Majora Carter - Green Jobs, Green Media

In my post “Democratic National Convention and Beyond”, I talked about my excitement to see Majora Carter and Lester Brown speak at the American Renewable Energy Day Conference. Majora provided her insights to two panel discussions, one focused on a recent Arctic trip with progressive leaders and the other on media’s role in social change. She was often deferred to on questions of grass roots organizing and activism, and provided interesting perspective on political and media strategies.

Majora is transitioning out of her role at Sustainable South Bronx and into new ventures including the launch of her new company, The Majora Carter Group, and upcoming radio and television shows. The Majora Carter Group is focused on green jobs consulting to businesses and municipalities (video clip coming soon). The radio show called Promise Land will be airing on NPR. The television program, City 2.0, will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel.

I appreciated Majora even more after hearing her speak . I found we share many ideas on effective change strategies. I have felt for a long time that we need new celebrities, celebrated for their contribution to humanity and progress vs. the current mass culture fascination with stars. Majora has done this in her work for the Sundance Channel where she was co-host of The Green. She created a 13 part web series called “Eco-Heros” including interviews with Shai Agassi and Zem Joaquin. She also speaks from experience of the power and need in this movement for everyone to step up as a leader in addressing issues and creating positive change. We also share an interest in city solutions, as you may know from other posts on Transition Town initiatives and the Climate Prosperity Project framework. Lastly, I respect the stand she took as activist for Tibet during the running of Olympic torch in San Francisco.

For more on her past work see her T.E.D. Talk:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal.html