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Alyssa Lyon wants people to stay connected to the environment, each other and themselves. Growing up in the Bronx, Lyon considers herself a “stoop kid” — afternoons after school were often spent playing on the block, with the sounds of laughter and running children behind her.
Now the director of The Black Environmental Collective, Lyon came into this work through activism and community organizing in neighborhoods like Hazelwood, Larimer, and other Black and brown communities locally. The Black Environmental Collective was established around 2018.
“Conversations were happening between the built environment and the existing environment and how those things are conflicting, especially in Black neighborhoods where there is not a lot of ownership within the neighborhood, or the city or landlords or whoever owns those spaces, and that limits access,” she said.
“We are not just talking about food, we are talking about accessibility, health outcomes, how our streets look, asthma and air,” she said. “So I think there were so many potent intersections between Black communities, and a deep rabbit hole can be gone down around housing.”
Lyon emphasized that these communities push individuals to address their immediate environment and understand its impact on health and mental well-being.
She said everyone wants clean air and water.
“There is so much historical evidence and historical connection to Black people’s fight for equitable environmental access,” Lyon said.
She referenced 1980s protests in Warren County, North Carolina, against a toxic landfill in a Black neighborhood, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s support for sanitation workers in Tennessee as examples of this long struggle.
“So much of our civil and social rights have been intertwined with our existence, and not just our mental existence but our physical existence … including our right to have good housing, good neighborhoods, access to great schools, not to live near harmful spaces and to advocate for ourselves to have sustainable communities.”
She acknowledges Pittsburgh’s rich history but also recognizes its systemic harm to Black and brown people due to pollution from years of steel mills.
“If it keeps going at the rate it does, it is not going to continue to serve the individuals because it’s not healthy, and we cannot produce sustainable healthy communities in these conditions,” Lyon said.
Lyon’s journey led her from policy work to a deeper focus on sustainability, recognizing that few Black and brown people are involved in that field. The Black Environmental Collective aims to organize a coalition of people at the intersection of those issues.
“Black people are educated, but we should be brought up to speed so we can actively engage in this fight,” Lyon said. The start to address the problem begins with education, action and making the information relatable, she said.
The Black Environmental Collective collaborates with students at Urban Academy and works with Brothers and Sisters Emerging at the Garfield Community Farm.
“Last year we got together with the Black Environmental Collective, Urban Academy and Tree Pittsburgh and looked at a tree curriculum,” said Morgan Krall, special education teacher at Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School. “Alyssa and I looked at what we could do, and she hooked us up with three different artists who could come in and do environmental projects. In one of the projects, we used household items to make sustainable paint and other times we were using tree limbs and beadwork to make decorative items.
“The students also learned about trees and how they help us, how to plant a tree and how to take care of it. On May 24 we will have a tree care day. She’s really made this fun and being able to see someone who looks like the students has been impactful,” Krall said.
“As Black people, we have a natural affinity for wanting to be outside and play and do things,” Lyon said. “When those things are not easily accessible — like I have to get on two buses to get to it — it’s hard to encourage people to live those sustainable lives.”
Capitalism has encouraged bad behavior to fuel whatever ulterior motives exist, Lyon said.
“We buy a lot of products that aren’t good for us; we use them in our homes,” she said. “I want to start a movement of behavioral change that says ‘a simple shift in this is really just good for you.’ We have to start with the individual and then trickle out to the community. … Our first environment is our body. It is ourselves.”
Lyon defines environmental justice as every action people take to take good care of themselves, the people in our community and the environment.
“The burdens should not just be placed on Black people to fix alone, but also on people in power, systems. Do we treat outside well, do we treat each other well, do we eat well?”
Recently, Lyon visited New York, where she walked five miles in one day during her daily activities. She doesn’t take the ability to engage with the environment for granted. Her focus is on green spaces, how things are made, how people navigate and the state of dilapidated homes.
Being part of the environmental movement has deeply impacted her life.
“It does propel different things. Pittsburgh has changed my life and perspective on things,” she said.
Shaylah Brown is a TribLive reporter covering art, culture and communities of color. A New Jersey native, she joined the Trib in 2023. When she’s not working, Shaylah dives into the worlds of art, wellness and the latest romance novels. She can be reached at sbrown@triblive.com.
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