Elizabeth Yeampierre
“Elizabeth Yeampierre is an internationally recognized Puerto Rican attorney and environmental and climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry born and raised in New York City.”
I first met Elizabeth during my pre-teens when I volunteered with UPROSE (an intergenerational, multi-racial, nationally-recognized, women of color-led, grassroots organization that promotes sustainability/resiliency) that Elizabeth is the Executive Director of. The five summers spent with Elizabeth, her team, and the BIPOC youth who worked at the organization were such a formative time of my entire life. Elizabeth taught me what it meant to “fight the good fight”. She showed me the complexities of our world, but that we did not have to sit and live with it. Through organizing, protests, and data, we the people could change the future for our community, by our community.
Elizabeth is a national leader in the Climate Justice Movement and the co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance. She is a long-time advocate and trailblazer for community organizing around just, sustainable development, environmental justice, and community-led climate adaptation, and community resiliency in Sunset Park.
As a community leader, her work at UPROSE has facilitated a successful, aggressive urban sustainability and environmental justice agenda. She created an urban forestry initiative and significantly contributed to the doubling of open space in Sunset Park. The Sunset Park community celebrated the opening of a 23-acre waterfront park UPROSE championed for over 15 years. Ms. Yeampierre developed a project that resulted in the retrofit and re-powering of 12 diesel trucks for a local business. She founded the NYC Climate Justice Youth Summit, a space where young people of color throughout the City come to learn how to engage their local communities in addressing the intersection of racial justice and climate change. Most recently, in response to the community’s request after Super Storm Sandy, Elizabeth created the Climate Justice Center-NYC’s first grassroots-led, bottom-up, climate adaptation and community resiliency planning project.
Elizabeth was named one of the top 100 Green Leaders by Poder Hispanic Magazine.
“I joined the environmental justice movement because I felt there was nothing more fundamental than the right to breathe — you can’t fight for social justice or social services if you have no breath.”
FOLLOW ELIZABETH ON TWITTER
CHECK OUT UPROSE
Passionfruit Tembleque
Yield: 6-8 servings
Time: 10-15 minutes (and 3-hour+ chill time)
Directions for Avocado Dressing
In a pot, whisk together the can of coconut milk, passionfruit juice, sugar, and salt until combined. Set aside about 1 cup of the mixture.
In a bowl, add the reserved mixture and whisk in the cornstarch. Once combined, set aside.
Heat the pot over medium heat and whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Cook for 5 minutes while continuously stirring until thickened. The mixture should stick to the back of the spoon.
Spoon the mixture into a silicone muffin pan (if you have one). I prefer to use a silicone mold that is tapered to help the pudding seamlessly come out when chilled. You can also serve these in jars.
Place in the fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.
Once set, spoon some fresh passion fruit on top (or cinnamon)
Dive in!
Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can of full-fat coconut milk
8-ounce passion fruit juice
1/2 cup granulated or coconut sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
6 tablespoons cornstarch