This document summarizes a student's semester-long environmental advocacy campaign class project focused on an issue in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. The student chose to address the city's plan to build a parking lot on contaminated land near homes, but faced challenges partnering with local groups and had to pivot their campaign. In the end, the student presented a new campaign against border wall construction that impacted wildlife and incorporated a traditional Aztec dance performance. The student learned that real advocacy requires understanding all perspectives, flexibility, and finding ways to enact meaningful change.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL
COMMUNICATION
COMM 5250
Advocacy
Campaign
Lessons beyond
the classroom
2015 Portfolio

2. table of context1
The beginning Different view
Choosing a path EPIC approach
2 10
The site Re-branding
Phillips Green rebirth
3 11
The issue New direction
Public works No, thank you!
4 13
My campaign New campaign
Class project Enacment
Reality check Lessons
Flyer...ing The borderlands
Music and climate Presentation day
Not their type For future reference...
5 14
8 16
9 18

3. 2the beginning
Choosing a path
An environmental
campaign in just one
semester is a very
complicated task.
Yet, when it was time
to pick site in
Minnesota I knew it
had to be an issue
that I cared about,
the struggles
minorities face.
After some research,
I came across
environmental injustice,
in the Twin Cities.
That is, how racism and
discrimination are displayed
in one’s surroundings.

4. the site3
Phillips
With predominantly Hispanic, African, and Native
American populations, Phillips is one of the most
diverse neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
Divided into
four areas,
my focus was
East Phillips,
bordering
Longfellow
and
Powderhorn.

5. 4The Issue
Public Works
Minneapolis Public Works
bought land to turn it into
the city’s parking lot for snow
removal equipment
among other vehicles.
Phillips’ air is already
very contaminated.
The city did not contact
the neighborhood committee
and has refuse to come
to a compromise with
the residents of the area.
The rate of
repiratory
diseases in East
Phillips is 5x
greater than that
of the state.

6. My campaign5
Flyer...ing
I was unable to reach the orgnization in charge of
the issue or the Phillips neighborhood committee
to show my outreach but the campaign had to
continue.
I created the following
flyer based on the most
concerning part of this
whole issue, the kids.
Future generations
who are and will be
affected by this for
years to come.

7. 6My Campaign

8. My campaign7
The campaign
was to sign an
online petition
and send the
support to
Mr. Kotke to
reconsider his
positition; stop
the parking lot
construction
and the
contamination
of the land, air,
and people.

9. v
8Class project
MUSIC
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Music in a Changing Climate
Professor Emeritus of Music, Brown
University; Spring 2016 Basler Chair of
Excellence for the Integration of the Arts,
Rhetoric, and Science, East Tennessee
State University
Professor of Musicology and director of the
Center for Music of the Americas, Florida
State University; Editor of Music, Nature,
Place series, Indiana University Press;
Author, The Sounds of Place: Music and the
American Cultural Landscape and Music
and the Skillful Listener: American Women
Compose the Natural World
Associate professor of music, academic
sustainability coordinator and director
designate of the Environmental and
Sustainability Studies Program, University
of North Carolina at Greensboro
z.umn.edu/musicclimate
Birdsong and
Climate Change
Jeff Titon
Climate Change in the
Concert Hall
Denise Von Glahn
Climate Change and
Communication
Aaron Allen
in a
CHANGING
Best Buy Theater, Northrup Auditorium
4:00–5:30 p.m.
Libby Larsen Composes
Environmental Awareness:Lost Loons: Scientists and Musicians:
CLIMATE
Sponsored by the
UMN Imagine Fund
in partnership with
Flyers were to be distributed at this event on April
29, 2015 throughout the University of Minnesota.
A showcase of the students advocacy campaigns
and their proposals to better the environment.

10. Reality Check9
Not their type
As we were entering the social media phase of the
project, I tried contacting the neighborhood again.
This time the East Phillips Improvement Coallition
(EPIC) responded.
I shared my flyer with them along with the proj-
ect’s platform and my intentions to join forces
agaisnt this issue.
They seemed hesitant at the beginning. They
shared their different take on how to solve the
Phillips’ environmental injustice issue and asked
me to change my course of action.

11. v
10Different View
EPIC was not reaching other demographics with
different races and ages. So I redesign my campaign
to an idea that they could find more appealing.
EPIC had the
online campaign
to the left
which was not
fully lauched
along with a
door-to-door
petition sign-up.
The petition was only in English and Spanish
with only one Spanish speaker helping during
face-to-face petitions.

12. Re-Branding11
EPIC wanted to focus on
the green zone proposal
they had instead of the
parking lot intentions.
Green zones are areas
with green business
practices, community
parks and environmental
protection.
I created the following
concept with a ligher
vibe and a hopeful
message for the social
media launch.

13. vv
12Re-Branding
Facebook Page

14. New Direction13
No, thank you!
Slowly I stopped receiving responses from the
members of EPIC. Finally, the last member to
contact me asked to not continue with my project,
claming it was not helpful to their initiatives.
Two weeks before presenting my campaign on
campus, I was forced change the work of months
to a new idea.
Because of the urgency to come up with a new
project, the options were no longer limited to
Minnesota. I was able to pick a nation-wide
environmental issue this time. I chose the
American borderlands.

15. 14New Campaign
The Borderlands
Sierra Club has a petition in place to stop the
building of walls that are meant to protect
USA territory but in reality are negatively
impacting the fauna and the flora in both the
Mexican and Canadian borders.

16. New Campaign15

17. vv
16Enactment
Presentation Day
It was important to represent one of cultures affected
by the contruction of these walls and to bring the
element of music as the class project as a whole
sugested.
The Aztec
dancing group
Mexica Yolotl
from the Twin
Cities helped
to put a face to
the petition and
draw attention
to my campaign.

18. Enactment17
Aztec dancing group
in traditional clothing

19. 18Lessons
For future reference...
If general campaigns are difficult, environmental
advocacy campaigns are far more chanllenging.
One needs to care about more than just signatures.
To achieve a goal one needs to understand the
issue, be patient with anyone related to it, be alert
to changes and have flexibility with your ideas.
In real life campaigns as I experienced, good
intentions are not always welcome but hard work
always pays off.
The enactment of the campaign turned out to
be a sucess, reaching those who would not have
known about this issue otherwise.