Dear Bioneer,Yes, the 2020 Bioneers Conference is coming in December! We think we’ve figured out how to translate the magic of the live conference into a Bioneers-y virtual gathering. Although there’s no replacement for being together in the flesh, we believe our first virtual conference will conjure much of the Bioneers experience and shine a powerful beam of light into this broken world. This year’s theme is “ Beyond the Great Unraveling: Weaving the World Anew.” As we enter into a permanent emergency, it’s much easier to see what’s dying than what’s being born. But since the beginning, Bioneers has always been about what’s being born. As always, we’ll be showcasing many of the most visionary and practical solutions afoot today, and many of our greatest visionary innovators, including the greatest people you’ve never heard of. |
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The story that Bioneers tells is about the rise of social movements and civil society leadership. It’s these movements — it’s you — that hold the greatest promise and power for successfully navigating “Beyond the Great Unraveling.”
When Bioneers began in 1990, “It’s all connected” was the premise. Over the years, Bioneers became a trellis on which leaders, changemakers, groups and movements grew and grew together into a network of networks and a community of leadership at a time we’re all called upon to be leaders. We became a big tent for this movement of movements that’s today rising strong all over the world.
Now more than ever, we’re profoundly grateful to be able to gather together in community and shine a light on pathways forward and to celebrate each other.
In Kinship,
Kenny Ausubel & Nina Simons
Bioneers co-founders |
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The conference will take place for several hours each day on two successive weekends on December 5th-6th and 12th-13th. The structure will be in three Acts, with short performances and videos between the Acts: - Act 1: Keynote sessions with arts and performance, both live and taped, followed by five concurrent live panels.
- Act 2: Live Participatory Interactive sessions hosted and moderated to support the community to connect directly with each other around topics of interest.
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DON'T MISS THESE
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS! |
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Saturday, December 5: - Paul Stamets, who first spoke at Bioneers in 1996, is perhaps the world’s pre-eminent mycologist who has revolutionized what we know about this keystone organism, and invented mind-blowing applications that can radically regenerate the biosphere and human health while expanding our consciousness.
- The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company is among the world’s most dynamic and inspiring engaged dance and spoken word troupes, a perennial Bioneers favorite.
- Jaimie Margolin is among the country’s most passionate and visionary young climate leaders, a co-founder of the highly influential youth climate activist group, This is Zero Hour.
- Bakari Kitwana is a renowned cultural critic, journalist, activist, author and thought leader in the area of hip-hop, youth culture, and Black political engagement, Executive Director of Rap Sessions, and co-editor of the new book: Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People.
Sunday, December 6: - Cutcha Risling Baldy, Ph.D., (Hupa, Yurok, Karuk) is Chair of Native American Studies at Humboldt State, co-founder of the Native Women's Collective, which supports the revitalization of Native American arts and culture, and author of: We Are Dancing For You: Native feminisms and the revitalization of women's coming-of-age.
- Alfred Howard is a wildly original Black lyricist, percussionist, independent record label entrepreneur, and poet/spoken word maestro extraordinaire who performs his brilliant video “I Love America.”
- Thom Hartmann is the leading US progressive talk show host, an award-winning journalist and author of 30 remarkable books, including some of the most incisive historical critiques of US plutocracy and the seminal bestseller The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.
- Rising Appalachia is a deeply beloved musical ensemble whose unique interweavings of music and social consciousness, wise traditions and cutting-edge musical “newgrass” interpretations exude contagious hope, joy and wholeness.
- Vanessa Daniel is a long-time social justice activist who as Executive Director of Groundswell Fund strengthens US movements for reproductive and social justice ,resourcing underserved grassroots organizing and centering the leadership of women of color.
Saturday, December 12: - Trathen Heckman is a leading figure in the movement to build local resilience in this age of disruption, as founder of the Sonoma-based nonprofit Daily Acts dedicated to “transformative action that creates connected, equitable, climate resilient communities.”
- Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D., is a marine biologist, innovative thought leader in ocean and coastal conservation, and co-editor of the groundbreaking: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, a new anthology of visionary women climate leaders.
- Motus Theater, led by Artistic Director Kirsten Wilson, is a daring, innovative, socially engaged performance troupe dedicated to telling “moving stories that move us forward.” Its most recent work is UndocuAmerica, a storytelling project that seeks to interrupt dehumanizing portrayals of immigrants, one piece of which will be performed.
- john a. powell is Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, who has long been one of our nation’s leading and most innovative thinkers, scholars and activists on questions of race, class, poverty and inclusivity, and author of Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.
Sunday, December 13: - Tom Linzey and Mari Margil, co-leaders of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, have long been at the forefront of the now mushrooming movement to enshrine the “Rights of Nature” in legal codes and constitutions domestically and around the world, including in Ecuador’s groundbreaking national constitution in 2008 and more recently in US Indigenous communities.
- Naima Penniman is an educator, artist, activist, musician, and half of the duo Climbing PoeTree, among the world’s greatest socio-politically end ecologically conscious spoken word groups, whose solo performance will lead into her farmer sister Leah Penniman’s keynote.
- Leah Penniman is an award-winning food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 20+ years, as co-founder of Soul Fire Farm and author of Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land.
- Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., is a world-renowned ethnobotanist who has studied plant use with elder Indigenous healers in Central and South America for 30+ years, an award-winning rainforest activist, best-selling author, and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team, a breakthrough nonprofit dedicated to protecting the biological and cultural diversity of the Amazon.
- Closing performance by The Thrive Choir, directed by Austin Willacy and Kyle Lemle, a beloved, Oakland, CA-based grassroots, frontline “engaged” singing group composed of highly diverse musicians, artists, activists, educators, healers, and community organizers.
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