Actress Antonique Smith and activist Rev Yearwood have joined forces to launch Climate Revival, a new nonprofit that uses the power of music and celebrity to mobilize faith communities and people of color to vote on climate in the 2024 election and beyond.
The duo will host a special event “Climate Revival: Live” in Washington, D.C., on Friday to kick off the initiative, featuring Leslie Odom Jr., filmmaker Maya Penn, and Congressman Justin J. Pearson.
Smith — who appeared in Rent on Broadway and on the screen in Luca's Cake and 2009 Notorious — will be CEO of Climate Revival and has been involved in the climate movement for the past decade after seeing how her community has been affected. She points to a recent Yale study that found 68 percent of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant that causes asthma and cancer, but only 12 percent of African Americans have ever heard of climate justice.
“This fall is the most significant opportunity in history for us to make progress. Across the country, there are climate champions and climate laws far and wide on the ballot that can help rebuild our systems and put them to work for people and our planet,” he said in a statement. “We need to get out there and use our faith, our music, and our joy to bring people together and vote on climate. It’s not enough to survive, we deserve to thrive.”
Yearwood is the co-founder of Climate Revival and is known as the president and CEO of Hip Hop Caucus. He has been the subject of Hip Hop Magazinea documentary about Discovery that chronicles his years of work as an advocate for social and climate justice.
“We are in the midst of a climate crisis and what we need is a climate renaissance. We need to move from fossil fuels to clean energy and we need to use our faith, our love, our culture and our humanity to make that change,” he said of the current moment. “Our environment cannot be a partisan or political issue. We are God's children and we need to do everything we can to make our planet livable for future generations.”
Yearwood added of the plan behind their initiative: “Data, studies and information do not bring people together or create shared bonds; they do not get people off the couch and out to vote. I have been working in the climate field for years and it is always the collaborations with celebrities and musicians that reach the most people, create the richest experiences and inspire the most action.”