National Bioneers Program

SATURDAY | OCTOBER 20 | 2007

Opening remarks from Kenny Ausubel, founder and co-producer of Bioneers.

SATURDAY PLENARIES

9:00 am – 1:00 pm

PAUL ANASTAS
Green Chemistry: From Here to Sustainability
The "father of green chemistry" explains that moving toward a sustainable civilization depends on major changes taking place in the nature of our products, processes and systems. Green chemistry seeks to transform many of the materials that are the basis of our society — from clothes to housing, communications, agriculture and energy — to ensure they are as benign as possible to the planet and all its inhabitants.

MAJORA CARTER
Green the Ghetto
A leading figure in the environmental justice movement and founder of the groundbreaking organization, Sustainable South Bronx, offers her vision of what we must do to green our inner cities so that we can reclaim our birthright — healthy communities with clean air and water, and access to open spaces.

EVON PETER
An Indigenous Perspective on How to Survive the Next Hundred Years
The chairman of Native Movement and former chief of the Neetsaii Gwich'in from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska dives into traditional knowledge, spiritual understanding and common sense as tools for helping to heal and transform humanity.

EVE ENSLER
V to the 10th
Award-winning playwright and worldrenowned women's rights activist tracks the extraordinary global trajectory of the "V-Day" movement over the last decade and shares her visions for the next ten years — helping women all over the world obtain peace, power and pleasure.

EDWARD TICK Return of the Ghost Dancers: Modern War's Devastation...and Healing
The psychotherapist who has been working with survivors of war, violence and trauma for over 30 years, surveys the true extent and costs of modern technological warfare, its resulting spiritual and ecological crises, and the possibility of healing individuals, nations and the planet through spiritual, cultural and community transformations.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON SESSIONS 2:45 pm – 4:15 pm

The Biomimicry Revolution: Imitating How Nature Does It
Highly efficient, benign, non-toxic technologies that mimic how nature operates are emerging to transform our economy and our lives. Moderated by Kasey Arnold-Ince, communications director of PAX Scientific; with Paul Anastas, renowned founder of green chemistry; inventor Jay Harman, founder of PAX Scientific; and Mark Dorfman of the Biomimicry Guild. (A11)

Saving People and Place: Collaborative Conservation Strategies
Unprecedented cross-cultural coalitions are forming to conserve large-scale ecosystems while honoring the place of people on the land. Hosted by anthropologist/ecologist Peter Warshall; with Janis Alcorn working with the Garfield Foundation on saving biodiversity with indigenous and campesino communities in the Gran Chaco of Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay; Guujaaw, political leader, activist, and teacher, who has worked with the council of the Haida Nation to secure the protection of traditional Haida lands; and Hawk Rosales, working to preserve the Sinkyone Wilderness. (A12)

Food, Labor, and Justice: Fair Wage Farming
One reason food in our society is relatively cheap by historical standards is the largescale exploitation of farm workers. How are farm workers organizing to win landmark victories, and what can we do to support their struggles? Hosted by the director of Bioneers' food and farming program, Arty Mangan; with Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Melody Gonzalez of the Student/Farmworker Alliance. (A13)

Wounds to Warriors: Healing the Trauma of Social Violence and War
Making peace requires healing the soul traumas of gender violence and war, as well as pursuing a never-ending quest for justice. Hosted by Akaya Windwood, director of leadership development at the Rockwood Leadership Program; with Marlowe Sam, Native American peacemaker; Aqeela Sherrills, peacemaker from South Central L.A.; women's rights defender Eve Ensler; and psychotherapist and veterans mental health expert Edward Tick. (A14)

Creating Health, Jobs and Justice
How can people mobilize to ensure that low-income areas and communities of color are no longer systematically underserved and used as dumping grounds? With: Sustainable South Bronx founder Majora Carter; Martha Arguello of Physicians for Social Responsibility, one of California's leading environmental justice activists; and Robina Suwol of California Safe Schools Coalition, which has led the way in initiating reform on pesticide use in schools internationally. (A15)

Parkinson's, Asthma, Infertility, Learning Disabilities and Autism:
What's the Environment Got to Do with It?
Can the dramatic increase in the incidence of certain diseases be associated with a toxic, damaged environment? What are we learning and how can we intervene most effectively? Moderated by Eleni Sotos, program director of the Collaborative on Health & the Environment (CHE); with Elise Miller, founder and executive director of the Institute for Children's Environmental Health; Jackie Hunt Christensen, co-chair of CHE's Working Group on Parkinson's Disease and the Environment; and Christine Cordero, community health program coordinator for the Center for Environmental Health. (A16)

Mainstreaming Hope through Popular Media
How are savvy progressive media professionals successfully using broad-based, popular media as vehicles to change our culture's story? With Leila Conners-Petersen and Nadia Conners, Tree Media Group's producer/director sister team of Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour; and Paul Lussier, producer/director of the Discovery Channel's forthcoming environmental dramatic series, FINAL HOUR. Moderated by KPFK's Free Forum host Terrence McNally. (A17)

Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers Panel
The grandmothers are both women of prayer and women of action. Their traditional ways link them with the forces of the Earth. Hear the Grandmothers speak on the prophesies that have guided them, the council they have formed, and their mission for healing the Earth. Moderated by Cynthia Jurs, Buddhist practitioner and teacher. (A18)

Herb Walk
Get outdoors with Kami McBride, a teacher of herbal medicine since 1988, including at the UC Nursing School and Stanford Hospital. Kami teaches herbology as a relationship with the Earth and a way of life. (A19)

Moving in the Movement: Using Dance & Theater for Social Change
Instructors from the Oakland violence prevention/arts education organization, Destiny Arts Center, and members of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company will use theater games and movement exercises to guide participants towards creating their own dance/theater pieces based on personal, social and political issues identified by the group. Come prepared to move your body, write your truth and speak from your heart. (Y3)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON SESSIONS 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Women Re-Imagining the World
As more women step toward leadership and the 'feminine' is increasingly ascendant in us all, how are our dreams, intuitions and perceptions shaping our collective vision of how to move toward a world of restored relations? How are we co-creating an inclusive framework that invites everyone to participate in birthing the world anew? Hosted by Akaya Windwood of the Rockwood Leadership Program; with one of the finest writers of our time, Alice Walker; Jungian psychiatrist and bestselling author Jean Shinoda Bolen; activist, author and teacher Joanna Macy; executive director of Oakland's acclaimed Destiny Arts Center, Sarah Crowell; and Bioneers' co-producer Nina Simons. (B9)

From Bangalore to the Bay Area: Mapping Knowledge and Power for the Sustainable City and Countryside of the Future
With two billion more urban dwellers expected within the next generation, we explore new digital tools for understanding and righting the relationship between the city and the country that is at the heart of the global quest for sustainability. Hosted by Jon Christensen, research fellow at the Center for Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford; with Deborah Schoenbaum, deputy director at the Marin Conservation Corps; Rebecca Moore of Google Earth; Tim Foresman, president of the International Center for Remote Sensing Education; and Margaret O'Mara, author of Cities of Knowledge. (B10)

Art and Social Change
Arts can impact us at every octave of our being, igniting movements and revolutions. What are some innovative strategies for effectively using arts as a vehicle to catalyze change? With: muralist and public art pioneer Judy Baca; Anthony Arnove, currently organizing dramatic readings of selections from Howard Zinn's The People's History of the United States; and New Orleans' community arts heroine Carol Bebelle. Moderated by Terrence McNally, host of KPFK's Free Forum. (B11)

Education for a Sustainable World
Can we change our educational ecosystem, from kindergarten to grad school, so it can play a major role in healing our world? What can teachers, students, parents and citizens do, despite such horrors as "No Child Left Behind," to further ecological literacy, self-respect and critical thinking and to help break cycles of poverty and disenfranchisement? Hosted by Michael K. Stone of the Center for Ecoliteracy, co-editor of Ecological Literacy; with sustainability curriculum pathfinder Jaimie Cloud; renowned Native American educator and author Greg Cajete; and longtime San Francisco teacher, principal and bilingual education innovator Adelina Aramburo. (B12)

A Conversation at the Crossroads: Race, Power and Restorative Justice
What are the conscious and unconscious attitudes toward race that keep us bound to old paradigms? Is the healing of the planet possible without restoring the vitality of the human spirit? Do we need a "Truth and Restorative Justice Commission" in the U.S? Come explore these crucial, fundamental questions with host Aqeela Sherrills, renowned Watts peacemaker; healer and human development expert Orland Bishop; environmentalist/youth activist Ocean Robbins; Zen priest and social activist angel Kyodo williams; and attorney and community activist Salomon Zavala. (B13)

Original Instructions: Perspectives from First Peoples
The voices and visions of North America's First Peoples can remind us of the "original instructions" for how to live sustainably on this land for the long haul. Hosted by the executive director of the Cultural Conservancy and professor of American Indian Studies, Melissa Nelson; with program director of Honor the Earth, Winona LaDuke from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota; Evon Peter, on the executive board of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council; Dune Lankard, Athabaskan Eyak activist, social entrepreneur and founder of the Eyak Preservation Council; and Clayton Thomas- Müller, chair of the IEN's Native Energy Campaign Advisory Committee. (B14)

Social and Environmental Justice through Donor Activism
A Special Presentation of the Tides Foundation and the Women Donors Network. New types of relationships among philanthropy, activism and systemic change are emerging among donors who have harnessed their financial resources, connections and skills in their quest to contribute to the progressive movement in strategic ways, and activists who work with donors as full partners on every aspect of this evolving working model. With: Connie and Jonathan Cagampang Heller and Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion and Wendy Wolf and Kathy Bonk of the Communications Consortium Media Center. Facilitated by Donna Hall, Women Donors Network and Berit Ashla, Tides. (B15)

Elections as Metaphors: Broad Organizing Opportunities and Stories of Culture
Many in the U.S. understand social change through the lens of elections and electoral organizing. And, like clockwork, pervasive race and class-based inequities rise to the surface each election. This workshop will explore opportunities for young people to claim power and build community by using electoral politics as a hook to engage people to reclaim the governance process and shed light on broader issues of social change. Join Ilyse Hogue, campaign director for MoveOn.org; James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change; Leda Dederich from dotOrganize and Arianna Huffington for Governor Campaign '04; and Adrienne Maree Brown, executive director of The Ruckus Society. (Y4)

Grandmothers Council (B15)

SATURDAY EVENING 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Seed Exchange
Bring seeds to exchange genetic materials with neighbors, allies and master collectors. Hosted by legendary seed-masters Doug Gosling and Gabriel Howearth. (C1)

Farmers and Chefs Reception
Enjoy local cuisine and meet the farmers and chefs. Reception followed by a dinner honoring Farms Not Arms, a group of activist farmers protesting the Iraq war and providing farming jobs for war veterans. Hosted by the Marin Farmers Market Association. (C2)

7:30 pm – 10:00 pm

Bioneers Moving Image Festival
Discover the films and filmmakers who are making a better world.

8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Caroline Casey Presents: The Coyote Network News of Now: Animating the Desirable Story
(attracts the molecules of its manifestation) Critique without vision is complicitous with dominance, but if we can compost tyranny into rich nutrient for growing a culture of reverent ingenuity, then we have a nearly inexhaustible source of renewable energy. (C3)

8:00 pm – midnight

Drumming and Dance Party
Hosted by Bioneers Youth. Drum circle followed by performances and dancing.