Colette Pichon Battle is a generational native of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. The ebb and flow of the Bayou was a background rhythm in her childhood to every aspect of life. She did not ever imagine in that childhood that she would one day be known as a “climate activist.” To be with Colette, and experience her brilliance of mind and spirit and action, is to open up all the ways the words we use and the stories we tell about the transformation of the natural world that is upon us blunt us to the courage we’re called to and the joy we must nurture as our primary energy and motivation. She is a vivid embodiment, too, of the new forms societal shift is taking in our world — led by visionary pragmatists close to the ground, in particular places, persistently and lovingly learning and leading the way for us all. 

Colette Pichon Battle is founder and Co-Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, which influences realms from equitable disaster recovery to global migration, from community economic development to climate justice and energy democracy. She founded that center in the wake of Hurricane Katrina of 2005, which she has described as “a crack in the universe.” Katrina was a front edge of a transformation we are all experiencing in some way in the places we love and come from. Among her many activities she serves on the board of the US Climate Action Network and leads the Red, Black & Green New Deal — the climate initiative of the Movement for Black Lives.

This conversation was part of The Great Northern Festival, a celebration of Minnesota’s cold, creative winters.

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.