Antonique Smith is a Grammy-nominated singer, actress, climate activist, and cofounder of the nonprofit, Climate Revival. This Points of View article reflects her opinions, not necessarily those of Atmos.
Riding through Cancer Alley, the weight is overwhelming. It’s not just the polluted air going into our lungs—it’s the fear that comes with it. The polluters here are like Goliath, towering over these communities, backed by money and power, and even paying some people to stay silent. They seem untouchable. But that fear is wrapped in something personal: the weight of sickness and death. prefab bus shelters
Sharon Lavigne, an activist and Cancer Alley resident, guided us on a tour through her neighborhood. She signaled to nearly every house with a name—a person, a neighbor, who was diagnosed with cancer, including her own brother. Homes were situated just hundreds of feet away from chemical plants; 12 plants within just a 10-mile radius. We saw grazing cows and farms growing sugar cane. Who is unknowingly eating that poison?
This same burden of fear and injustice crops up in Black and Brown communities nationwide. Whether it’s the toxic air in Cancer Alley, the flooding that washes away communities after every hurricane, or the extreme heat that makes our cities unlivable, environmental harm is not created equally. The people most affected by climate change and pollution are the ones who have been systematically left out of the conversation. At my new nonprofit, Climate Revival, it’s our mission to change that. We’re dedicated to mobilizing people of color and people of faith to fight for environmental justice. In places like Cancer Alley, where despair feels suffocating, our faith must rise. It’s where our commitment to justice is tested and where we are called to act, even in the face of giants.
I’m a proud Jersey girl, from East Orange, and at age seven, on Easter Sunday in a Newark Baptist church named Bethlehem, I fell in love with Jesus. I studied the Bible, and I joined the choir, where I learned to sing. If you’d asked me then—or even 10 years ago—what I knew about climate change, I would’ve said polar bears and glaciers. I had never seen either of those things, which made climate change feel distant and irrelevant. I had no idea how much my family, my community, and my people were suffering from its effects at home.
It wasn’t until 2014, when I learned that climate change worsened the damage and devastation that Superstorm Sandy caused in my home state, did I have that aha moment. Memories resurfaced of toppled bridges, buried neighborhoods, and New York City underwater. I looked around me, and my little sister was suffering from lung disease, my mother from lupus, and my father was a cancer survivor. For the first time, I realized that these deadly storms and diseases were far from random. With sea levels and temperatures ticking higher and higher, and pollution mucking up the air, earth, and water, perhaps they’re even expected.
Since that life-changing day, I’ve been fighting for climate action in the best way that a grown-up church choir girl from Jersey knew how: as an “artivist.” As a film, TV, and Broadway actress and Grammy-nominated singer, I know how vital the arts are to touching, inspiring, and changing hearts. In social movements like the abolition of slavery and civil rights, music and storytelling moved people to action, but these powerful tools are still largely missing from the climate movement.
Now, I’m teaming up with my best friend Rev Yearwood, a minister and activist who was declared a climate champion by former President Barack Obama, to bring Black churches into the fold. Black churches have always been incubators for social movements. Think of the church organizers of the Civil Rights Movement, of Martin Luther King Jr. That’s the inspiration behind Climate Revival: to mobilize people of faith and people of color to the forefront of this new civil rights movement—the fight for the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy climate. And we’re doing that by communicating in a way that church congregations are most comfortable with—soulful singing and passionate spoken word.
This month, we kicked off our nationwide tour hosting climate conversations and gospel concerts in churches around the country. Beginning in Cancer Alley in Louisiana—where Lavigne toured us around her neighborhood—and ending at that Baptist church where I found God at age seven in Newark, New Jersey, we’re hosting honest discussions about climate justice and encouraging them to vote for a climate champion. We set out to reach as many cities and people as possible before Election Day on November 5th. At each stop, I sing classic gospel songs and give brief remarks, while powerful speakers like my cofounder Rev, Sharon Lavigne, and others galvanize the crowd to understand the urgency of the moment. Attendees have told us they’ve had their own aha moments—just like I did 10 years ago.
Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s a moral one, deeply connected to justice and equity.
Our goal is to not only raise awareness but to mobilize. A recent survey from Yale University and George Mason University showed that only 12% of African Americans knew what climate justice was, but once they learned, 70% wanted to take action. That’s why we use music, spirituality, and storytelling. Those are the tools that have always shaped and changed culture.
I believe our country, our world, doesn’t just have a climate problem—we have a love problem. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and putting profits above people isn’t love. When pollution is dumped in communities of color, knowing it will harm them? That’s not love, and it’s certainly not justice.
As people of faith, we know that caring for the Earth is a responsibility given to us by God. Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s a moral one, deeply connected to justice and equity. The Bible calls us to be stewards of creation, to protect the vulnerable, and to stand up for those who cannot fight for themselves. This is exactly what we’re doing at Climate Revival. Our churches have been on the front lines of every major movement for change—from civil rights to voting rights—and now, just as they were in Martin Luther King Jr.’s age, they must be on the frontlines fighting for the planet and its people, too.
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Black Churches Have Always Led Social Movements. Why Not Climate Justice?
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