Welcome to the 6Th Annual Practical Activism Conference, 2008!
The 6th annual Practical Activism Conference took place on October 25, 2008. About 300 students, staff, faculty, and community members attended the conference. The conference featured a keynote address given by Boots Riley and spoken word performances by Mariella Sabba and Lyrical I.
To see photos from the 2008 Practical Activism Conference, Click Here.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
BOOTS RILEY
For a more detailed biography of our Keynote Speaker, Boots Riley, Click Here
Schedule of the day
10:45-12:00 Registration, Refreshments, Tabling, Creative Activist Opportunities
12:00-12:50 Opening Session, Boots Riley
1:00-2:15 First Session of Concurrent Workshops
2:25-3:40 Second Session of Concurrent Workshops
3:30-5:00 Tabling, Refreshments, Performance, Creative Activist Opportunities
Workshop descriptions
BLOCK ONE: 1:00PM - 2:15PM
TARGETED YOUTH: CRIMINALIZATION WITHIN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
In this workshop, guest speaker Antwi Akom will discuss the relationship between race and criminalization within the public education system, exploring how the prison industrial complex infiltrates public schools, and the ways in which specific communities are affected.
Speaker: Antwi Akom, San Francisco State University, Assistant Professor of Urban Sociology and Africana Studies and Co-Director of Educational Equity at the Cesar Chavez Institute.
THINK AFFORDABLY, ACT SUSTAINABLY
Can sustainability be affordable? UC Berkeley professor Chris Bacon will help us examine how short-term choices can help us act to increase sustainability while thinking in terms of affordability. Community Agroecology Network Internship Coordinators from Central America will discuss sustainability and our influence on global communities.
Speakers: Chris Bacon, UC Berkeley professor; Community Agroecology Network internship coordinators visiting from Central America
PROTECTION FOR OUR CAPTIVE DAUGHTERS: SEX TRAFFICKING
How much do you know about sex trafficking? Mollie Ring, Trafficking Outreach Coordinator with the SAGE Project (Standing Against Global Exploitation), will explain what sex trafficking is, how it’s implemented, the health effects that result from the existence of this system, and what we can do about it.
Speaker(s): Mollie Ring, Trafficking Outreach Coordinator with the SAGE Project (Standing Against Global Exploitation) http://www.sagesf.org/
MIXED DIAGNOSIS: MIXED ETHNICITY AND MEDICAL ISSUES
Learn more about how individuals’ racial backgrounds affect the health care they receive. This workshop will focus on the complexities posed by social constructions that exist for individuals of mixed race.
YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE!
This workshop will help us to understand the voting process at the citywide, statewide, and national levels. Take a quiz to test your knowledge of voting and hear Santa Cruz Mayor, Ryan Coonerty and a Santa Cruz County Clerk & Elections affiliate discuss the importance behind your vote.
BLOCK TWO: 2:25PM - 3:40PM
STUDENT RIGHTS AND ACTIVISM AT UCSC
This workshop will inform you of your rights and equip you with the tools necessary to efficiently implement change. See a panel of notable UCSC students, alumni, administration, and faculty come together to analyze past protests and discuss other techniques to ensure success in future demonstrations.
Moderator: Don Rothman, recently retired Oakes Writing Instructor and Former Oakes Provost. Panel: Bettina Aptheker, Professor of Feminist Studies; Jennifer Charles, LRDP Resistance; Sophie Carrillo Mandel, Earth Summit Coordinator; Felicia McGinty, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Alma Sifuentes, Dean of Students; John Williams, Student Worker Coalition for Justice/SAW; Representative from MEChA, TBA
MARRIAGE EQUALITY
Come learn more about the California Supreme Court's recent ruling to legally recognize same sex marriages as well as the current ballot measure to limit constitutional rights in this state. We’ll discuss the impact on people’s daily lives, including the interface with immigration. Speakers: Roxanne Hamilton, Belinda Ryan, and guests.
POWER TO THE PAVEMENT! TAKING ART ACTIVISM TO THE STREETS
Come learn how the Street Art movement uses graffiti and other media to convey controversial political messages all over the world. Jennifer Gonzalez, History of Art & Visual Culture professor at UCSC, will give us an inside look into this creative movement.
Speaker: Jennifer Gonzalez, UCSC HAVC Professor
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
Guest speaker Paul Lubeck will help us to understand the devastating effects of Environmental Racism here and abroad, focusing on the harm done by the oil industry to populations in Nigeria. We will also address the realities of environmental racism in the United States.
Speaker: Paul Lubeck, UCSC Sociology Professor
Special sessions
Art Show, Displays & Tables
The Activist Art Show displays the work of UCSC students who express activism through their creativity Come see social justice through paintings and photographs! (Café Revolución, 3:30-5:00pm)
Also, check out the various displays and groups tabling at the conference! Community Agroecology Network, Election Issues, Protests at the Democratic National Convention and lots of inspiring organizations and groups! (MPR)
UCSC Farm Cart
Be a conscious consumer! Our very own UCSC Farm will be providing freshly harvested, organically grown seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as flower bouquets!
Button Making
Design a button to express the importance of a social justice issue close to your heart. Supplies will be provided throughout the day.
Scribble Wall
Voice yourself! Express your thoughts on various social justice issues or your experience at the Practical Activism Conference on a scribble wall outside the MPR.
Stenciling
Social Justice and DIY activism! Learn to create social justice inspired stencils and transfer your design onto patches. Also feel free to supply your own transfer surface, like t-shirts, bags, bandanas, etc.
Seed Potting and Organics Display
Plant your own organic seeds and seedlings! Take a step toward making the earth a bit greener and learn about the importance of knowing the sources of your food.
Music Listening & Lyric Awareness Station
Listen to a sampling of music reflecting social justice issues and activism. Names of artists, songs, and playlists will be available. Also become more conscious about the lyrical content of popular songs.
Blood Drive and Bone Marrow Registry
Make a difference in someone’s life: give blood and/or sign up for the bone marrow registry today! (See back for more info.) Also, we will also be sending postcards to our state government and the FDA asking for a change to the discriminatory policy of not allowing gay men to give blood. (Recreation Lounge, 2:15 to 6:00 PM)
Did you know? About every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood AND every year, more than 10,000 Americans get life-threatening diseases that can only be cured with a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor.
During the second half of the conference, the Stanford Blood Center will be holding a blood drive and bone marrow registry in the same building as the MPR. If you are unsure about either one of these programs, come down and learn more about it.
Come join the action!
http://www.marrow.org/NEWS/MEDIA/Facts_and_Figures/facts_figures.pdf
El Intercambio: Bridging Global Communities
Come meet representatives of community-based organizations from Central America and Mexico visiting as part of the Community Agroecology Network (CAN). CAN supports alternative forms of development by building bridges between cultures and supporting actions for social change.
Community Agroecology Network (CAN) has partnered with Practical Activism all six years of our history. CAN is an international network committed to sustaining livelihoods and environments through action education, participatory research, and alternative trade. www.communityagroecology.net
Boots Riley biography
Boots Riley was raised amidst political action in Oakland, California, where since the age of fourteen he's been involved in organizing and inspiring youth. From student organizing in Oakland's public schools, to serving on the central committee for the Progressive Labor Party, holding the presidential position for InCAR (International Committee Against Racism), and organizing to build California's Anti-Racist Farm Workers' Union, Riley has been an integral part of a progressive struggle for radical change through culture.
In 1991, Riley, along with a group of artists and activists founded the Mau Mau Rhythm Collective. The purpose of this organization was to use culture (mainly hip hop) to publicize campaigns by organizations such as the Women's Economic Agenda Project, the International Campaign to Free Geronimo Pratt, and various anti-police brutality campaigns. Also in 1991, Riley founded the world-renowned hip hop group, The Coup. Riley also works as the group's primary producer, arranger and songwriter. In 1996, Riley helped to organize the Young Comrades, a political organization dedicated to working on material reform issues using a revolutionary class analysis.
Riley's activism - from local issues to international ones such as the World Conference Against Racism - has set an unprecedented standard of political organizing among hip hop artists. Riley has taught several workshops on arts and activism, sponsored by the California Arts Council, in which he developed "guerilla hip hop concerts" (mobile concerts on flat bed trucks). These workshops also produced "audio hip hop newspapers," of which 20,000 were distributed throughout the Bay Area for each issue. Both of the projects that came out of the workshops were part of the campaign to stop Proposition 21.
Riley also spoke out against the bombing of Afghanistan as well as the war in Iraq in various local and international news media, such as Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" and Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes." Riley has been featured and interviewed in various international media, speaking on a variety of subjects from music, to grassroots organizing, to US imperialism and racism. Recently winning awards from the AFL-CIO for his participation with the Tell Us the Truth Tour, Riley continues to effect social change through his artistic and political work.