Theme: Artivism
Thursday, April 6th
On Allston Way between Shattuck and Oxford
Participatory Street Art with The Climate Justice Arts Project
Arts organizer David Solnit, muralist Gemma Searle and educator/organizer/artist Julie Searle will host two interactive arts projects sponsored by The Climate Justice Arts Project on the closed-to-traffic block of Allston Way. Don’t miss the fun: come learn new skills in “engaged art”-making as we collaborate in street mural painting and get your of climate justice art posters for Earthweek.
12:20 pm – 5:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
Catch the Drop
Come paint stunningly beautiful rain catchment barrels and learn about water harvesting with cutting-edge eco artists affiliated with the beloved Women’s Eco Art Directory organization (WEAD), a long-standing, groundbreaking organization with deep historical ties to Bioneers. You will discover the joy of combining beauty with life-affirming green technology.
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
Sprit Nests Creations
Join Jayson Fann and collaborators for an extraordinary immersive medicine space of rhythm and healing, including a 10 ft drum created in collaboration with the 13 Grandmothers. Come hear music 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Thursday – Saturday, see the installation anytime.
People’s Earth Week: Climate Justice Art & Action
Come see street art poster designs by 10 movement artists–and take poster art kit home to publicly display for Earthweek! Sponsored by the grassroots climate justice networks People VS Fossil Fuels and Stop the Money Pipeline. Info at: bit.ly/ClimateJusticeArtKit
Climate Justice Movement Flags & Banners
See the display along Allston Way of climate justice movement screen printed, hand painted and flags and banners from in frontline and community struggles to protect people and planet.
Artists’ Way
Come browse the beautiful and thought-provoking work of an array of socially and eco-conscious local artists who will be displaying and vending their work on Allston Way and other conference sites.
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
April 6th | 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm | On Allston Way between Shattuck and Oxford
3:00 pm: Youth Leadership Program: The Celebration Singing Tree
Hands-on Mural-Making
In this hands-on art-making workshop, we will engage in the creation of a Singing Tree mural from start to finish during the conference. It will be the 117th Singing Tree mural of a forest of trees made by over 21,000 people from 52 countries, part of an invitation for the whole world to make a painting together, based on the vision of an 8-year-old girl. The workshop will also include scientific information about the positive neurobiological impacts of the “Peace Building Through Art Inspired by Nature” program. Paint clothes will be provided. Hosted by Laurie Marshall, founder of the Unity Through Creativity Foundation and The Singing Tree Project. Facilitated by Singing Tree facilitators Leslie Rein and Sweta Chawla.
April 6th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Terrace outside Tamalpais Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Laurie Marshall
Founder | Unity Through Creativity Foundation and the Singing Tree Project
Laurie Marshall, an author and artist, founder of the Unity Through Creativity Foundation and the Singing Tree Project, is a certified K-12 Art and Social Studies teacher who has worked for four decades to empower youth and adults through creative collaboration in her Peace Building through Art Inspired by Nature programs. An Arts Integration and Project-Based Learning specialist, she has served mostly low-income children, seeking to nurture creativity, a love of learning and a collaborative spirit and has made innovative use of visual art and storytelling in a wide range of consensus building, leadership training and conflict prevention initiatives with clients that have included NASA, FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior, the U.S. Botanical Gardens, as well as public schools, hospitals and prisons around the U.S.
Sweta Chawla
Facilitator
Sweta Chawla, PharmD, a former professor of pharmacy turned leadership coach, is a certified Art of Sacred Circle, Singing Tree and Step into Your Moxie facilitator who uses art, self-awareness and vocal expression to empower her clients. She has published articles and essays in many journals and magazines, and is the author of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For...Now What? as well as a contributor to the award-winning anthology: She’s Got This: Essays on Standing Strong and Moving On.
Leslie Rein
Facilitator | Singing Tree Project
Leslie Rein, a former mental health counselor, municipal government administrator, and dancer, has, since 2019, focused on visual art, including by working on collaborative murals as a Singing Tree Project facilitator and by facilitating the creation of large, collaboratively made chalk drawings on school playgrounds and in other public spaces.
The film will be introduced by Ernest Alfred, Hereditary Chief of Tlowit’sis First Nation, elected leader of the ‘Namgis First Nation and leader of the Swanson Occupation.
After a mother orca carries her dead calf for 17 days, two filmmakers join Indigenous leaders and scientists making a final attempt to protect the last 73 Southern Resident orcas from extinction. Winner of many prestigious awards, Coextinction moves beyond a traditional wildlife documentary, taking us deep into the oceans and forests of the Pacific Northwest to witness the complex systems of interconnectedness linking together ecosystem collapse, centuries of injustice against Indigenous peoples, and the frontlines of the world’s most pressing environmental threats.
The Coexistence Films team includes: Gloria Pancrazi, Elena Jean, Andrew Luba, Nicholas Castel, Victoria Obermeyer, Julien Verschooris, Morgane Trussardi, Carolina Vitorino; with co-collaborators: Will George, Chief Ernest Alfred, K’odi Nelson, Jesse and Carrie Nightwalker, and 15+ First Nations and Sovereign Tribes on whose lands filming took place. The film was made with generous support from Dr. Bronner’s, PNW Protectors, hundreds of crowdfunding supporters, and many other organizations and individuals.
NOTE: To support Coextinction’s impact campaign, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/coextinction-film-impact-campaign
April 6th | 6:40 pm to 8:30 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Introduced by
Ernest Alfred
Chief Ernest Alfred (K’wak’wabalas), a traditional (hereditary) leader and elected Council Member of the ‘Namgis First Nation, in 2017 led the 284-day “Swanson Occupation” to protect wild salmon against the impacts of Industrial open-pen fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago of the Kwakwaka'wakw coastal waters of British Columbia. His work to protect ancient rainforests and the cultural and spiritual practices that rely on a healthy environment has inspired a generation of Indigenous leaders to continue to uphold their ancestral responsibilities, rights and sovereignty.
8:30 pm: Film Screening: A Sneak Preview of Regenerating Life, Parts 1 and 2
Part 1 “Water Cools the Planet” and Part 2 “Life Sustains the Climate”
Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, challenging the prevailing climate change story and offering new, attainable solutions. It tracks growing movements of farmers, activists, scientists, and others working to repair the environmental and social devastation we have caused. We will be screening parts 1 and 2. Part 3, “Small Farms Feed the World,” will be available online for conference attendees to watch right after the conference.
A film by John Feldman.
April 6th | 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Whereby we convene the Renaissance Council to banish crack-pot tyranny to the Underworld, to learn knitting and weaving, as the gods sentenced Hercules when he was sundering the fabric of creation.
Pluto, just arrived in Communitarian Aquarius, guides us to constellate the Community of Reverent Ingenuity. Symbiotic Mutualism!
“Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one another? We at once see that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest.” Peter Kropotkin
This evening, Chief Trickster at Coyote Network News, Caroline Casey, the host and “weaver of context” of the Visionary Activist Show (critique and solution) on KPFA/Pacifica for 26+ years, now in her 20th+ year at Bioneers, accompanied by the brilliant, eclectic violinist Briana Di Mara, will proffer her inimitable astro*mytho*political*cultural meta narratives, whereby to quicken our endogenous indigenuity, to set all of our collaborative skills humming. And skidding in to cahoot, long-time ally Amikaeyla Gaston, on drums, “sacred ethnomusicologist/song keeper of chants from indigenous traditions around the world…Confluencing of Allies!” The more words, myths, metaphors – the more ways to cahoot with our Flora Fauna Fungi Kin. Democratic Animism Now! Language crafting – that our words stories be in accord with our dedicated hearts! Drawing on the power of majnoun (“yearning for the Divine” ) – let’s dissolve cruelty and dominance out of humanity’s repertoire. ”
April 6th | 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Caroline Casey
Visionary Activist Astrologer | Coyote Network News
Caroline Casey, the renowned “Visionary Activist Astrologer” and “story-language crafter” at Coyote Network News (“the Mythological New Service for the Trickster Redeemer within us all”), has been hosting and “weaving context” on her beloved Pacifica Radio Visionary Activist Show for 26 years, and is the author of the book, Making the Gods Work for You. Caroline has long presented her uniquely provocative, inspiring and vividly entertaining “astro-mythological” political meta-story-telling in a very wide range of multi-media venues.
Briana Di Mara
Violinist
Briana Di Mara, an accomplished violinist known for her evocative improvisations and her ability to play a broad range of genres from many different cultures, trained in Western classical music as a child and the went on to study and perform a wide variety of musical traditions, including from the Celtic, Balkan, Turkish and Arabic worlds. She harmoniously weaves these influences into her own unique, eclectic sound and compositions.
Amikaeyla Gaston
Founder and Executive Director | International Cultural Arts & Healing Sciences Institute (ICAHSI)
Amikaeyla Gaston, an award-winning vocalist, musician and musical director, is the founder and Executive Director of the Oakland, CA-based International Cultural Arts & Healing Sciences Institute (ICAHSI), which seeks to “aid at-risk populations by bringing together artists and healers of all forms and from all specialties to promote healing and wellness through the arts.” She is also a Cultural Ambassador for the State Department who has worked with political refugees, war survivors, and at-risk populations worldwide in inter-cultural literacy and restorative justice projects.
Friday, April 7th
April 7th | 10:52 am to 11:08 am | Zellerbach Hall
Keynote
Rising Appalachia
Internationally Touring Appalachian and World Folk Ensemble
Rising Appalachia, an internationally touring Appalachian and world folk ensemble founded by Atlanta-raised, New Orleans-based sisters Leah and Chloe Smith whose soulful folk-roots sound traces back to their open-minded musician parents and to grassroots music communities in the hills and valleys of the Deep South as well as urban Atlanta, has consistently used its platform to activate, organize and support frontline justice work and community organizations. Fifteen years into an adventure that has taken this self-made, stubbornly independent band around the globe, they have recently released a new master-work, their seventh album, Leylines, recorded in California in a studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
On Allston Way between Shattuck and Oxford
Participatory Street Art with The Climate Justice Arts Project
Arts organizer David Solnit, muralist Gemma Searle and educator/organizer/artist Julie Searle will host two interactive arts projects sponsored by The Climate Justice Arts Project on the closed-to-traffic block of Allston Way. Don’t miss the fun: come learn new skills in “engaged art”-making as we collaborate in street mural painting and get your of climate justice art posters for Earthweek.
12:20 pm – 5:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
Catch the Drop
Come paint stunningly beautiful rain catchment barrels and learn about water harvesting with cutting-edge eco artists affiliated with the beloved Women’s Eco Art Directory organization (WEAD), a long-standing, groundbreaking organization with deep historical ties to Bioneers. You will discover the joy of combining beauty with life-affirming green technology.
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
Sprit Nests Creations
Join Jayson Fann and collaborators for an extraordinary immersive medicine space of rhythm and healing, including a 10 ft drum created in collaboration with the 13 Grandmothers. Come hear music 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Thursday – Saturday, see the installation anytime.
People’s Earth Week: Climate Justice Art & Action
Come see street art poster designs by 10 movement artists–and take poster art kit home to publicly display for Earthweek! Sponsored by the grassroots climate justice networks People VS Fossil Fuels and Stop the Money Pipeline. Info at: bit.ly/ClimateJusticeArtKit
Climate Justice Movement Flags & Banners
See the display along Allston Way of climate justice movement screen printed, hand painted and flags and banners from in frontline and community struggles to protect people and planet.
Artists’ Way
Come browse the beautiful and thought-provoking work of an array of socially and eco-conscious local artists who will be displaying and vending their work on Allston Way and other conference sites.
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
April 7th | 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm | On Allston Way between Shattuck and Oxford
With a special live appearance by Bernie and Katherine Krause to introduce the film.
Bernie Krause, the legendary pioneer of Acoustic Ecology began his journey in the 1960s as a prolific composer at the forefront of the synthesizer revolution helping transform the cinema and the music industries, but a single chance encounter with the sounds of the wilderness set him on a completely new trajectory gathering wilderness recordings across the globe. Over half a century later, his vast archive of captured soundscapes reflects dire habitat devastation in virtually all ecosystems on Earth, yet also yields urgent stories about the need for immediate change. Bernie and his wife Kat tragically faced the immediacy of climate change when their home and recording studio was completely destroyed by the Sonoma wildfires of 2017. Their message to us is ever more urgent.
“The Last of the Nightingales” invites us to experience the rich acoustic beauty of the living world through Bernie’s ears and to reconnect with it. As more and more soundscapes fall silent, Bernie reminds us that it is not too late to begin listening.
Directed and edited by Masha Karpoukhina; cinematography by Justin LaFleur; produced by Hassan Said and Rose Wyatt.
April 7th | 6:40 pm to 7:20 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Protecting and Restoring California’s Ecosystems with Nature-Based Solutions
Three Short Films by Masha Karpoukhina
Produced by Colorfool Films
These 3 short films represent an inspiring patchwork of some of the most ambitious conservation projects to be undertaken in California in response to the climate crisis. What can be achieved if we decide to work in concert with nature rather than against her? If we decide to learn from the wealth of ecological knowledge embedded in the evolutionary process, billions of years in the making? In many ways, the things that we love most about the Bay Area from our coastal redwoods, to the majesty of the Bay, to the free flowing waters that nourish it, deeply depend on the success of these 3 projects. They represent hope, but it’s clear that they will not be enough. How can we inspire a thousand more projects just like these to help redefine what is possible?
A Valley Endures: Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST)
Between two ridges—the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range—lies Coyote Valley, the last remaining, largely undeveloped link connecting 1.13 million acres of habitat that is already severely fragmented by human development. If the wildlife who call these habitats home are to have a chance at adapting to our changing climate, or even surviving, Coyote Valley must be protected forever. (5 minutes)
Where the Wetlands Grow: Save The Bay
As the Bay Area braces for 7 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100, Save The Bay and partners such as the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project are pioneering nature-based solutions for one of the largest tidal marsh restoration projects on the West Coast. This innovative approach protects Bay Area wildlife and human communities with healthy marshes teeming with native vegetation instead of hardened seawalls or levees. (3 minutes)
6000 Miles: CalWild
There are so few free-flowing rivers in the U.S. that the Department of the Interior considers them endangered ecosystems. Enter Kayla Lopez, a young river activist, and Steve Evans (aka The River Guy), who has lobbied for wild rivers in Congress his whole life. Both are on a journey into the spirit of the California rivers they hold dear. Follow their stories as we explore CalWild’s mission to protect a total of 6,000 miles eligible under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by 2028. (5 minutes)
April 7th | 7:20 pm to 7:40 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
This short film shows frontline Ecuadorian conservationists invoking the “rights of nature” clause in their nation’s constitution to work to save areas of immense biodiversity. This half hour screening is of Episode #4 from Tangled Bank Studio’s brand-new series, Wild Hope.
The film will be introduced by Callie Broaddus, founder of Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, a nonprofit empowering youth to conserve threatened species and habitats around the world.
Great thanks to Tangled Bank Studios, a mission-driven production company.
April 7th | 7:40 pm to 8:20 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Introduced by
Callie Broaddus
Founder | Reserva: The Youth Land Trust
Callie Broaddus, a Washington, DC-based conservation photographer and the founder of Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, a nonprofit empowering youth to conserve threatened species and habitats around the world, has focused since 2019 on the Ecuadorian Tropical Andes, Earth’s most unique biodiversity hotspot, where Reserva is working with partners to prevent gold mining in the fragile Dracula Reserve ecological corridor. Callie also serves on the advisory councils and boards of several leading conservation organizations.
A Friday Night Bioneers Concert
We are delighted to be able to present Rising Appalachia in a special performance in one of the Bay Area’s most revered musical venues, Freight & Salvage, to celebrate Bioneers’ first year in Berkeley. Rising Appalachia, founded by Atlanta-raised, New Orleans-based sisters Leah and Chloe Smith, is renowned for its hauntingly beautiful soulful folk-roots music, but the band has also been truly exemplary in consistently using its platform to activate, organize and support frontline justice work and community organizations. Fifteen years into an adventure that has taken this self-made, stubbornly independent ensemble around the globe, they have recently released a new master-work, their seventh album, Leylines, recorded in California in a studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean and are eager to share their latest creation. This show will feature Rising Appalachia with their full five piece band. Don’t miss it!
Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St, Berkeley, CA
NOTE: Access to this performance requires a separate registration from Bioneers attendees, with an additional $25 ticket price. Open to the general public as well, ticketing link below:
April 7th | 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Rising Appalachia
Internationally Touring Appalachian and World Folk Ensemble
Rising Appalachia, an internationally touring Appalachian and world folk ensemble founded by Atlanta-raised, New Orleans-based sisters Leah and Chloe Smith whose soulful folk-roots sound traces back to their open-minded musician parents and to grassroots music communities in the hills and valleys of the Deep South as well as urban Atlanta, has consistently used its platform to activate, organize and support frontline justice work and community organizations. Fifteen years into an adventure that has taken this self-made, stubbornly independent band around the globe, they have recently released a new master-work, their seventh album, Leylines, recorded in California in a studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
In the spring of 1972, police raided an apartment on the South Side of Chicago where seven women who were part of a clandestine network were arrested and charged. Using code names, fronts, and safe houses to protect themselves and their work, the accused had built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions. They called themselves “Jane.”
Directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, The Janes offers first-hand accounts from the women at the center of the group, many speaking on the record for the first time. The Janes tells the story of this group of unlikely outlaws who defied the state legislature that outlawed abortion, the Catholic Church that condemned it, and the Chicago Mob that was profiting from it, and risked their personal and professional lives to help women in need.
April 7th | 8:20 pm to 10:00 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Saturday, April 8th
April 8th | 11:11 am to 11:23 am | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Rashidi Omari
Performing Arts Director | Destiny Arts Center
Rashidi Omari, affiliated with Oakland’s renowned Destiny Arts Center since 2003, is its Performing Arts Director and the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company's Co-Director. He also teaches dance and spoken word in school and community spaces throughout the Bay Area and presents on Destiny’s Creative Youth Development model nationally and internationally. Rashidi, whose passion for and profound knowledge of hip hop and related dance styles were kindled by his youth during the “golden age” of the genre, has been dancing since the age of three and has been performing extensively since 1993 with a wide array of companies.
Keynote
Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company
The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) is a diverse group of teens that collaborates with professional artists to create dynamic, original productions. Combining hip hop, modern and aerial dance, theater, song, and rap, company members take the stage to tell stories that stem from their lived experiences and express their visions for a world transformed. Since 1993, DAYPC has performed original work for up to 25,000 audience members annually, garnering critical acclaim and widespread community support for both their technical prowess and their commitment to advancing inclusivity, equity, and justice.
On Allston Way between Shattuck and Oxford
Participatory Street Art with The Climate Justice Arts Project
Arts organizer David Solnit, muralist Gemma Searle and educator/organizer/artist Julie Searle will host two interactive arts projects sponsored by The Climate Justice Arts Project on the closed-to-traffic block of Allston Way. Don’t miss the fun: come learn new skills in “engaged art”-making as we collaborate in street mural painting and get your of climate justice art posters for Earthweek.
12:20 pm – 5:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
Catch the Drop
Come paint stunningly beautiful rain catchment barrels and learn about water harvesting with cutting-edge eco artists affiliated with the beloved Women’s Eco Art Directory organization (WEAD), a long-standing, groundbreaking organization with deep historical ties to Bioneers. You will discover the joy of combining beauty with life-affirming green technology.
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
Sprit Nests Creations
Join Jayson Fann and collaborators for an extraordinary immersive medicine space of rhythm and healing, including a 10 ft drum created in collaboration with the 13 Grandmothers. Come hear music 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Thursday – Saturday, see the installation anytime.
People’s Earth Week: Climate Justice Art & Action
Come see street art poster designs by 10 movement artists–and take poster art kit home to publicly display for Earthweek! Sponsored by the grassroots climate justice networks People VS Fossil Fuels and Stop the Money Pipeline. Info at: bit.ly/ClimateJusticeArtKit
Climate Justice Movement Flags & Banners
See the display along Allston Way of climate justice movement screen printed, hand painted and flags and banners from in frontline and community struggles to protect people and planet.
Artists’ Way
Come browse the beautiful and thought-provoking work of an array of socially and eco-conscious local artists who will be displaying and vending their work on Allston Way and other conference sites.
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Thursday – Saturday
April 8th | 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm | On Allston Way between Shattuck and Oxford
April 8th | 12:33 pm to 12:45 pm | Zellerbach Hall
Keynote
Wildchoir
Musical Ensemble
Wildchoir, formerly known as “Thrive Choir,” is an Oakland, CA-based, politically and socially engaged diverse group of vocalists, artists, activists, educators, healers and community organizers who join together in harmony. They have performed with nationally-acclaimed artists for social change including Rising Appalachia, Climbing PoeTree and MaMuse. They also frequently share the stage with progressive leaders, including Bernie Sanders, Ericka Huggins, Joanna Macy, and Fania Davis. Their music has inspired thousands at marches, conferences and festivals across California. Wildchoir spent its first years as the musical voice of Thrive East Bay and the global Thrive Network, and it is forever grateful to the Thrive Network for all its support and collaboration, but it is thrilled to be beginning a new phase of its musical journey as an independent ensemble.
A working session open to all youth who want to come and complete the Singing Tree Collective Mural collective before the close of the conference. With Leslie Rein and Sweta Chawla.
April 8th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Terrace outside Tamalpais Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Sweta Chawla
Facilitator
Sweta Chawla, PharmD, a former professor of pharmacy turned leadership coach, is a certified Art of Sacred Circle, Singing Tree and Step into Your Moxie facilitator who uses art, self-awareness and vocal expression to empower her clients. She has published articles and essays in many journals and magazines, and is the author of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For...Now What? as well as a contributor to the award-winning anthology: She’s Got This: Essays on Standing Strong and Moving On.
Leslie Rein
Facilitator | Singing Tree Project
Leslie Rein, a former mental health counselor, municipal government administrator, and dancer, has, since 2019, focused on visual art, including by working on collaborative murals as a Singing Tree Project facilitator and by facilitating the creation of large, collaboratively made chalk drawings on school playgrounds and in other public spaces.
What makes someone an activist? In this workshop, we’ll explore activism with a focus on historical and modern youth activism, and we’ll use the art and power of poetry to share and illustrate our most passionate thoughts, ranging from our identities to global issues. In the end, we will discover the activist within us all and learn to empower our fellow youth peers! Facilitated by poet and activist Myra Estrada, a 2023 Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam finalist.
April 8th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Tamalpais Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Myra Estrada
Poet and Activist
Myra Estrada, a poet and activist of African-American and Mexican ancestry, was a 2021 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate, and is a Youth Speaks SPOKES Member and a 2023 Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam finalist.
In times of crisis, societies look to their storytellers to understand and process the challenges and to peek around corners to see pathways that purely rational analyses simply can’t fathom. Today, best-sellers in fiction and memoir are setting real-world information about the climate crisis, social justice movements, and migration realities within their narratives. Audiences are ready for these stories, but what about artists? Does the moment dictate the art? In our ancestral past it was the myth-makers who guided their communities through crisis. Do modern day writers think about their obligations on the entertainment-awareness spectrum? How do storytellers move in or move out of our current moment? Join a conversation with leading writers about their creative process, how they consider the bigger local and global conversations as they craft their work, and the relationship between fictional narratives and real world movements for change. Hosted by Laleh Khadivi, Iranian-born writer and filmmaker. With: Keenan Norris, novelist, essayist and scholar; Andri Snær Magnason, renowned Icelandic novelist, poet, filmmaker and environmental activist.
April 8th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Laleh Khadivi
Writer and Filmmaker
Laleh Khadivi, born in Esfahan, Iran, is a writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as (since 1999) a director, producer and cinematographer of documentary films. Her debut novel, The Age of Orphans, received multiple prestigious awards, and her documentary film, 900 WOMEN, aired on A&E and premiered at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published widely, including in The Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, VQR and The Sun. She was also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a Pushcart Prize for her story, Wanderlust.
Andri Snær Magnason
Writer and Filmmaker
Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer and documentary fllmmaker. His latest book, On Time and Water, is a search for a new language to explain the climate crisis through science, family stories and mythology. His work ranges from poetry to non-fiction, children's literature, science fiction, theater and documentary film. Andri has won some international awards, the Tiziano Terzani Award in Italy, the Philip K. Dick honorary mention in USA for LoveStar and the Icelandic literary Award in all categories. He ran for president of Iceland in 2016 with environmental issues on the agenda and came in third.
Keenan Norris
Novelist, Essayist and Scholar
Keenan Norris, an Associate Professor at San Jose State University, is a novelist and essayist whose latest novel, The Confession of Copeland Cane, won the 2022 Northern California Book Award. His essays have garnered a 2021-22 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award and 2021 Folio: Eddie Award, while his debut novel, Brother and the Dancer, won the 2012 James D. Houston Award. His most recent work is a "biblio-memoir," Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings.
This Open Mic, our final event of the weekend, centers youth voices, showcases youth talent and offers a powerful and sacred space for truth and healing. Open to all youth who have something that they would like to share, it will be rowdy, sweet, high energy, thoughtful and whatever else youth want to bring to the stage. MC’d by the dynamic Hip Hop and R&B artist, Jada Imani.
April 8th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Tamalpais Room, Brower Center
Panelists
Jada Imani
Hip-Hop and R&B Artist
Jada Imani, a Hip-Hop and R&B artist immersed in the Soul, Funk and Jazz traditions, is a community activator who started (at age 15!) curating creative spaces for local artists at cafes, community centers and festivals, including Oakland's First Friday, Life is Living, and Fridays at Oakland’s Museum of California.
Cara Romero: Following the Light profiles the art and inspiration of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program Co-Director and award-winning photographer, Cara Romero. Q&A with featured artist, Cara Romero.
April 8th | 6:40 pm to 7:25 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Long Line of Ladies tells the story of the return of women’s coming of age ceremonies among the Yurok tribe of Northern California. Q&A with featured culture-bearer, Pimm Allen.
April 8th | 7:30 pm to 8:10 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
Indigeneity shorts present an accurate portrait of the Native American experience by tackling stereotypes, exploring contemporary issues, and celebrating Indigenous contributions to America. Q&A with producer/writer/director, Alexis Bunten.
April 8th | 8:15 pm to 8:45 pm | Goldman Theater, Brower Center
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