The Plastic, the New Coal exhibition will host a virtual conversation with artists, curators, lawyer Pam Spees from the Center for Constitutional Rights and others to discuss the realities of the plastics industry, the consequential sideeffects, the environmental consequences, and work to reimagine creative possibilities, from the Gulf south to the globe.

Pam Spees is a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She has a background in international criminal and human rights law. Her work focuses on addressing gender-based violence, persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and the support of environmental justice movements. Jo Banner and Dr Joy Banner are co-Founders and co-Director of The Descendants Project, a nonprofit foundation committed to the liberation of the Black descendant community through the dismantling of inequitable and discriminatory economic, environmental, and social systems inherent in the violent legacies of slavery. Monique Verdin is an artist and storyteller documenting relationships between environment, culture, and climate in southeast Louisiana. She’s a citizen of the Houma Nation, director of The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, and the Women?s Earth and Climate Action Network’s Gulf South sovereignty program manager. Patricia Watts is curator and founder of ecoartspace, an online platform for artists addressing environmental issues. Since 2000, approximately 2,000 artists and scientists have participated from 29 countries. Watts has curated over 30 art and ecology exhibitions working with artists concerned about the health of our planet.