Dreams of Environmental Justice
Community members and organizations have been working towards environmental justice for years. It’s been an ongoing fight to stop and correct the harmful impacts caused by the unfair distribution of environmental burdens and access to benefits in our natural and built environments. Yet many people are unfamiliar with what the term environmental justice means, and what injustices are impacting our community.
The Dreams of Environmental Justice zine was created by the Fair Future Movement (formerly known as Building a Multicultural Environmental Community Network) to change that. We believe that when we have a shared understanding of what we and our neighbors are experiencing, and what we’re working towards, we’ll be better able to reach our goals for a just, healthy, and unified community.
Mandi McAlister, Co-Executive Director, brainstormed with Jessica Janzer, art teacher at Dominican High School, on how we could use art to help create this shared understanding, bring people together, and spread awareness. And there, the idea for Dreams of Environmental Justice was born!
Creating the Zine
With guidance from Jenny Janzer, zine publisher at Most Pulp, community members created their own zine page during a Community Night Out event. They each created a page to express their personal dream of what environmental justice looks like for our future.
With inspiration from Brenda Coley, Co-Executive Director at Milwaukee Water Commons and longtime environmental justice activist, Mandi wrote the content for the zine. Mandi shared what environmental justice is, examples of injustices, and how we’re working towards justice.
Lucia Sammarco, National Art Honor Society student at Dominican High School, brought the words to life through their digital artwork. With their illustrations, they helped communicate the ideas shared and create a cohesive feel.
Jenny brought everyone’s beautiful and individual contributions, skills, and ideas together to finalize and publish Dreams of Environmental Justice.
We believe this zine will help spread awareness about environmental justice and inspire action and hope for the future. All proceeds from zine purchases will support our environmental justice work.
Meet the Creators
Jenny Janzer (she/her/hers)
Editor/Publisher
Jenny is a poet and artist of sorts from the Kettle Moraine area. She runs a small zine publishing press named Most Pulp and has a passion for nature and preserving its magical beauty. She jumped at the chance to create a zine about environmental justice and hopes to draw others to dream of and fight for a better future for the community.
Mandi McAlister (she/her/hers)
Writer
Mandi is the Co-Executive Director for Fair Future Movement and Founder of Hummingbird. She got involved in this project because she is committed to environmental justice and wanted to bring people together and spread awareness about this movement in our community through art.
Lucia Sammarco (any pronouns)
Artist
Lucia is an artist and musician from Milwaukee, aspiring to work as an entrepreneur. They’re a sophomore in the National Art Honor Society at Dominican High School, which is what led them to join this project. As an advocate and activist, Lucia is overjoyed to be working with Hummingbird and helping them make a positive impact on the city.
Community Members
Dream Page Creators
Community members and supporters of the Fair Future Movement created their own zine page to express their dream of what environmental justice looks like in our community.
Join the Movement
The Fair Future Movement is a network of community members and Committed Partner organizations throughout Wisconsin.
Our mission is to unite the community for environmental justice. We work to foster a multiracial and multicultural environmental community by connecting and engaging with folks who have been excluded or not involved in the traditional environmental movement, dismantling systemic barriers to participation, and amplifying and organizing around current community initiatives.
We work to overcome the racism and systems of oppression that have fractured our community, created unhealthy living environments and power imbalances, and exacerbated environmental injustices.
Milwaukee Zine Fest
On April 22, 2023, Dreams of Environmental Justice made its debut at Milwaukee Zine Fest! We sold out of all of our copies, with one of them going to the UW-Milwaukee Library’s Special Collections to be preserved and archived in their collection. The zine sparked many conversations about environmental justice throughout the event – we’re making great progress in our goal of spreading awareness!
A Sincere Thank You
It is with sincere gratitude that I say thank you to every person who contributed to this zine and made its publication possible. This truly was a community project and I loved collaborating with everyone to make it happen.
Thank you for giving your time, talents, and ideas to help us work towards environmental justice and engage more people in this movement. This zine wouldn’t be what it is without you!
With much appreciation,
Mandi