IMAGINARY BORDERS

Third volume in the new Pocket Change Collective, the first series that gives activists a platform to speak directly to young readers on today's most pressing issues.

In this personal, moving essay, environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez offers a personal look at how his art fuels his activism -- and how these two identities don't need to be separate.

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.

Earth Guardians Youth Director Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (first name pronounced "Shoe-Tez-Caht") is a nineteen-year-old indigenous climate activist, hip-hop artist, and powerful voice on the front lines of a global youth-led environmental movement. At the early age of six, Xiuhtezcatl began speaking around the world, from the United Nations Summit in Rio de Janeiro to addressing the UN General Assembly in New York. His work has been featured on major media platforms, such as PBS, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Vogue, The Daily Show, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CNN, HBO, VICE, and more. He has received significant international awards, including the 2013 United States Community Service Award from President Obama, and was the youngest of twenty-four national change-makers chosen to serve on the President's youth council. Xiuhtezcatl is the author of We Rise and is also reaching his generation through eco hip-hop. He released his first EP, Broken, and his first album, Break Free, in 2018.