Theme: Youth Leadership
Friday, October 18th
The brilliant young writer, journalist and activist Julian Noisecat offers his insights into how, around the world, Indigenous peoples are rising in a global renaissance that holds untapped promise for a world in peril.
October 18th | Noon to 12:10 pm | Veterans' Memorial Auditorium (VMA)
Keynote
Julian Brave Noisecat
Director of Green Strategy | Data for Progress
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Director of Green Strategy at the think tank, Data for Progress, and “Narrative Change Director” for the Natural History Museum artist and activist collective, is also a correspondent for Real America with Jorge Ramos and a Contributing Editor at Canadian Geographic.
Come participate in an engaging discussion with young climate leaders who will be discussing their various theories of change, organizing practices and personal stories of how they got catalyzed to act! Facilitated by youth from Bay Area Sunrise.
October 18th | 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm | Youth Unity Center
4:30 pm: Youth Leadership. Making Media for the Movement: A Storytelling Laboratory
Facilitated by Tianna Arredondo and Robin Bean Crane
Come practice your storytelling skills in this creative media laboratory. We’ll discuss ethical journalism dilemmas, enact on-the-ground direct action scenarios, and engage each other in telling our unique stories on and off camera.
October 18th | 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm | Youth Unity Center
Panelists
Tianna Arredondo
Co-Founder | Frontline’s to Power
Tianna Arredondo (they/them), of African-American and Mexican ancestry, is co-founder of the Frontline’s to Power (F2P) initiative (affiliated with the Power Shift Network), which works to build a national coalition of environmental justice leaders dedicated to story-based strategy, anti-oppression tactics, and decolonization in daily interactions.
Robin Bean Crane
Oakland-based Artist and Organizer
Robin Bean Crane is an Oakland-based artist and organizer who uses storytelling as a tool at the intersection of climate, racial and economic justice to spotlight community-driven solutions to current crises. With a focus on participatory, non-extractive media and experimenting with stop motion and digital animation, Robin works with nonprofits and community groups to create content that meets their needs.
Saturday, October 19th
October 19th | 11:10 am to 11:40 am | Veterans' Memorial Auditorium (VMA)
Keynote
Destiny Arts
Youth Performance Company
The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company’s extraordinary energy, brilliant choreography and inspired lyrics have been rocking the house at Bioneers for many years. A program of Destiny Arts Center, an Oakland-based violence prevention/arts education nonprofit, the company is a multicultural group of teens that creates original performance art combining hip-hop, dance, theater, martial arts, song, and rap. It has performed locally and nationally since 1993 and has been the subject of two documentary films. DAYPC’s artistic directors are: Sarah Crowell & Rashidi Omari.
11:40 am: Mishka Banuri Youth Leadership Presentation
A First Generation Immigrant’s Perspective on Youth Climate Justice
A first generation Pakistani immigrant, Mishka Banuri moved to Utah when she was 12 years old and fell in love with that state’s wondrous mountains, aspen trees and red rocks, but she saw many of those sacred lands despoiled by the greed of extractive industries. This awakened her to the global systems of resource exploitation ravaging ecosystems and poor communities around the world and has made her an extraordinarily passionate and effective youth climate justice activist in Utah.
October 19th | 11:40 am to 11:55 am | Veterans' Memorial Auditorium (VMA)
Keynote
Mishka Banuri
Co-Founder | Utah Youth Environmental Solutions
Mishka Banuri is an 18-year-old organizer from Salt Lake City, Utah. After moving to Utah from a suburb in Chicago, she fell in love with the Colorado Plateau's mountains and red rock. She has been politically active since 7th grade, holding statewide organizations, institutions, and politicians accountable for their actions on climate and social issues.
The climate justice movement is changing the conversation with many creative new strategies, including Fridays for the Future, the Green New Deal, and constant pressure for our institutions and municipalities to divest from fossil fuels. In July 2019, faculty across the UC system voted in favor of divesting from 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies. While waiting for the UC Regents’ decision, activists of all ages continue to mobilize for divestment and climate justice. With: Bill McKibben, Right Livelihood Award laureate and co-founder of 350.org; Clair Brown, UC Berkeley Professor of Economics; Laurel Levin, student organizer with #FossilFreeUC; Kristy Drutman, host of Brown Girl Green. Hosted by: Chris Benner, Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz; David Shaw, Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz.
October 19th | 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm | World Cafe
Panelists
Bill McKibben
Founder | 350.org
Bill McKibben, our nation’s most significant environmental activist, is also a leading journalist, author and academic. A Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, Bill’s The End of Nature (1989) was the first book for a general audience about climate change. A founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, he has won slews of prestigious awards, including the Right Livelihood Award and the Gandhi Prize and Thomas Merton prizes.
Clair Brown
Professor of Economics | UC Berkeley
Clair Brown, an eminent economist, Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, has published research on many aspects of inequality and sustainability, including the book Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science, which describes an economic framework that integrates global sustainability, shared prosperity, and care for the human spirit.
Laurel Levin
| Fossil Free UCSC
Laurel Levin, a just graduated, award-winning student activist at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) working at the intersection of the food and climate movements, worked with the Fossil Free UCSC campaign and other initiatives, and still leads backpacking trips with the UCSC Recreation Department and UCSC Wilderness Orientation Program.
Kristy Drutman
U.S. Digital Campaigner | 350.org
Kristy Drutman, a Filipina American, is a U.S. Digital Campaigner with 350.org and the creator and host of Brown Girl Green, a podcast and media series dedicated to critical conversations around building an environmentally just society in which she discusses diversity and inclusiveness with a wide range of environmental leaders and advocates. While at college, Kristy co-founded the Students of Color Environmental Collective at UC Berkeley.
Chris Benner
Chair | Everett Program
Chris Benner, Ph.D., the Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship and a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at UC Santa Cruz, directs the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change and the Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation. He has authored or co-authored six books (most recently Equity, Growth and Community) and more that 70 journal articles, chapters and research reports.
David Shaw
Founder | Santa Cruz Permaculture
David Shaw, a permaculture and whole systems designer, facilitator, and educator, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture and the Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.
Some of the most thrilling innovations and ideas are happening at the intersection of Indigenous worldviews and digital technologies. In this groundbreaking panel, we celebrate Native Americans in tech. Join us for a fascinating discussion to learn first-hand how Native youth are using digital tools to tell their stories, Native tech professionals are working to transform the industry from the inside, and Native culture-bearers are using tech solutions to positively impact their communities and beyond. With: Erica Persons (Miwok) of AICRC Oakland; Brisa Yepez (Hopland Pomo) of CIMCC; Danielle Forward (Pomo) of Facebook; and Ishmael Hope (Tlingit/Inupiaq), Storyteller, writer and consultant of the multi award-winning video game, Never Alone.
October 19th | 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm | Indigenous Forum
Panelists
Erica Persons
Ishmael Hope
Poet
Ishmael Hope, an Inupiaq and Tlingit poet, actor and Indigenous scholar, served as the lead writer for the video game, Never Alone (Upper One Games); has published two poetry collections, including Rock Piles Alone the Eddy (Ishmael Reed Publications); and played the character Atka in a feature film, Frontera Azul (The Blue Frontier).
When your dream city is threatened, whom will your super(s)hero work with? How do they organize people? For our activism to be effective, we must be grounded in love for what we are creating, not only in hatred of what currently exists. Join us in this workshop inspired by Amana Harris’ book Self as Super Hero – Handbook on Creating the Life-Size Self-Portrait to dream, and work together. We’ll share real-world stories and connect over movements for change in our own communities. Led by Neeka Salmasi and Youth from Attitudinal Healing Connection, an Oakland based organization celebrating its 30th year, whose mission is to empower individuals to be self-aware and inspired through art, creativity and education.
October 19th | 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm | Youth Unity Center
Panelists
Neeka Salmasi
| West Oakland Legacy Project
Neeka Salmasi is an Azerbaijani-Iranian artist and educator in Oakland. She coordinates West Oakland Legacy Project: a youth environmental justice program centered around using visual arts to as a tool for activism and social change. She is passionate about teaching environmentalism in a rooted, and decolonized way. She is also a reporter at KPFA news, as well as author of recent book VATAN: a story of immigration to the United States from post-revolution Iran.
Amana Harris
Join an engaging conversation on intergenerational solidarity and the reciprocal learning that occurs when people at different life stages work together. The discussion will revolve around youth-led movements, adult ally-ship and the magic of sharing wisdom across generations. With: Carolyn Norr of Youth vs. Apocalypse (350.org’s Bay Area youth-led climate justice initiative); others TBA.
October 19th | 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm | Sausalito Room
Panelists
Carolyn Norr
Activist | Youth vs. Apocalypse
Carolyn Norr, an environmental justice activist since 4th grade, previously a teacher and youth group leader in Oakland, is an activist with Youth vs. Apocalypse, a Bay Area-based, diverse group of young climate justice activists working to lift the voices of youth, especially youth of color, and fight for a livable climate and an equitable, sustainable and just world.
Come witness and share in radical, inspiring performances by young poets and creatives at this spoken-word open-mic hosted by Jada Imani of Tatu Vision and Youth Speaks.
October 19th | 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm | Youth Unity Center
Panelists
Jada Imani
Founder | Tatu Vision Movement
Jada Imani, an Oakland, CA-based workshop facilitator, MC, and founder of the Tatu Vision movement, is dedicated to helping co-create regenerative communities through her performing, event production and hosting, healing practice, and coalition-building with communities of poets, Hip-Hop aficionados, entrepreneurs and Permaculture practitioners.
Sunday, October 20th
With Isha Clarke. To build a successful global climate movement, we must prioritize the voices of those most impacted by environmental injustice. We must recognize that our current climate crisis is rooted in racism, white supremacy, and greed. We must also resist efforts to tokenize the term “intersectionality” rather than actually implementing it in our movements and daily lives. What would a movement and a society functioning on a genuine understanding of intersectionality look like?
October 20th | 11:20 am to 11:30 am | Veterans' Memorial Auditorium (VMA)
Keynote
Isha Clarke
Climate Justice Organizer | Youth Vs. Apocalypse
Isha Clarke is a dynamic, passionate high school student environmental and social justice activist born, raised, and educated in Oakland, CA. Her experience has taught her first-hand that threats to the environment disproportionately affect people of color, low-income folks, and young people, and this realization has fueled her passion to fight to create a just and equitable world while maintaining a livable climate.
In this dynamic workshop youth will use a World Cafe collective inquiry process to do a deep dive into emergent practices and questions within climate and social justice movements. Participants will engage in intimate conversations with their peers to cross-pollinate and unearth their collective wisdom. No experience in these movements is necessary to participate. Led by Santa Cruz Permaculture.
October 20th | 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm | Youth Unity Center
This will be a space for youth who have participated in the Climate Justice, Art Activism and Youth Media tracks to come together and share reflections from their weekend. What are you taking with you? How do you envision integrating what you have experienced at Bioneers into your life? How can Bioneers expand and improve its youth programming to support you further on your path? All youth are welcome to attend and engage in the conversation! Facilitated by Maya Carlson, Bioneers Youth Leadership Program Coordinator.
October 20th | 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm | Youth Unity Center
Panelists
Maya Carlson
Bioneers Youth Leadership Program Coordinator | Bioneers
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