EJ Changemakers must partner with their community, listen to its values, and support its priorities.

EJ Changemakers intentionally include multiple perspectives from members of communities who are historically oppressed or disadvantaged to include them in the work of restoring justice. 

EJ Changemakers must be strong leaders who set priorities, inspire change, support their team, and manage work, but they must do so without hierarchy or competition.  They must lead in the service of their communities and ecosystems. 

For my action project, I was teamed up with Chris Maurer, the founder of Redhouse Studio. Along with three other girls, we collaborated with his community and worked together to enhance his social media page. We observed and listened to how he created his mycelium building material and also saw his bio-architecture designs for both Earth and space. He also invited us to attend NASA's Biocene meeting, and we were happy to support him. Additionally, we interviewed one of his partners, Bill Yu, who is a part of the Case Western Department of Environmental Engineering. It was an amazing experience working with Chris and his community. I gained a lot of knowledge about mycelium and bio-architecture, as well as terms like biomimicry.

The image at the top is one of the social media post designs I created. It is a close-up photo of a mycelium block made by Chris. I took this picture to showcase more of his work for social media.

Visiting Ridall is a great example of solidarity, despite it being classified as field trip evidence. Unlike other field trips that we attended, which were mainly run by big organizations or the city, Ridall is a community-based and established organization. It was built in an impoverished neighborhood on land previously used as a dumping site. They transformed the land by cleaning it up and building multiple greenhouses where they grow fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables. 

During our visit, we had the opportunity to hear from one of the founders of Ridall, who shared the organization's story and his journey. Although Ridall is located in a disadvantaged area of Cleveland, it has brought hope and restored the community by creating a beautiful green space. Furthermore, their farming practices are sustainable and beneficial to the surrounding communities. They have managed to restore justice while promoting sustainability and healthy living.

During our art class, I created a piece of art that portrays a tree. I named it The Tree of Voices. For this piece, I used recycled flyers that were leftover from our Friday of Futures movement. This art piece holds a special significance for me, as it represents the time when our Fairmont House community came together with our Laurel community. I believe that art is a powerful medium to express one's opinions, especially my voice when I want to advocate for something. What I like about that is that pieces of art can hold different meanings. This piece, in particular, can hold different meanings for everyone. For example, to me, it signifies a call for help from our environment. My teacher may view it as a representation of the community standing strong and advocating for change. Ultimately, this art piece will be part of the Zine, which is a magazine that we created for the artwork that we did during this semester.