Workshop Schedule, Full Detail, May 16th, 9am-7pm

9 - 9:50am Welcome, Coffee, Bagels

10 - 11 am Workshops Session I, Choose 1 of 3:


1) Working in Solidarity with Communities on the Frontlines – Rainforest Action Network
Workshop Synopsis: This workshop will explore relationships between communities directly affected by environmental degradation and partner organizations from outside areas. We will use as an example relationships that Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco based NGO, has held with Indigenous communities fighting logging in Canada as well as communities fighting mountain-top removal coal mining in Appalachia. We will address both successful and unsuccessful relationships in this workshop, as well as discuss appropriate roles that outside organizations can play when working with affected communities, and facilitate thinking about what relationships of solidarity between organizations can and should look like.

Presenter Bio: Annie Sartor is a Campaigner with the Global Finance Team at Rainforest Action Network. Annie’s work includes organizing and mobilizing activists and volunteers around the United States to demand that the world’s biggest banks adopt policies that are consistent with human rights and environmental protection best practices.

Action Component: Workshop participants will be encouraged to participate in RAN’s campaign to pressure banks redirect their funding of dirty energy to renewables by working with RAN to protest local Citi, Bank of America or JP Morgan Chase bank branches. Check out www.dirtymoney.org!

2) Race and the Accumulation of Wealth in North America: A Historical Perspective - Carol Zamonski - Simply Living
Workshop Synopsis: This workshop will look at the history of how the slave trade, appropriation of Native American lands and immigrant labor (among other things) contributed to the accumulation of Wealth in the Americas. The first 20 minutes of the workshop will be informational, the second 20 minutes an experiential game to reinforce theories and facts introduced in the first part of the workshop. The last third of the workshop will be time for participants to express, ask questions, dialog with each other and brainstorm actions for change. Purpose: To introduce workshop participants to current data and historical analysis of the distribution of wealth in the United States and general trends affecting North, South and Central Americas. When taking action in the present, it is of great benefit to understand your own action as part of a larger historical picture.


3) Keeping the Faith – Struggling to Retain the Energy to Fight Racism - First UU Church of Columbus, Social Justice Committee
Workshop Synopsis: This workshop will use a multi-media approach to tell the story of individuals who have worked to end oppression on a daily basis. Song, graphic images and stories will be used to help participants come to recognition that life’s tricks, trips, and travails need not dampen the spirit for justice.

Presenter Bio: Maywhoor began his journey at 18 working in a rural Ohio two county community action commission which brought together Appalachian whites, urban blacks and Chicano’s (both settled out and in-stream migrant farm workers) in an effort to “re-enfranchise people in the decision making processes of the community.”

Action Component: Participants will be offered tips, tools and techniques for avoiding burn-out.




11:10 - 12:10 Workshops Session II, Choose 1 of 4:



1) “Food Justice: Local, Healthy and Sustainably Grown Food for All”: - Local Matters
Workshop Synopsis: One of the great, often unspoken, forms of oppression that low- and moderate-income communities suffer through is the lack of access to healthy food. While most residents and activists look at conditions such as public safety, housing availability, public education, environmental concerns and economic opportunities when taking on community development issues, seldom do we consider one of the most basic elements – how a community feeds itself – as a sign of neighborhood well being. Food justice starts from the conviction that access to healthy food is a human rights issue and that the "lack of access to food in a community is an indicator of material deprivation". Food justice goes beyond advocacy and direct service. It calls for organized responses to food security problems, responses that are locally driven and owned. Local Matters is one local response to food justice in our community. We are a not-for-profit located in Columbus, Ohio who believes that the choice to grow and to consume local food has the power to affect social, economic and environmental change in our community. Our mission is to build the supply and demand for local, healthy and sustainably grown food and to provide equal access for all of our neighbors.

Presenter’s Bios: Michael Jones: Michael Jones is the Executive Director of Local Matters, a nonprofit organization working to expand our local food system and to insure that everyone in our community has equal access and owner of The Greener Grocer, a for-profit, a year round produce stand, located in the historic North Market and a vital part of the overall Local Matters mission. Michael is also a trained chef, a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill with a B.S. in the field of Public Health with a focus on Health Education and Wellness.
Noreen Warnock: Noreen Warnock is the Director of Development and Public Policy for Local Matters and a food justice advocate who has worked on community-based food issues for the past ten years. She works to connect growers and consumers by developing markets for locally grown foods. Noreen designs and presents educational programs on the “how to” of local food system development, including the development of large, urban food producing gardens designed to assist in the creation of food security for inner city neighbor hoods.

Action component: Local Matters has volunteer opportunities available on our Veggie Van, our mobile farmers market on wheels that delivers fresh, local produce to underserved communities, in various community gardens around the city and for advocates willing to write letters to our Congressional leadership.

2) “A Financial Katrina: The Predatory Lending and Foreclosure Crises as a flashpoint for our urban future” - Columbus Housing and Heating Justice
Workshop Synopsis: Part 1 of the workshop will compare the effects of the predatory lending and foreclosure crises to the results of Hurricane Katrina: a disproportionate gutting of poor urban communities of color. Today’s “financial Katrina” is occurring nationwide and will prove to be a critical turning-point in the related fights over gentrification, public space, and the future composition and governance of our cities. Part 2 of the workshop will be a discussion about how we might strategically intervene in this process to promote urban social justice.

Presenter Bio: Recent OSU graduate, housing rights activist/researcher with experience studying housing justice movements in São Paulo, Brazil

Action Component: Call-in to state republicans in support of state foreclosure moratorium bill. Call-in to Franklin County Sheriff requesting he stop foreclosure sales and evictions.

3) "Workshop on Palestine.": Apartheid & the Boycott Divestment & Sanctions Movement – OSU Committee for Justice in Palestine
Workshop Synopsis: We will discuss Israel's policies towards Palestinians and Israel as an apartheid state. This will include checkpoints, lack of freedom of movement (the apartheid wall), lack of services provided by the government, and the oppression of the Palestinian people for the past sixty years. We will be comparing apartheid in South Africa to Israel, including its similarities and differences. This will lead us into our action plan, the BDS movement, or Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. BDS was launched 2005, one year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, a clear majority of Palestinian civil society called upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law.

Presenter Bio: The OSU Committee for Justice in Palestine (CJP) is a democratic organization consisting of students, faculty, and community members opposed to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine (per UN Resolution 242) and the human rights abuses committed against the Palestinian people. Although group members may differ in ideology, we agree that ending the US financial aid and military support for Israel will contribute to a more peaceful and democratic solution. CJP opposes Zionism when used as a racist and nationalist ideology as well as any other form of racism including anti-Semitism. Under international law (UN general Assembly Resolution 3236), and according to the UN Charter, the Palestinian people and every oppressed people maintain the right of resistance and self-determination. The Committee for Justice in Palestine supports this right, but condemns all attacks against civilians. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and aspire to raise awareness of the brutality of the occupation through education and activism.

Action Component: What we ask the audience: As students, we have the ability to make consumer-conscious decisions about which companies we can support. We will educate the audience about which companies and organizations are funding Israel with funding economically and militarily. We also can put pressure on our university and community businesses to stop investing in companies which support Israel's racist policies. If at the time we do not have the investment information from OSU to go further with BDS, we will be asking the audience to sign a petition in order to release this public information.


4) "In Defense of Mumia: A Call to Action" - Jennifer Black and Tonya Adams
Workshop Synopsis: This workshop is designed to be an educational outreach about radical Black journalist and death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Action Component: We will devote part of this session to strategic planning for further outreach and action on his behalf. Considering the recent Supreme Court decision to deny Abu-Jamal a re-trial it is now more urgent than ever that concerned activists convene to learn the facts of his case and plan for future action and outreach.



12:10 - 1:30pm Lunch, Free Food Provided



1:40 - 2:40pm Workshops Session III, Choose 1 of 4:


1) Beyond Gentrification: “Bronzeville Garden,” Community Building Future with our Past. - King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association
Workshop Synopsis: KLBNA's “Bronzeville Garden” garden is located in our historic inner city neighborhood. Our garden grows resident-produced solutions to vacant property blight, alley dumping, chronic under employment, and government paralysis. KLBNA residents are not waiting for changes to magically transform our garden--we are making change happen. Resident-identified and initiated Neighborhood improvements have greater sustainable impact year to year than projects imposed upon the neighborhood by well intentioned churches, social agencies, and armies of volunteers (some may term some of these impositions “gentrification”). Doing good 1 day or 1 week in the year makes volunteers feel validated but does little for the neighborhood’s future needs. Participants will learn that: 1. KLBNA has a neighborhood youth program called the Red Sweater Brigade that does neighborhood clean up and beautification with neighborhood adult supervision. 2. KLBNA walking tours with students, gardeners, architects, politicians, church groups, and others have shown Bronzeville’s N. Monroe Ave. and Australia Alley as developing laboratories of resident initiated change.

Presenter Biographical Sketches: Willis Brown - Born in Harlem, New York, undergraduate at Elmira College (Environmental Science/Biology) and MS. Graduate studies at Cornell University (Horticulture and Soil Fertility). President- King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association (KLBNA), which initiated many neighborhood and community projects, including neighborhood Farmers Market, community beautification and cultural / educational youth – young Adult activities. Dana Moessner - Born in Columbus, Ohio, undergraduate at The Ohio State University School of Architecture. District 1 commissioner Near East Area Commission (NEAC), Columbus, Ohio Zoning and Development Chairman, KLBNA, advocating for green sustainable architectural development that is also economically, socially, and culturally respectful of the existing historic Bronzeville neighborhood.

Action Component: Undergraduate and Graduate students and other conference attendees to walk with KLBNA members the Bronzeville Neighborhood house by house, street by street, and meet our residents, see them, and hear them. During Bronzeville walk notify neighborhood what KLBNA is doing in neighborhood and proposing for neighborhood. Work with KLBNA in producing a frequent newsletter that can be hand delivered and posted for the neighborhood. Develop a KLBNA web site and post our newsletters.


2) “Somali culture” - Horn of Africa community center inc
Workshop Synopsis: Participants will learn about the demographics and cultural/ethnic diversity within the Somali community. Participants will become more knowledgeable of social, economic and political issues facing this community. Participants will be introduced to a strength-based perspective in engagement and service provision

Presenter Bio: Co-founder and President, Horn of Africa Established social services organization to assist the Somali and East African refugees in the Central Ohio area Managed daily administration of programsCollaborated with other agencies to provide tobacco use prevention and cessation programs to the Somali community Led and formulated effective programs that have aided over 600 Somali refugees in job placement, access the healthcare systems, translation needs and immigration services Mediate public policy between Somali refugee agencies. Mediate between groups and social issues in the local high schools

Action Component: We have over 5 centers in the Somali community that need volunteer service s And you visit 1391 Oakland Park Avenue Columbus Ohio 43224 or call 614 975 8967.


3) Reclaiming King’s legacy by “declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism” - Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Workshop Synopsis: Drawing upon omitted aspects of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy,
this workshop will look at the relationship between the “giant triplets of racism, extreme
materialism, and militarism” in the current context. We’ll begin by talking about how
building and maintaining empire is racialized process, both overtly and structurally. The
impact of this process is to deeply embed militarism in society. The education system
reflects societal militarism while simultaneously perpetuating it (No Child Left Behind
Statute 9528 which requires public secondary schools to provide access to military
recruiters). Of course, the immediate consequences of militarism abroad are most evident
in the lack of initiatives/programs to alleviate poverty. Simply put, war profiteers make a
killing by killing, while the marginalized are pushed further to the margins.

Presenter Bio: Rajeev Ravisankar: I’m a research assistant at the Kirwan Institute and a 1st year grad student in public policy. I studied political science and international relations during my undergrad, and spent a year studying/ practicing journalism in South India. I’m interested in left opposition to neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism, anti-militarism, alternatives to corporate-controlled media, the history of anti-colonial struggles, dismantling white racial hegemony, and linking together global social justice movements.

Action Component: -Engaging with so-called progressive groups about militarism, racism, poverty -Presenting a coherent alternative to students involved in groups that refuse to acknowledge race and the malevolence of American empire -Talking with parents/children in local schools about opting out of NCLB Statute 9528


4) Histories of Race and Racialization: a critical genealogy of race. - Damon Berry and Andrew Culp, OSU Comparative Studies graduate students
Workshop Synopsis: Comparative Studies graduate students Damon Berry and Andrew Culp will teach a critical genealogy of race. The history will begin with the Spanish Reconquista from the Encounter with the New World to today. Special attention will be paid to how racial projects are formed, change and are challenged and are implicated with the white supremacist origins of the nation-state and empire, capitalism and labor, and culture and identity. Intended outcomes include constructing critical histories of race and how to deploy critical histories in a variety of contexts.





2:50 - 3:50pm Workshops Session IV, Choose 1 of 4:


1) Transportation Racism/Classism/Autonomy - Third Hand Bicycle Cooperative
Workshop Synopsis: Equal access to healthy, reliable, and practical transportation eludes many people, the majority of them poor people and people of color. The effects of this injustice are broad and deep. Access to transportation, public and private, determines the physical and social mobility necessary for admission to larger social, economic, and civic worlds. For millions of people, exclusion from transportation networks means drastically compromised life choices, economic isolation, and social exclusion. We will describe how the Third Hand Bicycle Cooperative challenges this inequitable scenario by offering cheap bicycles and the knowledge and tools to maintain them. We will also be discussing our collective fight to reclaim the streets and our autonomy from the destructive legacy of the automobile. We are dedicating ourselves, in one way, to offering necessary transportation services to all people. By refocusing on the role transportation plays in human interaction, economic mobility, and sustainability, we are building more livable communities.

Action Component: I need help with this component (I'm not sure it is appropriate for the conference- if not, we can suggest an alternative...) It is our desire to connect Downtown with the Short North and Third Hand via a DIY bike lane on Forth Ave. across the overpass. It is a very dangerous area to ride that desperately needs Bicycle Visibility and Safety.


2) Latino Workers in Ohio: Migration and Capitalism - Dan La Botz
Workshop Synopsis: This workshop deals with the role of the capitalist economy in promoting and shaping the immigrant experience. We look at the role of Latino immigrants in Ohio between 1918 and 2009 and their lives and work in various industries and communities. The talk examines the experience of labor exploitation, racism and sexism, the role of government and migration authorities, employers and unions. The talk is also put in the context of the development of the Latino movement nationally and the need for a continuing struggle for workers rights today.

Presenter Bio: I am a longtime labor and community activist and have worked for the last five years with Latino immigrant groups in Cincinnati. I am the author of several books on labor and politics in the United States and Mexico. I have taught U.S., Latin American, Mexican and Border Studies courses over the last ten years at various universities in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. I have worked as a community organizer in Latino communities in Chicago, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, and as a labor organizer in several unions. I am a frequent speaker on Latino rights issues.

Action Component: Several action components are possible. Participants may be asked to join with local Latino activists in Ohio in one or another campaign, for example, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) campaign for union rights for Latino immigrant workers in the tobacco fields of the South. Participants could also be asked to join some local labor organization such as Jobs with Justice which engages in support for organizing efforts that could benefit Latino workers. Participants might be asked to invite help arrange an invitation for the speakers to present this talk to their club, union, church, temple or mosque or to some other organization in order to spread the word about Latino rights issues.


3) Confronting the Racist Court System: Community Alternatives &
Strategies for Taking Action - Community Accountability Action Collective
Workshop Synopsis: Discussion on the failures of the criminal justice system, how it creates and perpetuates violence in our communities and does not seek justice for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. We will be exploring alternative strategies to take action in regards to these issues.

Presenter Bios: Stephanie Diebold & Megan Zakany both organize with Womyn & Allies Rising in Resistance (WARR) and are currently working on establishing a sexual assault survivors fund at OSU.

Action Component: Working to strengthen the development of community accountability strategies as well as interest and collaboration with our local group: Community Accountability Action Collective.


4) “Reimagining Each Other”: A Community Roundtable - Melanie Beaudette, Ph.D. student in Women’s Studies at OSU
Workshop Synopsis: This roundtable will look at popular culture artifacts (both material and digital) in order to facilitate a discussion about the ways we formulate ethnic and racial Others. By opening up a frank discussion about preconceived, essentialized ideas (prejudices) about who we are in relation to who we are not, I hope for participants to visualize similarities and differences in loving ways that promote solidarity instead of discord.

Presenter Bio: I’m a Ph.D. student in Women’s Studies at OSU. I study post-Soviet Russian popular culture and look at the ways in which Russian nationality is reimagined in the constantly shifting space of the post-Communist state. I’ll be ABD (All But Dissertation) this fall!! =)


4-5pm Workshops Session V, Choose 1 of 4:


1) “Agricultural Inequality at Home and across the Globe: Are Urban Gardens the Solution to Food Racism?” - Students for Food Sovereignty, Ohio State
Workshop Synopsis: In the era of global free trade, agricultural policy has effectively marginalized low-income farmers in the Global South as well as inner-city consumers in the United States. This workshop will focus on the ways that fair trade labeling efforts often reproduce negative aspects of capitalism for global farmers and eaters. We will also discuss how inner-city residents and people of color often face restricted access to agricultural land and “food deserts” – the absence of fresh-food outlets in low-income neighborhoods. The initiative to solve many of these food-access problems has come from inner-city residents who have started urban community gardens in an effort to bring fresh food to low-access consumers. Urban gardens offer inner-city residents a way to empower their community, by dispersing farming knowledge, increasing fresh food access, and providing visible community leadership. The history of urban gardens across the nation and at home in Ohio will be covered in order to give local individuals ideas of how they, too, can start an inner-city revolution in Columbus.

Presenter Bio: Dani Deemer is a Master’s student of rural sociology at Ohio State, interested in sustainable agriculture and rural and urban food access issues. Dani grew up in southern New Mexico and earned a B.A. degree in Anthropology and English at New Mexico State University. She plans on teaching and gardening after graduating with her Ph.D. Alec Armstrong is an undergraduate Environmental Science major. He lived and worked for about six months in New Orleans the year after Hurricane Katrina with Common Ground Relief in efforts to link food security, environmental justice, and housing discrimination in the 9th Ward, 7th Ward, and Gert-Town areas. He was involved in some of the mass mobilizations against neoliberal globalization earlier this decade and is an avid gardener who would love to see more city farms. (Patrick Turner’s bio not available)

Action Component: Volunteer day at an urban garden.


2) “racism & anti-racism in the anarchist movement”: - anarchist people of color & Cleveland anarchist black cross
Workshop Synopsis: This workshop examines proactive measures towards anti-racism within the context of the anarchist movement.

Presenter Bio: 11 yrs in the anarchist movement 16yr activist police terror & self-determination
Action component: agreed upon steps of being proactive learning about self


3) Johnny, What do you Learn at the University?: White-Supremacist, Capitalist Patriarchy in the Academic Industrial Complex - Errol Lam & Joelle Ruby Ryan
Workshop Synopsis: In this session, the two presenters introduce how the problems of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia play out on their state university campus. They discuss several issues including the building of a new convocation center, the termination of a progressive faculty of color, and gender justice (trans liberation, reproductive rights and ending violence against women). We will brainstorm ways to combat these trends in higher education through speaking truth to power and encouraging collective student struggle. We will stress innovative efforts to challenge the elitist bureaucrats that crush grass-roots movements of resistance through divide-and-conquer tactics and fear-mongering propaganda. Ultimately, we will demand that the university live up to its claims of universal inclusion, diversity and progressivism.

Presenter BIOS: Joelle Ruby Ryan is an activist on issues of racial and economic justice, feminism, TBLG rights and peace. S/he has been particularly involved with trans liberation issues since the early 1990s and believes in intersectional analyses and coalition building to fight oppression. Errol Lam is a Faculty Emeritus at BGSU. Born in the Caribbean, he has been involved in many anti-racist struggles and those that similarly call for justice on the campus and in the community. His eventual goal is for unity as ongoing efforts continue for actions of solidarity.


4) “Using media to bridge the cultural gap” - Danjir Community Development Corporation
Workshop Synopsis: The workshop will be about how Danjir media is reaching out to the African immigrant community in central Ohio, and how it’s bridging the cultural gap between the newcomer immigrant and the mainstream society. There are estimated 50,000+ East African immigrants in central Ohio, most of whom are refugees from different camps in Africa having little, if any, information about American culture and systems. The Danjir media service works on educating the African community about important issues such as health, crime prevention, employment, and culture.

Presenter Bio: Basra Mohamed is the founder and the director of DCDC, she has been working in the media service for the last ten years. Her journalism career really began when she came to America in 1996 after leaving the refugee camps in Kenya were she lived for a long time due to the civil war in her native country Somalia. She resided in Texas and found a job as an interpreter/case manager for refugee/immigrant service organization. Many of the refugees she was serving had difficulty accessing jobs and other services that are available to them because of a language barrier. That’s why she thought about creating the first Somali/English newsletter (Horseed) meaning leading forward in 1998. Its goal was similar to the current Danjir newspaper, and it was to inform and educate the growing refugee community in Dallas/Fort worth area about the American culture, system, life style, and connect them to the larger community. Publishing that newsletter was probably her first real interest in the media business and showed her how even a small newsletter can make a difference in community’s life. In the year 2003 she moved from the state of Texas to Ohio, and began realizing the similar need for media service to help and voice for the large African community in central Ohio and founded the Danjir Media Service in 2004 with the help of her friends and members of the Somali community in Columbus Ohio.




5:10 - 6:10pm Workshops Session VI, Choose 1 of 4:


1) Social Change through the Arts: emphasis on Capoeira Angola - Passport Project
Workshop Synopsis: Social Change through the Arts: emphasis on Capoeira Angola, will involve movement and discussion. Participants will learn to communicate with more than just words, but through movement and sharing of energy. Participants will learn about themselves in relation to the roda (circle) in which movement and music is shared amongst all through a common art - Capoeira Angola. Participants will be given an introduction into the world of Capoeira, and how it is opening ways for all people to share culture. Capoeira is said to be the microcosim of the world, and through it, one can discover new things about themselves. Through discussion we can also talk about the definition of racism, how it's perceived on a global scale, and how to use art as means to an end.

Presenter Bio: Benjamin Gunter currently works for Passport Project, a Non Profit organization based in Cleveland, OH. There Benjamin not only teaches a beginner Capoeira Angola class, but also teaches computer classes, maintains the website, and creates different media adverts. Benjamin has been studying Capoeira Angola for the last 4 years. He has studied with mestres such as Cobra Mansa, Valmir, Jurandir, Manoel, and João Grande. Benjamin loves to share his knowledge of the art form, and discussing how Capoeira Angola can help in the movement for social change. Benjamin Gunter also coaches soccer, and helps out in Passport Project's community garden.



2) “Responding to Oppression: What could I say?” - Sexual Violence Education and Support, Student Wellness Center, The Ohio State University
Workshop synopsis: Have you ever been at a loss for words when a friend or colleague makes an offensive remark? Have you felt guilty and angry later, wondering why you didn’t say something? Would you like to learn and practice appropriate verbal responses that could be used in various situations? In this workshop, we will make the connection between self-defense strategies and techniques, and our ability to confront oppression and privilege in our personal and professional lives. We will indentify and explore scenarios of subtle and not so subtle oppression, and we will create and practice a repertoire of responses to address these scenarios. Our objective is to practice self-defense by expressing our values and beliefs, and by learning how to speak up on behalf of ourselves and others when we hear or experience racism and other forms of oppression.

Presenter Bio: Deb Schipper has been teaching self-defense to women, girls, children, and other vulnerable populations in the Central Ohio area for over twenty-five years, and is certified as a self-defense instructor by the National Women’s Marital Arts Federation. Her classes include training in mental, verbal, and physical self-defense techniques, and focus on sexual assault prevention. Deb recognizes that self-defense cannot be taught without addressing issues of privilege and oppression, including sexism, racism, classism and homophobia, and incorporates these issues into her self-defense curriculum. Through participation in the Ohio Statewide Anti-Oppression Coalition and with the group, White Women Against Racism, Deb continues to work personally and professionally to address her own inherent prejudices, and those endemic in our culture.

Action component: Participants will learn verbal strategies to respond to oppressive language and actions, and will be encouraged to practice these strategies in their personal and professional lives.


3) "Honor Nkrumah: The Global Crisis calls for Global Unity - Build One Unified Socialist Africa” - The All African Peoples Revolutionary Party (AAPRP)
Synopsis: Our workshop will discuss
1. What is the origin and nature of the current “global economic crisis”
2. Who is Kwame Nkrumah and what role did he play in the building of world Socialism?
3. How does building a United Socialist Africa bring about a new world based upon justice and peace.



4) The History of Hip Hop and Social Justice - Victorio Reyes of Broadcast Live

Workshop Synopsis: This workshop explores the history of Hip Hop and its connection with social justice. This dynamic presentation takes you on a journey covering the 36 years of Hip Hop’s existence, discussing it’s underground roots, it’s cooptation by the record industry, it’s connections with spoken word poetry, and the future of this world wide phenomenon. The material is presented in a manner that is engaging and informative, with workshop participants adding their own experiences as members of the Hip Hop Generation.

Presenter Bio: Victorio Reyes, is a member of the band Broadcast Live as well as director of the Albany Social Justice Center. During his ten plus years as a community organizer and poet, Victorio has offered dozens of workshops at Universities, after-school programs, and community centers across the country. His presentations are both energetic and thought provoking, reflecting his years of experience as a committed activist and performer.


6:20 - 7pm Closing


Entertainment, beginning 9pm: Hip-Hop and Poetry Acts at Victorians Midnight Cafe, 251 W. 5th Ave, Columbus, OH