In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with Diamond Spratling, MPH, award-winning Climate DisruptHER, two-time TEDx speaker and founder of Girl Plus Environment, a nonprofit mobilizing Black and Brown women at the forefront of climate solutions. Raised in Detroit, Diamond traces how her childhood—playing in neighborhood green spaces while her family navigated the realities of industrial pollution tied to the auto industry shaped her understanding of sustainability as something far deeper than environmentalism. For Diamond, sustainability means sustaining culture, sustaining community, and carrying ancestral practices forward a living commitment to protecting both people and planet across generations.

Together, Dominique and Diamond unpack the intersection of public health, environmental racism, and economic opportunity from the legacy of pollution in Detroit to the rising threats of data centers, energy burden, and water insecurity across the South. Diamond shares how she built Girl Plus Environment into a powerful sisterhood of over 700 members, proving that Black and Brown women have always cared for the environment even if traditional environmental spaces failed to see them. The conversation also explores the importance of joy, rest, and storytelling in sustaining movements, including Diamond’s children’s book series Sage Sails the World, which inspires young readers to approach climate action with curiosity, hope, and cultural pride.

Compost, Cotton & Cornrows: the space where Black & Afro-Indigenous Vanguards are redefining sustainability through storytelling!

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