Global Citizen’s Emerging Creatives Program provides a platform for emerging creatives in the Global South that are highlighting the need for open civic space worldwide. Through their art, they call for change, shine a light on social injustices, and advocate for the advancement of the Global Goals.
JUNE 2026
FEATURED CREATIVE
Axel Toualy Tapé
CÔTE D'LVOIRE
A climate storyteller, youth organizer, and founder of Kids Go Green Côte d’Ivoire, Axel uses art as a language for environmental activism, one he believes reaches places that science and policy language simply can’t. Growing up in the coastal city of Grand-Bassam, shaped by plastic pollution and coastal erosion, he began using drawings, recycled art, photography, and storytelling to make environmental issues feel personal for children and young people.
For Global Citizen, Axel brought the residents of the fishing town of Île Désirée together for “Children of the Lagoon,” an intergenerational workshop where children collected plastic from their beach and turned it into drawings and sculptures that captured what their island once was, what pollution has done to it, and what they want it to become.
“I want to create stories and artistic spaces where climate change is no longer discussed only through fear, but also through imagination, dignity, culture, and hope.”