"It won't take you long to read this book, but it will linger in your heart and head for quite a while, and perhaps inspire you to join in the creative, blossoming movement to make this world work." -- Bill McKibben, environmentalist, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Nature, journalist, and founder of 350.org"An inspiring story that will change the way all of us think about the climate crisis - and how we can solve it." -- Van Jones, New York Times bestselling author of
The Green Collar Economy and
Rebuild the Dream, and co-founder of Dream Corps
"A hopeful, well-argued book on climate change written in a refreshing new voice."--
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Martinez presents a meaningful, heartfelt call to action with content that reflects current issues. Additionally, the book's short length will appeal to reluctant readers. An essential purchase for any high school or public library."--
School Library Journal, starred review
In this personal, moving essay, environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez uses his art and his activism to show that climate change is a human issue that can't be ignored.
Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Earth Guardians Youth Director and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez shows us how his music feeds his environmental activism and vice versa. Martinez visualizes a future that allows us to direct our anger, fear, and passion toward creating change. Because, at the end of the day, we all have a part to play.
Xiuhtezcatl is a twenty-five-year-old Indigenous environmental activist, recording artist, and author. Since the age of six, he has used his voice and art to inspire a new wave of activism that centers youth and Indigenous perspectives in global climate action.
Xiuhtezcatl first emerged as an influential environmental activist in his childhood for protesting the fossil fuel industry in his Colorado community. At fifteen, he became the youngest person to address the United Nations General Assembly on the topic of climate change and, months later, sued the federal government for failing to act on the climate crisis in the landmark lawsuit Juliana v. United States.
Over the past decade, Xiuhtezcatl has delivered speeches and performed at more than one hundred conferences, schools, and institutions around the world. His two books, We Rise and Imaginary Borders, are taught in thousands of classrooms, with his work being featured on major media outlets, including The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS NewsHour, CNN, MSNBC, and Univision.
In recent years, Xiuhtezcatl has solidified his music as an extension of his activism, blending English, Spanish, and his ancestral language, Nawatl, across hip-hop, indie, and Latin genres. Named in
TIME magazine’s “30 Under 30” and
Rolling Stone’s “25 Under 25” lists, he is the face of global campaigns with brands like Levi’s, Nike, Dr. Martens, and Patagonia.
Xiuhtezcatl grew up between Colorado and his Indigenous homelands in Xochimilco, Mexico. He is now based in Los Angeles, where he is working on his upcoming album and composing for film and television. He is represented by Gifted Management, Next Models, and Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
Ashley Lukashevsky is an illustrator and visual artist born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently based in Los Angeles. Ashley uses illustration and art as tools to strengthen social movements against systemic racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant policy. She aims to tear down these systems of oppression through first envisioning and drawing a world without them. Her clients include Refinery29, Broadly,
The Washington Post, Planned Parenthood, Girls Who Code,
GOOD magazine,
Brooklyn magazine, ACLU, Red Bull, Snapchat, Air Jordan, and Logo TV. Ashley is also the illustrator of the best-selling
Antiracist Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi.
"It won't take you long to read this book, but it will linger in your heart and head for quite a while, and perhaps inspire you to join in the creative, blossoming movement to make this world work." —Bill McKibben, environmentalist,
New York Times bestselling author of
The End of Nature, journalist, and founder of 350.org
"An inspiring story that will change the way all of us think about the climate crisis - and how we can solve it." —Van Jones, New York Times bestselling author of
The Green Collar Economy and
Rebuild the Dream, and co-founder of Dream Corps
"A hopeful, well-argued book on climate change written in a refreshing new voice."-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Martinez presents a meaningful, heartfelt call to action with content that reflects current issues. Additionally, the book’s short length will appeal to reluctant readers. An essential purchase for any high school or public library."--
School Library Journal, starred review
