PORTLAND, Maine — Music with a message here Wednesday, as the Hip Hop Caucus brought its Act on Climate bus tour to Congress Square Park.
"I think the climate change movement has been more on the science side, and hasn't used the more creative side — the music and art — to bridge the gap," says the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus. "So, they can get the brain and explain what's going on, but they haven't gotten the hearts. So what the Act on Climate Tour does is connects both the brain and the hearts together."
About 75 people gathered in the park for Wednesday's event.
"I'm really excited to be doing it," says Portlander Aquarius Funkk, who did a dance and spoken word performance. "I think it's really important for us to recognize the way that climate change and different things that are happening to the Earth do affect people on a very large scale — and definitely especially undeserved communities, disenfranchised people, people of color. So yeah, it was really great to be a part of this."
Funkk and others wanted the event to bring attention to climate change and how it particularly hurts people of color and low-income residents.