This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
*The Hip Hop Caucus (HHC), a national nonprofit founded in 2004, is redefining environmental justice by centering Black and Brown communities through the power of hip hop, art, and cultural organizing. At the 2025 Hollywood Climate Summit (June 2–4), HHC made a bold statement with two panels–How Music Mobilizes and How to Show Movements on Screen–highlighting how Black leadership, particularly Black women, is reshaping climate narratives in entertainment and policy.
Grammy-winning artist Tarriona “Tank” Ball and Brittany Bell-Surratt, HHC’s Senior Director of Storytelling & Communications, are leading this charge, using their platforms to amplify marginalized voices and drive equity-focused climate action. In an exclusive interview, Tank and Brittany shared how HHC’s work bridges entertainment, policy, and justice, and why Black cultural leadership is critical to the climate movement.
Storytelling That Connects: From the Front Lines to Film
HHC’s storytelling strategy is as dynamic as its advocacy. Bell-Surratt explains, “We have a multi-pronged storytelling strategy, and much like our advocacy theme is from the streets to the suites. Our storytelling theme is from the front lines to the film.” This approach spans multiple platforms, including their podcast The Coolest Show, which is “black people centered, black people hosted that talks about climate,” and Climate Fridays, a radio show airing on WPFW Pacifica station in Washington, D.C. HHC is also active across social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Blue Sky.
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Their storytelling extends to film, with HHC recently wrapping a festival run for Underwater Projects, a film about coastal flooding in Virginia, voiced by Wanda Sykes. Brittany emphasizes the importance of authenticity: “We have an approach in which when we work with people, and the issues that we’re working on, those people are local to this… so that when outsiders or insiders start to watch or consume whatever we’re putting out, that they can relate to the people who they’re, where they’re from.”
Art as Activism: Tank’s Perspective
For Tank, a New Orleans native and Grammy-winning artist, using her voice for environmental justice is deeply personal. “I think it’s just so natural for me to speak on things that I see every day, which is housing inequalities in New Orleans, and see that the way the storm has affected my family, my friends, my community, and my everyday way of life,” she says. Her partnership with HHC has deepened her perspective: “It’s made me re-examine, look at my life and look at myself and what it truly means to probably be an environmentalist or someone that just thinks about the everyday effects of my choices and how it affects the world and myself around me.”
The Lasting Impact of Hurricane Katrina
As HHC prepares for the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2025, Tank reflects on its enduring impact. “We talk post-Katrina and pre-Katrina in our conversation. Remember that before the storm? Remember when we used to go over that before the storm? It’s changed us forever.” She highlights the constant preparedness in New Orleans: “People like us think about having a Katrina fund, a storm fund… knowing that hurricane season is a scary thing for us. It’s an anxiety built thing inside of us.”
Centering Black Cultural Leadership
Brittany, a Mississippi native, underscores why Black leadership is essential in climate conversations. “I’ve always seen Black leaders lead civil rights fights, throughout the generations… there’s just a long history of us being in front,” she says. “We don’t need saviors. We’ve never needed saviors. And nobody can fight on our behalf, can advocate like we can.” She adds, “We have the cultural competence to know what we need and how to get done what we need to get done.”
HHC’s cultural organizing model embodies this ethos. Brittany defines it as “for us, by us… making sure that Black folks are involved and that we are connecting with our communities in the way that we know how to connect, to bring about change.” She emphasizes the communal nature of Black culture: “Black folks are relationship-oriented people… we are village people rooted in community. And that’s how organizing has to be.”
Reimagining Hollywood’s Role
Both Tank and Brittany see Hollywood as a critical space for authentic storytelling. Tank envisions narratives that resonate deeply, saying, “It will probably have to start in New Orleans with a beautiful day, and we’re going to have a hurricane party the way we did before the storm hit… and my aunts that stayed for the storm, they hear a big boom. Nobody knows if it’s a bomb or the levees breaking and water just coming around the stop sign and getting higher and higher.” She adds, “Soon as that thing say based on a true story, I’m probably already locked in.”
Brittany builds on this, advocating for community-led storytelling: “We let that community lead because those are the people who know how to tell that story, who know what the different power dynamics are with the politics that are very local.” She also calls for a shift in tone: “Find the comedy, the joy, in some of these stories, instead of the doom and gloom… there’s a lot to celebrate around survival… preparation… and a refusal to let something permanently displace you.”
HHC’s Broader Impact
HHC’s work extends far beyond the Hollywood Climate Summit. Their Think 100% platform delivers podcasts, films, and campaigns centering BIPOC voices. Respect My Vote! mobilizes young Black and Brown voters, while Black to the Future reimagines Black communities’ role in shaping policy. Their Clean Transit Equity campaign advocates for equitable public transit access in frontline communities.
As HHC gears up for the Katrina anniversary, their mission remains clear: to honor resilience, confront environmental racism, and amplify Black voices in the fight for a sustainable, just future. Through the leadership of Black women like Tank and Brittany, HHC is proving that cultural organizing isn’t just a strategy, it’s a movement.
Watch our full conversation with Tank and Brittany via the clip below.
Learn more about the Hip Hop Caucus here.
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