Blacks in Green Founder / Engagement Package

The Intersection of Deep Culture & Green Neighborhood Revival

BIG: Blacks in Green™

Implementing The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™

NAOMI DAVIS

Speaking Engagements

Attachments Grannynomics & Village Farm Organizational Overview Programming Centerpiece

BIG: Blacks in Green™

Founder President & Founder Naomi Davis is one of Chicago’s most celebrated environmentalists and a nationally sought speaker and consultant. She is an urban theorist, attorney, activist, and proud granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers. Naomi serves as a bridge and catalyst among communities and their stakeholders in the design and development of green, self-sustaining, mixedincome, walkable-villages within black neighborhoods. She is author of The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™ -- a whole-system solution for the whole-system problems common to black communities everywhere – which she presents in lectures, workshops around the country, and has taught at the University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. Together with its precursor Grannynomics,™ green-village-building offers a culture-specific prescription with universal value, addressing the terrible triplets of pollution, poverty, and plutocracy. Organization BIG™ is a green-village-builder, a national network, one of America’s most diverse eco-orgs, and a thought leader in green community economic development for communities of color…across 13 economic sectors. It promotes local living economies as greenhouse gas reduction strategies through its system green-village-building™ ~ "walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play villages" for blighted, colonized, and/or gentrifying black communities. BIG™ says the question of the century is "where is your village?" and it support neighbors in answering the question. It teaches "Chicago As A City Of Villages," and neighbor-owned businesses as the source of community "surthrival." Its system is designed to increase the rate at which neighbor-owned businesses are created and sustained, and its success will be measured by increase in household income of original residents within the walkable village. Entities interested in implementing the model are encouraged to partner.

773-678-9541

Page 1 of 9

Summary Goals. Increase village income one household at a time; advance The Age of Climate Crisis with a grassroots movement for “surthrival in a city of villages.” Strategies. Reduce greenhouse gas levels via local living economies by increasing the rate at which neighbor-owned businesses are created and sustained. Tactics. The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™ Priorities. Healing-bonding-organizing, asset-mapping, time-banking, skill-building, and creating a green hub in the ‘hood™ for sustainable business start-ups. Values. What’s good for the African diaspora is good for everyone; and what’s bad for the African diaspora is bad for everyone. Beliefs. Conserve or collapse; help is not on the way; nothing trumps self-help; only a whole-system solution can transform a whole-system problem. Philosophy BIG™ is a network for advancing “green‐village‐building” – its signature initiative. Through its programs, activities, courses, and enterprises, BIG™ reminds generations of their great cultural legacy of land stewardship and collaborates to reinvent that legacy here in the Age of Climate Crisis. Informed and inspired by America's great Underground Railroad story, its system teaches the primacy of self‐help and the importance of allies across the bounds of race and class. It also teaches the disproportionate negative impacts of global warming on communities of color and the health/wealth opportunities of the new green economy ~ with special focus on recreating community wealth by cultivating the conservation lifestyle, using its old-fashioned practices of Grannynomics™ to teach neighbors to ‘feel good’ and live ‘the beautiful life’ – beyond the dreaded ‘tipping point’ of 400ppm/ghg. BIG’s green‐villages are walk‐to‐work, walk‐to‐shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play communities anchored by neighbor‐owned businesses, which become the agents of “jobs‐driven development.” Only jobs‐driven development stabilizes neighborhoods through the health/wealth enhancement of present residents, avoiding forced or voluntary neighbor migration to “better” neighborhoods, or the influx of “better” neighbors – benign or hostile. Resident money stays active locally supporting community self‐interests, and the heritage of a place is preserved. Around the world, the case has been made for interdependent local living economies as greenhouse gas reduction strategies. Such sustainable community initiatives are critically important for black neighborhoods. Thus, BIG™ has launched a 5-year green‐village‐building proof of concept in the Chicago TIF District of West Woodlawn, and to fill the void of blacks in green neighborhood revival, Naomi consults other communities through emerging partnerships within its national network. BIG™ has partnered with the University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race Politics, and Culture to teach “The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building.” It welcomes the inquiries and participation of other institutions and individual community activists seeking training in this system in order to lead where they live.

BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 2 of 9

Founded

2007

Location

Box 378411, Chicago, IL 60637 773-678-9541

Awards

Naomi is a Green For All Fellow, and for her work in green community economic development has received Lt. Governor Pat Quinn’s 2007 Environmental Hero Award, the 2008 Chicago Magazine Green Award, the 2009 Jewel‐Osco Environmental Stewardship Prize, the 2010 Ebony Magazine Power100, and in 2011 was selected to serve on Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s Transition Team for Energy, Environment, and Public Space, as one of Black United Fund of Illinois Inaugural Flame Award recipients; and as an international thought leader to present at Groupon Founder’s First Annual Chicago Ideas Week. As a recipient of the Black United Fund of Illinois Flame Award, in 2012 Naomi was invited to partner in the development of BIG’s Green Economy Academy™ ~ a matriculation-optional curriculum for students, professionals, and community members to learn essential future forward skills for employment, enterprise, and “the beautiful life” ~ the conservation lifestyle.

Products

 The 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building™  The 12 Propositions of Grannynomics™  Green Hub in the ‘Hood™  Ol' Time Mississippi Fish Fry + Hip Hop Storytelling Revival...& Radio Show™  Migration: The Musical™  grannynomic development jams™  The BIG Real Estate Institute For Community Controlled Development  Top 10 Issues In The 20th Ward  5 Things Every Black Person Should Know About Sustainable Communities & The New Green Economy™

Background Naomi was raised in St. Albans, Queens, NYC where she attended PS 15. For junior/high school she attended The Parkway School in Jamaica Estates and Woodmere Academy Country Day School on Long Island. As an early entrant and Presidential Scholarship recipient at Fisk University, Naomi earned a BA in the double-major of Speech/Drama and English; and from John Marshall Law School of Chicago, earned her Juris Doctor. Between five years of law practice after graduation and her present career in environmental economics, Naomi worked in diverse sectors: theater, real estate, and public affairs and marketing communications. She lives happily with Lena Horne and Marcus Garvey (her dog and cat) in Chicago’s historic West Woodlawn, location of BIG’s 5-year green-village-building pilot. Her sole sibling, Kamal Shakir lives in York, SC where he cares for their beloved 92 year old mother, healthy with Alzheimers, while launching an all-natural, halal chicken processing plant near North Carolina A&T. BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 3 of 9

BIG’S 8 PRINCIPLES OF GREEN-VILLAGE-BUILDING™ 1. Micro-Saving/Lending, Local Currency/Wealth. Each village has its own measures, exchanges, and repositories of wealth. 2. Local Energy Production & Transportation. Each village produces its own energy for heat, light and transportation. 3. Shopping & Waste. Each village supplies all basic goods and services to neighbors, converting waste to wealth in the process. 4. Affordable Green Homes & Gardens. Each village is sustained through jobs-driven development without displacement, providing low-income housing and producing high-quality food through land trust CDC’s. 5. News & Networks/Stories & Structures. Each village celebrates its past, present, and future culture through stories in print, digital, and theatrical forms. 6. Village Centers & Borders: Each village is a walkable, self-sustaining whole with perceptible borders, inter-dependent local ties, global context, organized and in action for self-interest. 7. Health, Education & Welfare. Each village fosters life-long learning through hubs, which are epicenters for green training, development and lifestyle transformation. 8. Green Jobs & Enterprise. Each village circulates its wealth through neighbor-owned businesses which invent, invest, manufacture, and merchandise locally.

BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 4 of 9

BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 5 of 9

NAOMI DAVIS

Appearances, Productions, Recognition, Media

BIG Productions BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 6 of 9

BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 7 of 9

HOST/PRESENTER DETAILS Please return the information below for our records.

FULL EVENT INFORMATION Name Address Dates

PRESENTER SESSION INFORMATION Name Address Date Time HOST PRINCIPAL CONTACT INFORMATION Name Title Address Phone Email

HOST EVENT LIAISON CONTACT INFORMATION Name Title Address Phone Email

BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 8 of 9

AUDIO VISUAL Host agrees to provide the presentation stage or room with the equipment and materials required to conduct Presentation, including:   

Microphones suitable for stationery or movement Presentation Computer with digital projector, screen, speakers Flash drive for transferring data

On date of Presentation, Presenter will have available a flash drive containing a copy of Presentation. All copies of digital materials remain the intellectual property of Presenter and may not be retained or shared, except as otherwise noted herein.

MEDIA In the event a media opportunity arises, Presenter is available for interview before and after the Event for the purpose of promoting her presentation and participation, and to highlight the importance of the convening. Similarly, Presenter agrees to be available for interviews at the Event. Host agrees that all Presenter’s organizational and biographical content prepared by Host for promotion, including photos, will conform to source materials supplied by Presenter.

VIDEO RECORDING If Host proposes to video record portions of the event, Presenter grants Host the rights to record, reproduce, and duplicate in print, audio, or video recordings of Presenter’s Presentation, provided that:   

audio/video sales or usage supports the Host mission there is no personal profit full copies of all such recordings are provided to Presenter

Thank You!

BIG: Blacks in Green™

773-678-9541

Page 9 of 9

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook