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BLAC Re-Membering Podcast
Welcome to the Black Appalachian Coalitions podcast entitled Black Re-Membering, where we will bring to you the heavy and the hope across the Ohio River Valley.
This is a place where we will let our souls wander. A place where we will sit in the ancestral hymns of what continues to be embedded in our soul and keeps us moving. This is a place where we will remind ourselves that we are deeply rooted in the fabric of the Appalachian region and that the Black Voice has something to say.
We want to remember who we are, and where we've come from. We are remembering our Black past and we are rooted, and we are here to stay. Welcome to Black Re-Membering. Here is where we hope that you find your place, your space, and your voice.
BLAC Re-Membering Podcast
Pervasive Petrochemicals with Dr. Patricia M DeMarco
BLAC's Cultural and Narrative organizer, NitaJade, hosts today’s episode of the BLAC Re-Membering Podcast with special guest Dr. Patricia M DeMarco, Author, Activist, Environmental Justice Advocate, and Co-Conspirator.
Dr. Patricia M. DeMarco is a Pittsburgh author with a doctorate in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. She has spent a fifty-year career in energy and environmental policy in both private and public sector positions. She now writes and lectures in the fields of sustainability, energy and environmental policy, and natural history.
She learned her craft in public policy from Connecticut Governor Ella T. Grasso, for whom she served as policy advisor to the National Governors Association Low Level Nuclear Waste Compact negotiations. Following her position as Demand Side Manager for the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, she served is a Commissioner of the Regulated Utilities Commission of Alaska.
She returned to Pittsburgh in 2006, and served as Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Homestead Association then as Director of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University, where she now holds an appointment as Senior Scholar and Adjunct Faculty.
Dr. DeMarco sits on the Board of Trustees for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and for The Allegheny Land Trust. She is also a Principal Associate in The Main Street Associates, headquartered in Braddock, PA. Dr. DeMarco shares more about her work fighting toxic petrochemical pollution in Allegheny County, the pervasive nature of petrochemicals, and how they affect our daily lives. Tune into this episode to learn how petrochemicals harm our communities!
The mission of the Black Appalachian Coalition (BLAC) is to build a multi-state campaign that amplifies black voices, dismantles the colonized narrative of Appalachia, and uses story-based strategies and solutions that center the voices and lived experiences of Black Appalachians.
For more stories and information about The Black Appalachian Coalition please visit www.blackappalachiancoalition.org.