By Helen Gloege ’23
Graphic by Sofia Savid ‘24
Aletta Brady defines themself as a “queer, nonbinary, bisexual organizer, futurist, writer and narrative activist” living in Minnesota, according to their website. Brady has been involved in climate activism for years. As a teenager, Brady “helped pass legislation through the Sierra Club to reduce school bus idling and retrofit over 3,000 school buses,” according to Art Sphere Inc.
Brady is now known for creating Our Climate Voices, a first-person anthology telling stories about climate change, the online publication’s explained. Our Climate Voices is meant “to highlight those who are often excluded by the mainstream environmental movement,” The Wesleyan Connection reported. Our Climate Voices has been publishing stories since 2017, featuring various interviews with different people as well as key facts, images and information on how to act on the climate crisis at the bottom of each interview. The website states that the project’s mission “is to humanize the climate disaster through storytelling, contribute to a shift in the climate change dialogue … and to connect people with ways to support” climate change solutions.
For their work on Our Climate Voices, Brady won the J.M. Kaplan Fund innovation prize in 2019 that gives “up to $175,000 over three years,” according to The Wesleyan Connection.
In addition to Our Climate Voices, Brady has written several articles for news sources such as HuffPost and Grist. Brady also wrote “Redefining Environmentalism: The Paradox of Wealthy Environmentalists” and “On Coming Out to Someone Who Won’t Remember” for HuffPost.
For Grist, Brady co-wrote a piece entitled “What the queer community brings to the fight for climate justice,” which discusses how queer and trans people are more likely to be impacted by the climate crisis and how climate organizations like “Zero Hour and Our Climate Voices are addressing the intersection of queer and trans liberation and climate justice.”