Octavia’s Brood, Sci-fi and Direct Action Training
Walidah Imarisha is a writer, organizer, educator and performance poet. She is one half of the poetic duo Good Sista/Bad Sista. Walidah has facilitated poetry and journalism workshops third grade to twelfth, in schools, community centers, youth detention facilities, and women’s prisons. She directed and co-produced the Katrina documentary Finding Common Ground in New Orleans. She has taught in the Portland State University’s Black Studies Department, Oregon State University’s Women’s Studies Department and Southern New Hampshire University’s English Department.
adrienne maree brown is a 2013 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow writing science fiction in Detroit, and also received a 2013 Detroit Knight Arts Challenge Award to run a series of Octavia Butler based science fiction writing workshops. Learning from her 15 years of movement facilitation and participation, she approaches Octavia’s work through the lens of emergent strategy – strategies rooted in relationship, adaptability, and embracing change. Adrienne has helped to launch a loose network of Octavia Butler and Emergent Strategy Reading Groups for people interested in reading Octavia’s work from a political and strategic framework, and is building with Octavia E Butler Legacy Network on other ways of extending Butler’s work.
Reporting for the Real World
Arun Gupta has served as editor and publisher of The Guardian Newsweekly, The Indypendent, and The Occupied Wall Street Journal. He has contributed to dozens of publications including The Nation, Salon, The Progressive, and The Washington Post.
Digitally Inclusive Communities
Drew Pizzolato is the Digital Literacy Project Coordinator for PSU’s Literacy, Language and Technology Research group. As part of this team, Drew has managed or participated in several national and local service and research projects to support opportunities for adults to learn computer and technology basics. He is also a member of Portland and Mulnomah County’s regional Digital Inclusion Network.
Amy Honisett is the Public Training Librarian at Multnomah County Library in Oregon, where she focuses on computer training and job search help.
Arturo Colorado-Munoz is a native of Veracruz, Mexico where he earned his degree from Universidad Veracruzana in Social Anthropology, and worked closely with indigenous populations using media to address the challenges and struggles facing these communities. Since re-locating to Portland, Arturo has been involved with the Center for Intercultural Organizing, Portland Central American Solidarity Committee. Arturo believes that video is a great tool of expression for local communities and is committed to helping individuals become empowered through media making. As Digital Inclusion Manager at PCM, Arturo provides support to non-profit organizations around Portland.
Colleen Dixon is the Director of Public Services at Free Geek where her work focuses on community-based technology access and digital literacy. She is also a member of the City of Portland and Mulnomah County’s regional Digital Inclusion Network.
Help Us Help You
Erin Yanke is the Program Director at KBOO Community Radio. She has recently also co-directed and co-produced the documentary film Arresting Power: Resitting Police Violence in Portland OR.
Story Based Strategy
James John Bell co-founded smartMeme in 2002 (Center for Story-Based Strategy) and today is the Principal at SmartMeme Studios a full-service advocacy advertising agency. James writes for STIR Magazine in the UK, does investigative reporting for The Kitsap Sun and other news pubs in the Pacific Northwest, and is published by BenBella Books.
Respectful Revolution: Documenting Positive Action – Inspiring Change
Stacey Wear:
Coming from a background in community radio, Stacey Wear is the Manager and Co-founder of The Respectful Revolution Project, based in Chico, CA. Stacey is a passionate proponent of independent media, and believes that sharing our creativity and stories can be a powerful tool in moving humanity forward.
Gerard Ungerman:
A French-born documentary filmmaker now living in Northern California, Gerard Ungerman is the Director and Co-founder of The Respectful Revolution Project. Having recently changed the focus of his life’s work from exposing issues to exploring solutions, Gerard has been working as an independent media-maker since 1995.
Espectro radioelectrico contra la espectro de la muerte
Dany Quevedo is a Honduran human rights and environmental activist. He is committed to the defense of life using different methods of resistance like community radio. He has been supporting various community radio projects in Honduras since 2010.
Rachael Townsend an activist from Portland traveled to Honduras in 2010 for the first anniversary of the 2009 coup. She has led human rights delegations to Honduras and has organized material support for the building of a rural community radio station.
Just Stories: Communicating Environmental Justice
Aylie Baker: As a graduate student in Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon and the instructor for Just Stories: Communicating Environmental Justice, I believe that our stories are revealed in the presence of others. My scholarship explores community-based storytelling initiatives that respond to environmental justice issues from the ground up by documenting and supporting communities in action.
Emma Sloan: I am a recent graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in Environmental Science, and a focus on the social and legal implications of climate change. I hope to use the research and interviewing skills I gained on the Just Stories team to work with communities in combating climate change.
Hope Tejedas: As an Environmental Studies student at the University of Oregon who worked on the film, ‘Drift’, I strive to engage myself in community and environmental work catering to my creativity and high work ethic. My interests are focused on sustainable design, local policy, and environmental justice and I am dedicated to using my energy to help a greater cause.
Lauren Rapp: Through my participation with creating the film ‘Drift’ and my involvement within the Environmental Studies program at the University of Oregon, I have become passionate about local environmental justice issues. I aspire to continue working with communities fighting for positive environmental change through the skills I have learned from this project: media making, website design, photography, interviewing skills, lobbying for policy change, and communicating with nonprofits and local community members.