For a long time, Vallejo resident Angela Vincent has raised her voice to spread awareness on how to properly protect the planet. But her message really started to soar when she changed her pitch.
Besides being one of the nation’s most influential activists, the 29-year-old Vincent is also a singer and has helped create a book full of many eco-rhymes. Eco-rhymes are popular children nursery rhymes, but the lyrics are changed to educate people on how to keep the planet more green. When performing the songs, Vincent will become her alter-ego — Queen Green — a queen dressed in a green outfit who wants to help others take better care of the planet.
The idea came to Vincent when she was studying abroad in Germany while attending Loyola Marymount University in Southern California. She said she was intrigued by just how progressive and important environmental policies were in Germany, and soon after, in 2007 Vincent went to a workshop on global warming with her college roommate. Vincent said she was instantly inspired.
“I remember thinking, ‘Why isn’t everyone talking about this more?'” Vincent said. “I was talking with Dr. Brian Treanor and he described the situation as one where we are going to hit a brick wall, but we have the power to slow down the car before we hit it. That really stuck with me.”
Vincent became more involved with campus events and started to be a campus organizer for Green Peace. But it was during one of her classes that the idea for “Queen Green” was born.
“I had to come up with a senior thesis, and I thought of Queen Green. I really got into it and originally it was going to be a show. My professor looked at me and said, ‘No, this should be a book.'”
Vincent then collaborated with her mom, Marisa Vincent, along with illustrator Serene Temple, to create the book “Save Queen Green! Mother Nature’s Eco-Rhymes.” The book follows the main character Queen Green as she goes on many adventures and quests to help save the planet to the tune of many eco-rhymes.
“The first thing we needed to do is find songs that are public domain,” Angela Vincent said. “For instance, we couldn’t use a song like “It’s a Small World” because it’s not public domain. After we found songs we could use, the next step was figuring out how to send the messages.”
Vincent found songs to use such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” but now she needed characters to help Queen Green get through problems in the book. Characters created included Careless Catherine (an energy hog), as well as Clueless Clyde, Farmer Flores and Gary Gardner, just to name a few. After much work, the book was finally released in 2016.
“The process was a labor of love as it was a family aspect and we put our blood, sweat and tears into it,” Angela Vincent said. “It took a long time to get done because we all have full-time jobs, but when it came out we all felt good and really proud of it. We were involved in every decision involved in the process all the way to what kind of printing we used, because we needed to practice what we preached.”
Vincent said she was beyond thrilled at the response to the book. She often gets calls from parents praising her work, but in an unusual way.
“I love getting text messages and emails from somebody that has the book. I got one that was funny saying that they sing one of the songs all the time, but now they can never kill spiders in their house,” Vincent said, with a laugh. “But it’s also nice to get emails saying that their kids hum the tunes when they go to bed or when they are in the car. In the end, it creates behavioral tendencies that can translate over to their parents and their actions.”
Vincent has received plenty of praise, not just from parents, but from people all over the world. She was recently recognized as a global “30 under 30” by leading environmental education association for being an innovative young leader transforming communities around the world. Vincent was the only person in the group of 30 from California. The group included people from China, Canada, Nepal, New Zealand, New York, Florida and Maine just to name a few.
“It’s an incredible honor, and I just barely made the cut!,” Vincent said with a laugh (She’s 29). “To be among other leaders feels great. I’m always inspired by others that are leading in their efforts to communicate.”
Last month Vincent attended the Al Gore Climate Reality Project held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where she learned even more ways to help spread awareness about keeping the planet more green. She also realized she is not alone, both globally and locally, in her efforts.
“At the event they sat all of us by geography, and that was how I learned there were two more people there from Vallejo,” Vincent said, with a lot of enthusiasm. “LaDonna Williams and Brooke Bryant were also there from Vallejo and it was great to meet people who are equally passionate about what you are doing. My biggest takeaway from the event was that I usually don’t lead my performances as Queen Green by talking about climate change. Instead I usually talk about recycling or something else and then lead into climate change possibly. But after the event I asked myself, ‘Why not?’ This is the most important time to be talking about it.”
Vincent said it can be discouraging to see many politicians these days come out and say climate change is not a big issue or that global warming isn’t real. But that just inspires her even more.
“It’s hard to not get frustrated at our leaders of the country for that, but that just makes all of this (spreading awareness) more important than ever,” Vincent said. “You just need to roll up your sleeves and say it’s in our hands now.”
These days Vincent makes a long commute as she works for Cal Recycle for the Department of Resources as a legislative analyst in Sacramento. While there she does many duties such as analyze policies with recycling.
“Save Queen Green! Mother Nature’s Eco-Rhymes,” by Angela and Marisa Vincent with illustrations by Serene Temple is available on amazon.com and on the website https://savequeengreen.org/buy-now/. She has performed at Children’s Wonderland in Vallejo.