Princess Titus: Cultivating Justice and Healing in Environmental Spaces

Environmental justice, without getting too technical, is simply a connection not only with your relationship with the environment but also how others relate to it. Princess Titus’ interest in environmental justice initially came from her grandmother, who grew her own food. As her grandmother grew older, she was unable to support her love of gardening and began eating processed, accessible food. Soon after, she discovered tumors in her breast and passed away. While telling this story, it was clear to us that Princess saw a connection between health and processed foods, and this went on to inform much of her work in North Minneapolis.

Today, Princess is a Twin Cities resident and environmental justice advocate with Community Members for Environmental Justice, among other groups. When she came to Minnesota 28 years ago, the first thing she aimed to do was grow her own food. Following in her grandmother’s footsteps, she was taught by the Hmong community in the Twin Cities who were very welcoming and helpful to her. Princess said she felt in tune with the Earth and loved being a part of it which acted as one of many motivating factors for her involvement in environmental justice.

Our interview with Princess not only highlighted various environmental justice issues in the Twin Cities but also showed how, on the community level, we can provide remedies and places to heal. Princess’ work goes beyond what we will cover; however, there was a trend of three main buckets: healing work, teaching work, and fundraising work. Across these three themes, Princess emphasizes the importance of knowing your role, and how we cannot do everything alone. This alludes to taking the time to discern where you fit in environmental justice and what your upbringing and circumstances allow you to do for your community. With this discernment, she told us about the distinction between the internal and external environment. The difference lies in recognizing that we should take the time to know what we need, and how our role is to be a part of the solution. At the end of the day, internal environmental justice is knowing that all of us are part of the solution and we must reflect on what we need for ourselves and how to help. Once you have established the internal environment, you may choose, although it is not necessary, to take on external environments. The challenges of external environments are more systemic in nature but require knowledge of the internal environment. Throughout our interview, we talked about how some people are not ready and may never be ready to take on the external environment, and that is okay. Ultimately, whether it is in the internal or external environment, we all must contribute to be part of the solution.

Princess began her environmental justice work many years ago by bringing together 400 community members to attend 8 cooking sessions to talk about the foodscape of the Twin Cities. Appetite for Change, an organization Princess works closely with, has aided in passing a new bill that ensures breakfast and lunch for all students enrolled in Minneapolis schools. AFC is now celebrating 12 years of success and has distributed 309,000 meals to community members while also growing 12,500 lbs of produce for local use. Princess believes accessibility to breakfast and lunch greatly improves the external environment of community members from a young age. Furthermore, she makes sure that community members know to understand their “relationship to the fish not just teaching them how to get it or give it to them”. In other words, she helps by making sure that the solutions are facilitating the progression and improvement of the system rather than mirroring the current systems that continue to cause oppression. Instead, these productive solutions should improve the internal and external environment of community members.

Communities of color often do not have the necessary spaces to heal, converse, or enjoy the environment. An important first step for Princess was to dive deep into what the community needed and begin the conversation about how people wanted to heal. The process quickly formed into a community garden. Princess described the process of building the community garden as “very organic.” The project started by engaging in conversations where community members voiced their needs and questions and, from there, the logistical pieces fell into place. Yet, Princess emphasizes that the most important part was listening to what people had to say.

“Communities of color often do not have the necessary spaces to heal, converse, or enjoy the environment. An important first step for Princess was to dive deep into what the community needed and begin the conversation about how people wanted to heal.”

In another community project, a healing garden was proposed by a mother who lost her son to gun violence and who wanted to have a safe space to keep her son’s legacy alive. There was a lot in the neighborhood perfect for a garden but the city would not give it to the mother as an individual, however, they would give it to an organization. Community members quickly mobilized to create the community garden and transform it into a space for communities of color to gather and heal, while also fundraising for this bureaucratic win.

The importance of internal and external environments proved to be a recurring theme throughout our conversation with Princess. Princess believes that the discussion of these themes is crucial for the healing process to take place, especially in Black communities.
Due to many systems of oppression that operate in all aspects of American life, whether it is trauma at home, loss of jobs, loss of lives, or loss of belief in themselves, many people are not able to fight the big external environmental issues. Nonetheless, Princess declares that each and every one of us can continue the necessary fight for a more just internal environment. Fighting for internal environmental justice can look different for every person but the most noteworthy is beginning an individual internal dialogue to ask what you can do. If you are in school or work somewhere, it could be as simple as getting involved with community groups or asking around about what issues people are facing. Just by engaging in these conversations, you will reflect on what matters most to you and how, or if, you can do something concrete about it. Princess points out that it does not always have to be some grand community project but that, as long as you are being part of the solution, it is enough.

Consistent with many of her other messages, Princess preaches food sovereignty and defines it as giving individuals the right and ability to choose what they want to eat and how. This is a vital point to consider when it comes to the “teaching work” that she provides to her community members. From an individual perspective, she emphasizes the importance of people having the knowledge to identify foods that are nutritious and of good quality while also being aware of the different options that they can choose from. Reaching this standard of awareness can come from community members learning how to grow their own food and having the agency to do it. The lack of knowledge about food deserts and their consequences can have long-lasting adverse outcomes on people’s health and well-being. Therefore, it is critical for the community to continue expanding its ability to identify systemic issues regarding food distribution and how to work together for positive change.

“Due to many systems of oppression that operate in all aspects of American life, whether it is trauma at home, loss of jobs, loss of lives, or loss of belief in themselves, many people are not able to fight the big external environmental issues. Nonetheless, Princess declares that each and every one of us can continue the necessary fight for a more just internal environment.”

From a community perspective, she touched on two important points. The first point she mentioned is that there is a high number of water, food soil, and air polluters in Black communities. These polluters are contributing to illness, such as asthma and diabetes which are causes of mortality in these communities. This toll on Black communities greatly affects the external environment in which the members live. Princess suggests three important questions to consider: which rules are these big corporations following, do they even need to be in these communities, and what will the cumulative impact be of their presence in the community? If these big corporations do not need to be in your community, then should you display resistance by boycotting their products, or do you have the mental capacity to do more by mobilizing others and including them in your external environmental justice project?

Additionally, she argues that, although the community has access to food, it is not the food necessary to ensure a good quality of life. In one neighborhood in North Minneapolis, for example, there are 38 fast-food restaurants but only one accessible grocery store. The lack of access to grocery stores contributes to undernutrition and deficiency of important vitamins only available from fresh produce. Princess hinted at the fact that this lack of grocery stores was not linked to a lack of space or necessity. In fact, she mentioned how there are many vacant lots and empty buildings that have the potential to become sit-down restaurants or grocery stores from which the community could greatly benefit. However, there are structural problems at a higher level that prevent equitable access to nutritious food across races and socioeconomic statuses. She believes that North Minneapolis is definitely an example of a food desert, as members of the community do not have access to nutritious food on a regular basis.

To get started as an environmental justice activist, Princess’ advice is to look for people who are curious and community-minded, who are also ready to do community work. The next step is “looking for who got what”, which she explains is essentially getting involved in social circles and having one-on-one conversations in order to identify who can contribute. Additionally, this means looking at corporations and other organizations that have the same visions as community members. It was surprising to learn that even corporations that actively pollute our lands are willing to fund community projects that provide solutions to environmental justice issues. However, this definitely means getting out of your “comfort zone”, taking the first step to build a community outside of your usual circles, and “connecting as a human family at a food and environmental justice scale”. Essential to the last step is believing that they can get the money. Princess believes that approaching an issue with a positive mindset and confidence can shape the solution. Fundraising is another aspect of Princess’ journey that involves teaching. Fundraising, at a community level, requires more people to be involved; it requires people to have training and know who to ask and what to ask for. Princess facilitates this process by hosting fundraising training events, in which community members learn the “who, what, when, where, and how” of fundraising.

Whether it is through healing, teaching, or fundraising, Princess cares about her community and will do as much as she can to be part of the solution. She works effortlessly to involve others as part of the solution which is something truly phenomenal. To engage her community, she uses her themes of internal and external environments as a framework for environmental justice and tirelessly fights for our future.