Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action

BUILDING GREEN JUSTICE FORUM: ORGANIC ACTIVISTOLOGY

Date: September 28, 2017

Time: 8:30 am  to  4:00 pm

Huston-Tillotson University will host the fourth annual Building Green Justice Forum, this year focusing on “Organic Activistology.” Presenters and participants will reflect on their roles as organic activists – thinkers and doers who reflect their community’s history, values, and knowledge and who engage to direct the community as leaders and organizers. This exploration includes an analysis of the broader frame of environmental justice work, including tensions, conflicts, power sources, intersectionalities, and motivations.

Keynote speaker will be Mustafa Santiago Ali, Senior Vice President of Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization for the Hip Hop Caucus. In March 2017, Ali resigned his position as a top environmental justice administrator in the Environmental Protection Agency in protest of Trump administration policies. Ali worked at the EPA for more than two decades, starting in the administration of George H.W. Bush.

Other presentations and workshops will feature activists, community members, students, and researchers working on issues of environmental justice.

Registration and coffee begins at 8:30 am, with speakers, panels, and workshops throughout the day.

The forum—which is sponsored by Green is the New Black, The Dumpster Project, and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center—is free but please register online.

For more information on sponsorship, contact Karen Magid, kmagid@htu.edu, or Amanda Masino, ammasino@htu.edu.

Location: Dickey-Lawless Science Building, Huston-Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin, 78702, with free parking in the Chalmers Avenue lot and free street parking around campus.

AI-JEN POO SPEAKING ON “IMMIGRATION AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN FAMILIES”

Date: October 19, 2017

Time: 5:30 pm  to  7:00 pm

Ai-jen Poo will discuss the role of immigrant women in the American care economy, featuring the stories and solutions of immigrant women for a more caring economy and democracy.

Poo is Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Co-director of Caring Across Generations. She also was a co-founder of Domestic Workers United and led a seven-year legislative campaign that resulted in the nation’s first Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in New York City. Her 2015 book, The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in Changing America, outlines a road map to create a more caring nation, providing solutions for fixing our fraying safety net while also increasing opportunities for women, immigrants, and the unemployed.

The lecture, sponsored by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, will be followed by a reception. Free registration and more information online.

 Location: Eidman Courtroom, University of Texas School of Law, 727 E Dean Keeton St., Austin, 78705