Houston, Texas -- Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Houston - one of the nation’s largest petrochemical complexes - is still being felt today. To elevate the stories of those directly impacted and amplify community driven solutions to climate fueled disasters, a collaborative of organizations is launching the Stories of Survival Tour one year after the storm made landfall, August 25th, 2018 at NuWaters Co-op (2320 Elgin Street in the 3rd Ward) from 6pm - 10pm​. The evening will include solar powered film screenings, a free community dinner, participatory storytelling, and music by the Houston-based international music collective Free Radicals.

Stories of Survival will close out the Hurricane Harvey Peoples Tribunal, a two day event in which residents, community leaders and experts will testify and imagine creative solutions that could move Houston toward becoming more resilient to future climate disasters. “Folks in Houston are getting organized. We’re working with unions. We’re working with immigrant populations. We’re working with a whole range of frontline communities who have not been seen or heard. This weekend we're amplifying their voices and visions towards making our communities stronger, healthier, and better prepared for the next disaster we know will come,” said Bryan Parras, organizer for the Peoples’ Tribunal On Harvey Recovery and Stories of Survival. Bryan is co-founder of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services and currently works as an organizer for Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign.

Houston is the first stop on the Stories of Survival Tour, ​which includes events in New Orleans and Puerto Rico. Stories of Survival will amplify, document and center on-the-ground stories and solutions during hurricane observances of Harvey, Katrina, Irma, and Maria. The tour is also timed to coincide with the Global Climate Action Summit being held in California, where NGOs and government officials around the world will be convening during these observances. Stories of Survival will drive attention back to the needs and tangible actions of people in the Gulf South and Caribbean, whose lives are continually impacted by ongoing climate disaster.

Stories of Survival is being hosted by a collaborative of grassroots groups, organizers, media-makers, artists and activists acting at the frontlines of climate, including Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, Bridge The Gulf, Defend Puerto Rico, Sierra Club, Texas Housers, West Street Recovery, Nu-Waters Coop, an Working Films, among others.