We Refuse To Die: ceremonial planting of an "Externality" carving outside the Clairton CokeWorks Plant

You are invited to join us for an outdoor ceremony and cultural event overlooking the US Steel Clairton Coke Works Plant—one of the worst sources of toxic, cancer-causing industrial air pollution in the nation.

This is an honoring of those we have lost, and a celebration of collective strength and community power, with local speakers, song, libation and prayer, art, and West African drumming and dancing.

Saturday, November 11
1:00—2:30 PM
425 Shaw Ave, Clairton, PA
RSVP for more info.

The ceremony will culminate in the inaugural planting of an Externality carving. Hand-carved from a tree killed in Pacific Northwest wildfires and transported across the country to Clairton, Pennsylvania, the carving will be permanently installed in the ground, facing the US Steel Coke Works Plant. This will be the first of many carvings installed in the yards of Appalachian and Gulf South residents living near fossil fuel facilities and petrochemical pollution.

* You are invited to wear white or black in keeping with the memorial nature of the event. Hot beverages and hand warmers will be provided, and ponchos offered to all attendees in the event of rain.

Participating sponsors: Black Appalachian Coalition, Ujamaa Collective, Sankofa Village for the Arts, Legacy Arts Project, Breathe Project, Physicians for Social Responsibility–PA Chapter, Valley Clean Air Now, Women for a Healthy Environment, and Carnegie Museum of Art.

PROGRAM

Emcee: Archbishop Marcia Dinkins, Black Appalachian Coalition
Libation: LaKeisha Wolf, Ujamaa Collective
Singer: Maximus “Blu” Lowry, age 17
Speakers: Clairton residents
* Tina Ford, founder of MOMS (Mothers of Our Murdered Sons)
* Odessa Ellis, elder, Clairton children's librarian, and former worker at the Coke Works Plant
* Melanie Meade, who is hosting the carving on her land
West African Drum & Dance: Sankofa Village for the Arts
Artists:  Not An Alternative /The Natural History Museum (a traveling "museum for the movement")

This event is presented as part of WE REFUSE TO DIE, a socially engaged artistic response to the ecological and public health harms of fossil fuel and petrochemical pollution, organized by Not An Alternative (aka The Natural History Museum–a traveling “museum for the movement”).