amie Margolin is a cofounder of the youth-led climate action group Zero Hour. She is the author of Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It and a student in film at New York University.

Groundswell: Jamie Margolin on Shifting Culture

Jamie Margolin is a cofounder of the youth-led climate action group Zero Hour. She is the author of Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It and a student in film at New York University. What do you see as your role in confronting the climate crisis? My role has been shifting as I've been growing up. I've been known for my whole public life as “the teenage climate activist.” That's changing, because I'm 19, and I only have a few more months of teenage years. Since I was 15, I was a nonprofit leader and community organizer, led protests and was very much involved in the grassroots, nitty-gritty work. Zero Hour is a youth climate justice organization that is mobilizing as many people as possible to push governments to take urgent climate action. We...

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The Combative Pacifism and Poetry of Grace Paley

by Amanda Walgrove Grace Paley was a Jewish pacifist accused of having an Irish temper. Armed with a strong Bronx accent and a stronger rhetorical voice, she took progressive matters into her own hands during a time when women weren’t always heard. As she asserted in one of her most well known poems: “It is the responsibility of society to let the poet be a poet. It is the responsibility of the poet to be a woman.” Paley wrote with a distinct voice that was shockingly independent, producing stories that were unashamedly lewd and hilarious. Lily Rivlin's 2010 documentary, Grace Paley: Collected Shorts, screened last month at the New York Jewish Film Festival, beautifully captures the spirit of Paley's life and work by incorporating videos of readings, interviews with family and friends, and her own footage which...

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