Like The Waters We Rise is an exhibition and educational box set of posters, photos, and objects from the front lines of the climate justice movement, 1968–2022.

The scale of the climate crisis we are collectively facing is daunting, and it is our hope that each piece in this project offers a portal to an inspiration, a victory, or a teaching about how people-powered action is the most viable strategy we have for building the future. Each element has been carefully selected to support an understanding of climate justice as a rich, intersectional movement of movements driven by a multitude of visions for a better world. Rather than lean on existing narratives that center largely white and middle-class activism, Like the Waters We Rise centers the organizing of frontline communities of color and working class communities through the material production of their movements.

Each poster, banner, and button was designed and produced as a call to action. Posters, in particular—a touchstone of movement visual culture—are a high-impact format: versatile, accessible, affordable, replicable, and easy to distribute. A full-color catalog/book is included in each box set and can be downloaded digitally HERE. Within it, you’ll find hands-on activities for use in classrooms and community centers. These activities are accessible for a range of diverse audiences and adaptable for a variety of educational and community contexts.

Like The Waters We Rise was initiated as an exhibition and event series developed with both the Nathan Cummings Foundation (New York City) and Interference Archive (Brooklyn) in 2019–2020. Interference Archive volunteers Nora Almeida, Ryan Buckley, Sophie Glidden-Lyon, Rachel Jones, and Siyona Ravi supported the selection of materials and event production for this first iteration of the exhibition. The box set was created in 2022 in collaboration with Booklyn, Inc., an artist-run non-profit that archives and distributes the work of artists and social justice groups that address urgent cultural issues of our time. The contents of the Like The Waters We Rise box set were selected and organized by Raquel de Anda and Josh MacPhee. This publication was written by Raquel de Anda, LJ Amsterdam, and Josh MacPhee. Educational activities were created by LJ Amsterdam. Photographic research and image permissions were facilitated by Breanna Denney

The following are the contents of the box set:

Posters
United Auto Workers, I Am A Man, 1968.
Young Lords Party, Struggle, 1971.
Frank Blechman Jr. and Charlotte Brody (Carolina Brown Lung Association), Cotton Dust Kills, 1976.
American Indian Environmental Council, Say No To Uranium, 1980.
Ester Hernandez,Sun Mad, 1981.
Rini Templeton (Big Mountain Support Group), Navajos Resist Forced Relocation, ca. mid-1980s
Third World and Progressive Peoples Coalition, et. al., March for Nuclear Disarmament and Human Needs, 1982.
Jeff Chapman-Crane (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth), No Broad Form Deeds, 1988.
Bonnie Acker (Seneca Women’s Peace Encampment), Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice, 1983.
Northern California Land Trust, Land Gives Life, ca. mid-1970s.
Joint Warren County State PCB Landfill Working Group, No PCB, 1982.
Mothers of East Los Angeles, No Prison in ELA, 1985.
Earth First!, Redwood Summer, 1990.
Rocky Dobey, Carnival Against Capital,1999.
John Fitzgerald, Katrina Was A Problem, 2006.
Cesar Maxit (People’s Climate March), I Love NY, 2014.
Micah Bazant (Jewish Voice for Peace Artist Council), Refugees Welcome Here, 2015.
Dylan Miner, No Pipelines on Indigenous Land, 2016.
Hannah Chalew, Protect What You Love, 2018.
Jesus Barraza, Tierra Indigena, 2019.

Banners
David Solnit, Sunflower, 2010.
Isaac Murdoch, Thunderbird Woman,2016.
Dio Cramer, Defund Line 3, 2019.

Buttons
Artist unknown, Stop Black Lung Murder, ca. 1960s.
Mothers of East Los Angeles, No Prison in ELA, 1985.
Earth First!, No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth, ca. 1990.
Jesse Purcell, Climate Justice, 2016.
NDN Collective, Land Back, 2018.

Box sets are available from Booklyn HERE.

Proceeds from this project are being donated to the Climate Justice Alliance in order to fund additional culture to support frontline climate justice organizing.