Art and Environmental Activism

BirdNote^®
Art and Environmental Activism
Written by Ariana Remmel

This is BirdNote.

Mustafa Santiago Ali has been an environmental activist and policymaker for nearly three decades. The work has taught him that people can drive change with art and storytelling. Which inspired him to write this poem called The Birds Been Prayin’ For Us.

Mustafa Santiago Ali: 
they rise
before we do—
not just early,
but holy
wings draped in dawnlight,
they pull songs from the silence
like prophets
pulling dreams from dust
a cardinal ain’t just red
for beauty—
she bleeds purpose
into every sky she touches
they tend the garden
we forgot—
scattering seeds
we too busy to see,
pollinating prayers
we too proud to speak
their flight is scripture
if we’d just read the air—
a lesson in letting go,
in rising anyway,
in trusting the wind
to catch what’s real
& when they sing?
baby, that ain’t just music—
it’s medicine,
a sound bath
for the soul,
reminding us:
even broken things
can build nests
& birth miracles.

          [Northern Cardinal]

Mustafa Santiago Ali: I was thinking about birds and how they're nature's messengers. They do all these amazing things and they also mirror the health of the planet. And if we remember that interconnectedness, we'll do things differently — and I still believe we will get there one day.

Hear more from Mustafa about art and environmental activism in season 7 of Bring Birds Back, available in your favorite podcast app. For BirdNote, I’m Jonese Franklin.

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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Cardinal ML100764 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote November 2025
Narrator: Jonese Franklin

ID# PodBBB-43-2025-11-10    PodBBB-43

Reference:
https://www.mustafasantiagoali.com/about-mustafa/