Rock & Roll Farm

Tuesday! Nov 23 2004 // 9:20 am //

bioneers

This post is terrifically overdue. I’ve decided to scrap my commentary, since all I came up with was a snapshot of me in the auditorium alternating between tears and fist-raising. Needless to say, I left the conference with renewed hope and energy to continue fighting for environmental and social justice. The end.

The Bioneers conference is held every year in San Rafael, California; however I attended one of many ‘satellite” conferences held across the country. Each satellite conference had their own workshops and keynote speakers, and a then a part of the day was spent in an auditorium watching a transmission of the plenary speakers in California.

Great Lakes Bioneers 2004

The Third GLB conference was organized by The Neahtawanta Center and SEEDS. Here’s a small article about the GLB conference at Michigan IMC.

Grace Lee Boggs was one of the GLB keynotes. She spoke to us about Building a Movement to Grow Our Souls, and it was incredible.

Bioneers Plenary Sessions 2004

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! spoke, and I bought her book, Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them.

Terry Tempest Williams incorporated some readings from her new book The Open Space of Democracy, published by Orion (this book is on my wish list, hint-hint). Her speech was part of a tour promoting the book, and as part of her tour diary she wrote a little about her experience at Bioneers (and, thankfully, talks about some of the speakers I’m not mentioning in this post). You should also check out Williams’ article from the March/April issue of Orion. I am currently reading Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert by Williams, whose portrait is featured in the Americans Who Tell the Truth series.

Read WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM NATIVE AMERICA ABOUT WAR AND PEACE? The Progressive Pragmatism of the Iroquois Confederacy an article by the quietly inspiring John Mohawk.

The daughter of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai spoke about her mother’s work with Kenya’s Green Belt Movement. Here is an interview with Wangari at the Nobel website.

Thomas Linzey of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund spoke about his involvement with Pennsylvania farmers fighting corporations. Read his editorial on the subject at CELDF, “Factory Farms, Corporations and Democracy”

Aqeela Sherrills closed the conference with his talk about the death of his son and the Reverence Movement. There is a decent bio on the Green Festivals site, and an interview from Satya Magazine in November ‘02.