In Troy, NY: Changing the Climate: (r)Evolution for social and environmental justice

by donation ($10 suggested, $5 student/low-income)

We are entering a great crisis, perhaps the greatest in history, with a collapsing economic system, endless war, and looming over it all, the disintegration of ecosystems and climate chaos. But massive social movements all over the world demonstrate that these are times of not only peril but possibility. The climate is changing in more ways than one: The old order is falling apart and new worlds are struggling to build themselves from the wreckage. Join us on the horizon where all our movements for a better world converge!

For three days at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, a diverse and multigenerational group of activists, educators, and artists will come together to discuss, plan and act around the most difficult and important questions of our times: How can we connect the local to the global? How can diverse movements and organizations work together toward common goals? What is our collective long-term vision for our activism and organizing? What are the connections between economic and ecological crisis? What democratic alternatives to capitalism can we build and how? What are the obstacles to this vision and how can we overcome them without making the mistakes of the past?

SCHEDULE

Friday, March 22nd
1-4pm: Arrivals, Check-in, and Sanctuary TV: Creative Resistance and Community Voices [Sanctuary Cafe and Stage]

4:30pm: Convocation: Convergence begins! [Sanctuary Cafe]

5pm: Connecting with the Land: Exhibit Opening and Reception: Agricultural Stewardship Association, with the Produce Product [Sanctuary Cafe]

6pm: Dinner [Missing Link Church]

7-9pm: Exodus! Russell Maroon Shoatz and breaking out of the prison industrial complex: A book launch event featuring Colia Clark, Theresa Shoatz, and Milk Not Jails [Sanctuary Stage] 

Saturday March 23
8am: Breakfast [Missing Link]

9am: Call for Convergence: the planetary crisis and opportunity, capitalism and the ecosocialist alternative [Sanctuary stage]

10am: Horizons of Hope: introducing the different tracks:

• Track 1. Growing a new world: soil science, permaculture, local agriculture, community gardens, etc [Coordinator: Salvatore Engel-diMauro (Saed)]

• Track 2. Re-imagining Troy: local activism for social and environmental transformation [Coordinator: Jim Welch]

• Track 3. Vision/Theory: exploring ecosocialism, ecofeminism, and the vision and theory which unite our practice [Coordinator: Joel Kovel, with Ecofeminism Coordinators Terisa Turner and Leigh Brownhill]

• Track 4. Independent Media: Be the Media! workshop series [Coordinator: DeeDee Halleck]

• Track 5. Youth: games, seed starting, art, etc. [Coordinator: Rebekah Rice]

10:30am-12 pm:

• Track 1/Workshop 1: “Design for an Edible Future: Using Practical Permaculture Principles to Make Design Decisions," with Rebekah Rice and Saed [outside at L lot on Glen and 6th Ave., rain or shine!]
• Track 2/Workshop 1: "Recognizing the Commons," with Jim Welch [Sanctuary stage]
• Track 3/Workshop 1: "EcoSocialism: Basic Concepts," with Joel Kovel [TBR]
• Track 4/Workshop 1: "Freedom to Connect," with Dee Dee Halleck [Sanctuary basement]
• Track 5, Workshop 1: "Magic Garden Tile Making," with Jillian Hirsch, [Missing Link Street Ministry]

12pm: Lunch [Missing Link]

1pm - 2:30 pm:

• Track 1, Workshop 2: “Urban Regeneration Strategies," Scott Kellogg [Sanctuary stage/ outside]
• Track 2, Workshop 2: “Conversations on Tactics and Results," [Missing Link]
• Track 3, Workshop 2:"Preparing a Declaration," with Abraham Mwaura [TBR]
• Track 4, Workshop 2: "Media Makers Share Their Histories, Dreams and Disasters"
• Track 5, Workshop 2: "All About Food: Planning, Growing, DIY Snacks," with Rebekah Rice [cafe]

2:45pm - 4:15 pm

• Track 1, Workshop 3: “Bio-Remediation," with Holly Gardner [location TBA]
• Track 2, Workshop 3: “Conversations on Building Networks for New Paradigms," moderated by Andrew Lynn [Sanctuary stage]
• Track 3, Workshop 3: "Preparing a Declaration: continued" with Abraham Mwaura and Joel Kovel [TBR]
• Track 4, Workshop 3: "Media Makers Share Their Histories, Dreams and Disasters," continued
• Track 5, Workshop 3: "Community Clay Workshop," with Rebekah Rice and Jillian Hirsch, [Missing Link Street Ministry]

4:30pm: Weaving the threads together: All tracks meet together.[Sanctuary Cafe]

6pm: Community Potluck Meal [Sanctuary Cafe]

7-9pm: Sanctuary Soul Session: Weaving the Circle of Culture for Planetary Transformation: Craig Harris and the Eco-liberation Orchestra, Seth Tobocman with Spoken Word Comic Art, and the poetry of Susan Deer Cloud [Sanctuary stage]

Sunday March 24
9am: Breakfast [Cafe/Gallery]
 

10am-12pm: Convergence Crescendo: Connecting the dots with strategic vision, and planning for the immediate and long term future, locally, regionally and globally. [Cafe/Gallery]
 

12pm: Lunch catered by Food Not Bombs! [Gafe/Gallery] and
check out!

MORE ABOUT ECOSOCIALISTS
www.ecosocialisthorizons.com / also find us on facebook

Ecosocialists choose the path of revolution, to bring about a free and cooperative society in harmony with nature, across the globe. On this path we see dawn on many horizons: We move toward them, work to realize them, and come together to seek transformation. We call this process of coming together a convergence.

A convergence is an exchange of ideas, strategies and skills, planned and spontaneous, grounded in a site of ecosocialist production and creativity – a skeleton for collective evolution toward an ecosocialist horizon.

Troy is a city with a proud history; a former economic center that played a major role in the anti-slavery struggles leading to the Civil War, in the labor movement, in the battle for womens' suffrage . Now, much of the city has been gutted by a chronic economic crisis. But zones of resistance and renewal are rising. Here, a new world is being built in the shell of the old, and you are invited to join that transformation: from communities to continents, to reclaim the commons, and put the evolution back in revolution. All are welcome, and childcare is provided.

RSVP required for food and lodging. For registration and more information, visit: www.ecosocialisthorizons.com

A convergence hosted by Ecosocialist Horizons.