts working group coordinator for the NYC youth branch of extinction rebellion, in short XR. The way XR is structured is it has working groups focused on specific parts of our activism and I am one of the coordinators of the arts working group.
Can you tell me a little bit about what you’ve done for the climate movement?
Specifically in my working group and like my organization, we do a lot of work centered around artivism which is like the combining of art and activism. We use art logs as an accessible medium and especially over the pandemic, it is really effective because you don’t need a lot of people in one space. Some of the things we’ve done is we did an installation outside of Victoria’s Secret headquarters in New York City to protest the treatment of workers and how they contribute to the climate crisis. We had 6 mannequins that we made gory and bloody and also dressed in sustainable materials made into clothing and we had very large posters explaining why they were there. They were facing the headquarters for a day. I was like an art installation sort of protesting Victoria’s Secret and their policies. Something I’m working on right now is Zine, we have semi-monthly zines coming out that sort of educate people on specifically fashion and the fast fashion industry and how they influence climate change. It comes semi-monthly and it’s handed out and we’re just poking around the city.
What sorts of work do you do? Any groups you have spent a lot of time with?
I think the main group that I spent time with is the group that I’m part of: extinction rebellion. I know that extinction rebellion has also done for collaborations with other NYC groups in our area but mainly works on its own and works in collaboration with artists in NYC. For example we have again semi-monthly flea markets and obviously markets will host youth artists from New York City so bands or solo artists that are around our age to promote the event and also so we can give them some exposure and stuff like that. So we do work with other organizations but also just work with individual people and groups that do sort of art, artsy and also are really concerned about social justice and stuff.
I know you’re an artist, so are there any intersections between your art and your climate activism?
Yeah, from my art specifically that I do on my own, I’ve made it like a couple pieces that are sort of about climate crisis specially about climate anxiety. My friend Shiloh has this saying that she says a lot and that she puts in a lot of her writing that is, “do you feel the fear I feel,” and I love that saying and to me very much represents sort of calling out to other people like do you see what’s happening, do you feel this like anger and fear that we’re all sort of experiencing and so in my personal art like I’ve done stuff about that. Then within XR a lot of the stuff that we do is sort of art related so we do posters, stickers, zines and a lot of our actions have some sort of like art component in them.
Why is climate activism so important to you?
Climate activism is really important to me because it affects everyone. It is one of those issues that intersects with every single part of the world. I think a lot of times there’s like this disconnect that people have between the environment and everything else. People feel very disconnected, like the environment is some abstract concept. I care so much about climate activism because it really truly does affect everybody in different ways at different scales at the moment. It is truly like an everybody issue and every person issue, every animal kind of thing and every sort of system within our world interacts with it in some way.
When and how did you get involved in the climate work you are currently doing?
I got involved in I wanna say like 8th grade or 9th grade. I got involved through some friends that were starting to work sort of within activism and I’ve done small things in terms of activism sort of like school stuff before that. Then XR before I joined had this gallery fundraiser that was called No Art on a Dead Planet and asked me to put an art piece in the gallery that they could then help fundraise for and so I just got involved in that and started coming to meetings and got really interested in that.
Why do you think it’s important for young people to be involved in climate activism?
I think it’s really important especially for young people to get involved in climate activism because we are the people that will be experiencing the effects for the rest of our lives, not to diminish the things that other generations have gone through but we are the people that will be here for the longest at the moment, like we have the most time ahead of us. So the ball of tinfoil fire that the earth is right now, we will experience that, we will experience the effects of that and so we need to make it better, we need to make sure that we have the best lives that we can have and that people who are next have the best life that they can have. I also think that a lot of young people are really, not to exclude other generations, but a lot of young people are really sort of done with the system as it is right now and a lot of like the structures that we sort of grown up with. So I think there’s this sense of like if it’s not working get rid of it, we don’t need to change, we need to fiddle, we don’t need to remake this one section. It’s not working so we need something new and I really love that idea and that sort of way of thinking
Has being in New York had any effect on the art you do or your work with the climate movement?
I would say it’s made it a lot more convenient for me. I consider myself incredibly lucky that I was born or raised in New York City just because there is a level of convenience, everything is a train right away and it’s easy to get people involved because you can do things in parks and stuff like that and have people immediately sort of interested in some way. There’s just a lot of freedom and having a lot of places where you can do things. I guess it would say it is easier for me personally just because there is more access.
Are there any exciting events or work that you plan on doing soon?
Yes, so I don’t know how much I can say, some of these products are sort of in the works or we just don’t wanna alert authorities to what’s happening but XR is doing a flea market within the next month so that’s like the big event. We will be having we can trade and barter clothes or just take them if you need them and will have live music and have people selling their art. We are coming out with a lot of new stickers and posters that we’re going to paste around the city in the next couple weeks or so and then specifically arts is working on a new sort of installation type thing that I can’t share that much about.
Your friend Lilah recommended you. Why do you think that is?
She has sort of not been as involved in the climate movement recently just because of covid and everything that’s been going on and so she recommended me just because I’ve been a little bit more involved recently.
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