Transformative Dialogue with Global Activists

VAN JONES

It is the chief moral obligation of our time to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Activist and founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights urges us to carry our spiritual, cultural and economic movements into the electoral arena to transform politics and forge a green “New Deal” coalition so that kids who are now prison fodder will help create a zero-pollution economy, harvest the sun and heal the land instead.

MAJORA CARTER

A leading figure in the environmental justice movement and founder of the groundbreaking organization, Sustainable South Bronx, offers her vision of what we must do to green our inner cities so that we can reclaim our birthright — healthy communities with clean air and water, and access to open spaces.

CAROL BEBELLE

The renowned community activist, poet and co-founder of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, dedicated to the saving and re-birth of New Orleans’ rich legacy, discusses the cultural, social and creative mandates for the re-building
of New Orleans that will respect the city’s bonds of connection and community.

KA HSAW WA & KATIE REDFORD

The co-founders and directors of EarthRights International will discuss their work from the jungles of Burma and the Amazon to U.S. courtrooms to hold corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses committed in the name of development. They will focus EarthRights’ landmark lawsuit Doe v. Unocal, and their work to raise the voices of indigenous people in international forums through their model training program, the EarthRights Schools.

How are local and socially minded businesses organizing themselves to promote the common good? Hosted by Don Shaffer of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE); with social entrepreneur and BALLE co-founder Judy Wicks of Philadelphia’s White Dog Café; Just Desserts founder Elliot Hoffman of New Voice of Business; and Native American Ashoka fellow and Alaskan social entrepreneur Dune Lankard. (A2)

A Special Presentation of the Tides Foundation. A small vanguard of accomplished activists/thought leaders is building a body of work that makes transparent those structures that inhibit our ability to be a healthy, diverse society with high standards of accountability. Structural race analysis provides a framework for thinking about how racism is perpetuated in our society and how, by changing and rebuilding these structures, we can create greater opportunities and fairness for all. Join leading thinkers in a two-part workshop that will include both analysis and an exploration of opportunities we all have to act in a more conscious and just way. With: Maya Wiley, Center for Social Inclusion; Colette Pichon Battle, Moving Forward Gulf Coast Inc.; Gihan Perera, Miami Workers Center; Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Manuel Pastor, Center for Justice, Tolerance & Community, UC Santa Cruz. Note: This is a double session. (A3)

Race, Class and Power: Structural
Analysis and Fairness – Part 2
(See Friday, 2:45, A3 for more info.)

How can we apply the wisdom of the Iroquois “seventh generation” principle to contemporary public policy and politics, and radically re-imagine our laws, communities and personal actions? With: Tom Goldtooth, executive director of Indigenous Environmental Network; Precautionary Principle leader Carolyn Raffensperger of the Science and Environmental Health Network; renowned philosopher/activist Joanna Macy; and psychotherapist Edward Tick. Moderated by Patrick Reinsborough of smartMeme. (A4)

A new, web-based interactive magazine, hotfrog.org, presents gifted writers chronicling today’s unprecedented global “movement of movements” from the ground up. Hosted by Hotfrog founder and Orion cofounder Laurie Lane-Zucker; with Rebecca Solnit, author of Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics; awardwinning journalist and former publicist and editor of Mother Jones, Mark Dowie; and Eddie Yuen, author and media studies professor at New College. (A6)

Learn how young people have come together to build coalitions, engage communities, provide training strategies for change and influence legislation to ultimately transform our society. With Billy Parish, coordinator of Energy Action; Taj James, executive director of the Movement Strategy Center; ibrahim abdul-matin, technology organizer for the Movement Strategy Center; and Adrienne Maree Brown, executive director of The Ruckus Society. (Y1)

Join diverse women leaders in conversation about valuable lessons from the past and today’s new approaches to winning women’s human rights. Hosted by Linda Burnham, co-founder of the Women of Color Resource Center; with Yvonne Bynoe, commentator and author of Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture; Charlotte Brody, executive director of Commonweal; Patti Chang, former executive director of the Women’s Foundation of California; Samhita Mukhopadhyay, editor of feministing.com; and Andrea Cristina Mercado, lead organizer for Mujeres Unidas y Activas. (B7)

This panel highlights the work of three passionate eco-artists, and examines how each combines art with ecological awareness, activism, and public engagement. Moderated by Sam Bower, executive director of greenmuseum.org; with Susan Leibovitz Steinman, editor/co-founder of the Women Environmental Artists Directory (WEAD); Anne-Katrin Spiess, an artist, founder and publisher of “LAND” (Landscape, Art and Design), an online journal for environmental art; and Daniel McCormick, an artist and designer working on environmental restoration projects throughout the United States. (B8)

Developed by Brazilian theater director and activist Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed is a form of popular theater made by and for people who are changing the world. This training will introduce you to the practice of Theatre of the Oppressed; you will participate in a series of experiential exercises that will provide you with an overview of how to use this technique to analyze issues and empower people to solve their own problems. Participants will have the opportunity to produce an interactive performance piece. With Bay Area Theatre of the Oppressed trainers Jessica Bell and Rosa Gonzalez. (Y2)

Don’t miss this one-hour film of the live “spacebridge” dialogue between the Bioneers community and the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers at the 2006 conference. The film features highlights and behindthe- scenes prayers and interviews. The Grandmothers will be present along with filmmakers Kim Spencer, founder of Link TV, and Cynthia Jurs.

Unprecedented cross-cultural coalitions are forming to conserve large-scale ecosystems while honoring the place of people on the land. Hosted by anthropologist/ecologist Peter Warshall; with Janis Alcorn working with the Garfield Foundation on saving biodiversity with indigenous and campesino communities in the Gran Chaco of Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay; Guujaaw, political leader, activist, and teacher, who has worked with the council of the Haida Nation to secure the protection of traditional Haida lands; and Hawk Rosales, working to preserve the Sinkyone Wilderness. (A12)

One reason food in our society is relatively cheap by historical standards is the largescale exploitation of farm workers. How are farm workers organizing to win landmark victories, and what can we do to support their struggles? Hosted by the director of Bioneers’ food and farming program, Arty Mangan; with Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Melody Gonzalez of the Student/Farmworker Alliance. (A13)