Join Black Girl Environmentalist and Studio Museum in Harlem for a Climate Week gathering. Obsidian: Soil, Soul, Song is a day-long program of environmental justice education featuring local environmentalists and organizations that support, advocate, and promote community needs and the prosperity of urban and natural environments across the Black diaspora.

Workshops and activations are drop-in and have limited capacity. RSVP is encouraged.

This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation will be provided.

12:00–1:15 pm
Obsidian: The Black Anthropocene

Start the day with an opening panel from Harlem and New York State’s leading Black environmental and climate leaders as they reflect on the question, “What is the Black Anthropocene?” The panel emphasizes methods of Black thriving and well-being that advocate and promote Black ecology and environmentalism.

Moderated by Kolu Zigbi-Johnson, this conversation between Karen Washington, farmer and activist at Rise and Root Farm; Joanna Dorsey, executive director for policy and social impact at Black Farmers United-NYS; and Amaha Kassa, founder and executive director of African Communities Together, will discuss the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Black and Brown communities, ecological stewardship, and public policy change through the prism of intersectionality. This discussion explores tools from across the African diaspora to advance our collective future in New York City.

RSVP Required

The panel will be followed by a performance by fellows from BLIS Collective.



1:00–3:30 pm
The Three Sisters: Oshun, Yemoja, Oya

Celebrate Harlem Climate Week with art-making workshops, demonstrations, and conversations rooted in nature-driven wellness.



Wellness SKY, Roof Terrace

Enjoy the views on the terrace while engaging in a movement workshop led by Black Girl Fight Club and a laugh meditation led by Laraaji.


1:00–2:00 pm 
Laugh Meditation

Laraaji brings his daily meditation practice to the Studio Museum. Participants are encouraged to bring their own yoga mats.

RSVP Required



2:30 – 3:30 pm
Black Girl Yoga Club

Black Girls Fight Club, leads a yoga session crafted for Black women, femmes, and non-binary individuals seeking a yoga sanctuary led by instructors who can understand their experiences. Participants are encouraged to bring their own yoga mats.

RSVP Required

1:30 – 3:00 pm
Out the Mud

Join Lorena James in learning how invasive plants that are usually pulled and destroyed can become something beautiful. This demo turns invasive kudzu into wearable hair beads in a hands-on look at “soil-punk”–inspired upcycling. This demo turns invasive kudzu into wearable hair beads in a hands-on look at “soil-punk”–inspired upcycling, with hair bundles supplied by Ciara Imani May.

RSVP Required

1:30 – 3:30 pm
Knowledge of the Hands (El Saber de las Manos)

Knowledge of the Hands (El Saber de las Manos) is a participatory mending and repair experience led by Repair Café El Barrio. Through a series of thirty-minute sessions, participants will learn practical skills for extending the life of their clothing: an introduction to using a sewing machine with Rocío Salceda, hemming and essential hand-stitches with Alec Stein, and visible mending and sashiko-inspired techniques with Ari Tabei. Participants may also bring one personal item for guidance and simple repairs. Together, these activities celebrate repair as embodied knowledge, learned through practice, and passed from hand to hand.

RSVP Required




1:00–3:30 pm
Conversation and Connection on Local Climate Action

Grab some seeds provided by Oko Farms and connect with Harlem and New York City climate organizations and learn about the work they do.

RSVP Required

4:00–5:00 pm
Soil, Soul, Song: Closing Musical Performance

Join us for a musical performance on the Stoop to close out the day.

RSVP Required

Black Girl Environmentalist is a national organization dedicated to addressing the pathway and retention issue in the climate movement for Black girls, women, and gender-expansive people. They resource, re-center, and rally Black girl environmentalists (BGEs) to empower them to take collective action against the climate crisis.

Kolu Zigbi is a Harlemite whose life work has been informed by the communal culture and traditional indigenous knowledge of her Loma people, who have lived for generations in the Upper Guinea Rainforest of Liberia. A facilitative strategist, “re-sorceress”, connector, coach, and catalyst, Kolu co-creates pathways to social and environmental justice. She partners with grassroots groups to activate participatory grantmaking and investments, and with foundations to grow funding for collaborative world-building led by people of the global majority. With twenty years of experience as a grant maker, she's supported sustainable local and regional food systems and environmental justice. As the co-founder of Community Food Funders, a philanthropic organizing project of the North Star Fund, she promoted a more equitable, ecologically sound food shed for New York City. Kolu is a 2025 recipient of the Rachel’s Network inaugural Legacy Award and a 2014 recipient of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Kolu's call to action is Wage Love.


Karen Washington is a farmer and activist. She is Co-owner and Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York and Co-Founder of Black Farmer Fund. An activist, food advocate. A pioneer in the world of urban agriculture; in 2010 she co- Founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings. Karen has received numerous awards most recently the co-recipient of the 2023 James Beard Humanitarian Award and the 2024 Emerson Collective Fellowship. She has also been credited with the term food apartheid instead of food desert, to bring to the forefront the inequities seen in the food system. Mama K as she is known in the community, serves on the boards of the New York Botanical Gardens, Soul Fire Farm, and the Mary Mitchell Center.


Amaha Kassa is the founder and Executive Director of African Communities Together. Amaha has twenty-five years of professional experience as a labor and community organizer, nonprofit director, and social entrepreneur. For nine years, Amaha directed East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a workers’ rights nonprofit in Oakland, California, growing it from a startup to one of the leading organizations in its field. Prior to launching ACT, Amaha earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. He is an immigrant from Ethiopia.


Joanna Dorsey is an urban farmer and entrepreneur with experience in business leadership, marketing and project management. As the Executive Director of Policy and Social Impact for Black Farmers United- NYS she works to communicate the stories of black farmers to legislators to to push for an equitable and inclusive food system. Joanna also co-chairs the Environmental Climate Justice (ECJ) Committee for the Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP. She is the founder of Ramsey Family Marketplace, an e-commerce grocery store that specializes in healthy and organic products made by people of color. Joanna is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Administration with a focus on non-profit development at CUNY Baruch College.


Lorena James is a facilitator working at the intersection of regenerative agriculture and ecological restoration. As Development & Communications Coordinator at Nature For Justice, she supports the Growing American Farmer Prosperity Program, engaging a network of over two hundred regenerative smallholder farmers across North Carolina and Virginia to build soil health, resilience, and profitability on rural farmland. She is also the Founder & Executive Director of Invasive Impact Initiatives, where she curates a community of makers, land stewards, and invasive species experts who turn invasive species into upcycled materials. Drawing on this experience designing and leading community-centered programming, Lorena brings a practical, participatory approach to facilitating conversations on regenerative land practices.


Ciara Imani May is the Founder & CEO of Rebundle, the first U.S.-made plant-based braiding hair brand. She founded Rebundle to create a safer, more sustainable alternative to synthetic extensions, combining ingredient transparency with clinically tested products designed for sensitive scalps. Through an Africa-rooted supply chain, Ciara is reshaping the hair extensions industry by advancing innovation, creating dignified opportunities, and reducing plastic waste.


Laraaji is a visionary musician, composer, and mystic who has enchanted audiences worldwide with his ethereal and transformative performances. Born Edward Larry Gordon and educated in music theory and composition at Howard University, Laraaji emerged as a pioneering figure in ambient and new age music. His respect for the power of laughter as a medicine has led him to develop a daily laughing & toning practice which he shares worldwide in laughter release work/play meditation gatherings along with his deeply touching music programs. 

Black Girl Fight Club (BGFC) is committed to providing empowering experiences for black women, fostering joy, value, and a sense of community. Through a range of diverse events in NYC, they cater to the needs of their community, while also offering a platform for black women/femme/non-binary artists to showcase their talents in industries that historically marginalize and overlook our contributions.

The Oko Farms Aquaponics Farm and Education Center is NYC’s only publicly accessible aquaponics farm. Their rooftop farm in Bushwick, and greenhouse location in East Flatbush cultivate a variety of freshwater fish along with a wide diversity of vegetables and herbs and engage their communities in educational programs around sustainable urban agriculture.