The Bush Administration had just denied 17 states the right to set strict emission standards for the automobile industry. Floored by the divide between the people and the power, Joseph knew it was his time to take a stand.

“It became clear to me at that point that the Administration was so deeply in the pocket of big oil that they neglected the stewardship of the planet, which is all of our collective responsibility,” Joseph says. “That was my true Ah-Ha moment.”

Bamuthi Joseph, a renowned performer and the artistic director of The Living Word Project and Youth Speaks, began combing the environmental community for allies of color, but after colliding with the green movement’s alarming segregation, decided to shift his focus from green to brown. One year later, he founded Life is Living, a one day festival that uses performance installations to encourage people of color to engage in the green movement by investing in life.

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“Life is Living is a national campaign to remind people that life is worth living and living is green,” says Rolando “Grow” Brown, chief cultivator of Parallel MVMT.  “It’s an opportunity for us to change the dominant narrative around what it means for people from urban communities and people of color to be involved both powerfully and purposely in a green economy.”

Born in West Oakland yet cultivated across the country, Life is Living creates an energetic outdoor experience to introduce movement, visual arts, and eco-engagement to communities often excluded from the conversation. From a graffiti battle between 16 artists painting the word ALIVE, to a local church selling seedlings for $1, the organization is developing creative ways to grow urban communities.

“West Oakland is a neighborhood not unlike Harlem, with mostly black and brown folks who are disenfranchised and underdeveloped, so we wanted to do something that would mean a lot to the community,” says Chinaka Hodge, associate artistic director of the Living Word Project.  “We’re identifying things that people of color are already engaged in that are friendly to the environment, from the skating, dancing, the music, and bikes. We also want to message it in an appropriate way, so we have the [graffiti] writers write things that are significant. Last year, we had them write “LIFE.”

Life is what came to Harlem’s Riverside Park on May 9, 2009, the second city on the festival’s route. Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn are scheduled to get schooled by the Life is Living crew at up-coming festivals, and a performance piece documenting these events called “red black and GREEN: a blues” is currently in the works.

“What I thought was feasible was using hip hop culture as a way to de-corporatize green by focusing on sustainable survival practices through the things we do in our everyday life that are celebrations of self and community,” Joseph says. “The idea is that by focusing on life and the lives that we live, we create a living or organic bridge to green living and green culture.”

Words from the Reporter: Does the green movement speak to you? How do you find ways to connect to your environment? It blows my mind that “going green” isn’t universally accepted, when taking certain steps could actually save our lives. I LOVE what Life is Living is doing for the community, yet we need more people like Marc Bamuthi Joseph to make a difference. What do you think it will take?