Eve Ensler – Eve’s Revolution

Eve Ensler, playwright, performer, activist, award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues and founder of V-Day, deconstructs the tale of Adam and Eve from a feminist perspective.

“This is the time for radical change. This is the time to come into our bodies to dance and drum and rise. This is the time to stop apologizing for our belief that it is possible to live in a world where everyone gets fed; taken care of.”

This speech took place at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference.

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john a. powell – Beloved Community | Bioneers

As humanity faces global environmental and social collapse, our fear of the “Other” can be magnified by unstable contracting economies, radically shifting demographics, and new social norms. Can humanity overcome these divisions and come together to protect our common home? john a. powell, a nationally respected voice on race and ethnicity, leads UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, serves on the UC Berkeley School of Law faculty, and is author of Racing to Justice.

This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference.

 

Chloe Maxmin – Divesting from Fossil Fuels – Youth Leadership Lessons

An activist since age 12, Chloe co-founded Divest Harvard to pressure her college to disinvest from fossil fuel holdings, gaining international recognition for her effective activism.

This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference. Learn more about what Chloe has been up to since then.

Clayton Thomas Muller – The Canadian Native Rights Movement | Bioneers

Clayton Thomas-Muller, a leading organizer for Idle No More and Defenders of the Land, and a Co-Director of Polaris Institute’s Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, portrays Canada’s rising Native-led rights-based movement, supported by labor, civil society, students and grassroots groups. It’s challenging the neo-liberal free market agenda that has turned Canada into a petro-state. It may be our last best effort to save our lands and the health of our people from the extractive industries and the banks that finance them.

This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers National Conference.

Robin Kimmerer – Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass

Indigenous peoples worldwide honor plants, not only as our sustainers, but as our oldest teachers who share teachings of generosity, creativity, sustainability and joy. By their living examples, plants spur our imaginations of how we might live. By braiding indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with modern tools of botanical science, Robin Kimmerer, professor of Environmental Science and Forestry, of Potawatomi ancestry, explores the question: “If plants are our teachers, what are their lessons, and how might we become better students”?

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Arielle Klagsbrun – Open Letter from Ferguson Protestors and Allies | Bioneers

A leader of the “Take Back Saint Louis” campaign to remove tax incentives to corporations profiting from climate change reads “An American Horror Story — Open Letter from Ferguson Protestors and Allies.”

 

 

Naomi Klein – This Changes Everything

The award-winning Canadian journalist, international activist and best-selling author (The Shock Doctrine, No Logo) depicts climate change as more than an “issue.” It’s a civilizational wake-up call delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms and droughts. It demands that we challenge the dominant economic policies of deregulated capitalism and endless resource extraction. Climate change is also the most powerful weapon in the fight for equality and social justice, and real solutions are emerging from the rubble of our failing systems.

This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference.

To find out more about Naomi Klein’s work, visit her website.

Visit the Bioneers Green New Deal Media Collection.

Severine V T Fleming – Millions of Acres: Young Agrarians Needed

In the next 20 years, farmland ownership will shift on a continental scale—400 million acres—yet 70% of American farmland is owned by people 65 and older. How can we help young, motivated agrarians survive daunting structural obstacles and become successful farmers to whom retiring organic farmers can transmit their wisdom? How can we invest in the democratization of our land base? These questions drive Agrarian Trust, started by Greenhorns founder Severine V T Fleming, one of the most dynamic leaders in the young farmers’ movement.

Terry Tempest Williams – A Love That is Wild | Bioneers

What might a different kind of power look and feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably, even beyond our own species? Conservationist, activist, and one of the nation’s most beloved and acclaimed authors, Terry Tempest Williams has been called “a citizen writer” who speaks eloquently for an ethical stance toward life, showing how environmental issues are social issues that become matters of justice. A scholar at the University of Utah and Dartmouth, she has been equally at home camping in the wilderness and being arrested for civil disobedience.

 

Cecil Williams & Janice Mirikitani – Who Will Take Care of My People?

For 45 years, Reverend Cecil Williams, founder and Minister of Liberation of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, and its founding President Janice Mirikitani have created 87 groundbreaking programs to provide human services to some of the Bay Area’s most disenfranchised communities. These renowned faith-based pathfinders share their visions and strategies to address the pollution, economic injustice, neglect and apathy that confront poor communities.