Room 418
Room 419
Room 421
Room 422
Room 423
Room #418
Celebrate Diversity: Exhibit/Program
Artist Activist Dawn Shegonee's multi-media presentation will take you on a historical, transformational journey, creating a new common memory of our interconnectedness with unity, justice, hope & discovery. We are facing the many current crises of our age, from climate change, to water is life, to the land, and social justice. We are at the crossroads of truth.....of untold histories, science, technology & Indigenous Wisdom, in saving our democracy, and creating sustainable solutions for our future generations to come.
Early Learning Educator Genny King will have 2 tables of information: Indigenous Books and Advocacy materials as well as a table of information about the National Association for Multicultural Education.
Presenters
Genny King
BIO:
Genny is a dedicated advocate for Indigenous Peoples. With 29 years in diverse educational settings, Genny’s career began in the Menominee Indian School District, where she taught across all grade levels from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. Genny’s experiences with her Indigenous students, colleagues, and Tribal Elders profoundly shaped her understanding of Indigenous culture and history. She continues to expand her knowledge by relearning history from Indigenous perspectives, ensuring that her advocacy is both informed and respectful. In her current role as an Early Learning Educator in the Sun Prairie Area School District, Genny is a proactive member of the Early Learning Multicultural Committee. She is instrumental in fostering inclusive educational practices by providing professional development that ensures accurate and respectful representation of diverse cultures in early learning settings. She also shares her commitment to multicultural learning by speaking/presenting at the local and statewide levels. Her goal is to inspire and equip educators with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to integrate culturally responsive teaching practices into their classrooms.
Advocacy and memberships:
First Nations Flags Committee of the Sun Prairie School District
Wisconsin Indian Education Association (WIEA)
Wisconsin Chapter President of the National Association of Multicultural Education (NAME).
Contact:
Email: kingga@charter.net
Website: nameorg.org
Dawn Shegonee
BIO:
Dawn is a Global Artist, Activist and, with her husband Art, Co-Founder of the world renowned Call for Peace Drum & Dance Company. They represent seven Multicultural Dance Company Directors, coming together in performing a circle dance of unity called, "Dancing the Dream, A New Hope For Humanity." They have been promoting cross cultural understanding through performance art in the US and around the world. The Company holds letters of endorsement from Dr. Arun Gandhi; the late Congressman John Lewis; President Bill Clinton; Charlotte Black Elk; and Former Mayor of Madison, WI, Paul Soglin.
Dawn is a treasured member of WGN. She's been with the Festival since its inception 17 years ago.
Room #419
DairyLand - Not DataLand: Democracy 's Response to Megascale AI Data Centers
AI poses a serious challenge to our 21st century democracy since it takes human beings and public accountability out of decision making. In this session,
we will talk about the threats that unbridled AI development poses for our society in particular rural communities where hyper data centers entail land grabbing,
extreme water loss, and voracious energy consumption. We will also talk about successful grassroots campaigns to stop this trend.
Much of what we call 'progress' has often been at the behest of and primarily provided economic benefit to the few rather than the many. This has only accelerated
under our current administration, and with the proliferation of data centers and all that comes along with it, including more use of fossil fuels that threaten our future
on this planet. We’ll talk about how this is evolving and what we can do about it.
Presenters:
Don Ferber
BIO:
Don grew up in central Illinois and has lived in Madison since 1974. A long-time environmental activist, Don has been a Sierra Club volunteer for 25 years. He currently chairs the Wisconsin Chapter, and is the lead Beyond Coal team volunteer that is fighting fossil fueled power plants, and working to provide clean and equitable energy to our state.
Don has seen how many environmental issues mirror what’s occurring with our democracy and the threats to it, and knows that without a functioning democracy, the planet we live on will suffer too. As our country seems to be lurching towards oligarchy, he places his faith in people and community as the path forward to a better future.
Contact:
Email: d_ferber@sbcglobal.net
John Peck
BIO:
John E. Peck grew up on a family farm in MN and now operates Yellow Dog Flowers and Produce with his partner near Brooklyn, WI. For the last two decades, he has been the executive director of Family Farm Defenders and has been a longtime board member of the WI Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ). He has a PhD in Land Resources from UW-Madison's Nelson Institute and is a part-time Economics instructor at Madison College.
Contact:
Email: familyfarmdefenders@yahoo.com
Phone: 608-345-3918
Website: www.familyfarmers.org
Room #421
The Multi-Reform Movement Coalition:
Needed to Keep Our Republic
The evisceration of our Republic accelerates – we are not currently keeping it. To keep it, we must build a WI Reform Movement Coalition, to not only get big money out of politics, but also advance effective voting approaches and create representative districts. George Penn (of WIUTA) and three other coalition organization leaders will discuss how we are building this movement. We are seeking other coalition partners to help us keep our republic – maybe including one of your favored organizations
Our Republic depends on a engaged electorate that holds office holders responsible to the Constitution. Unfettered money in politics takes the politcal power from citizens and gives those with outsized means outsized impact.
We need sustained grassroots engagement in our multi-partisan work to build democracy and truly voter-owned elections in Wisconsin. Money does not equal speech. Secrecy does not equal freedom. Corporations are not people.
Presenters
Tracy Hunter
The US Constitution starts with the role of the Congress because it was the most important branch of government. Although today's Congress has become dysfunctional and corrupt we can reform it as we have done in the past and one of the most hopeful innovations is "Final Five Voting".
BIO:
Tracy Hunter is a volunteer with Voters First Wisconsin, focusing on the initiative to bring “Final Five Voting” to Wisconsin. He will explain the “Primary Problem” that Final Five Voting addresses and why it incentivizes Congress to focus on collaboration to solve the serious problems we face like climate change, deficit, immigration reform, affordable housing and healthcare, etc. After Tracy retired as a software developer with GE Healthcare he discovered the Final Five Voting effort in Wisconsin, which made so much sense and stimulated such a sense of hope that he decided to invest his energies there.
Contact:
Email: tjhunter262@gmail.com
tracy@votersfirstwi.org
Phone: (262) 391-1542
George Penn
BIO:
George grew up in Yonkers, NY and joined the Navy in 1971. He was a Reactor Operator on a submarine. Leaving the Navy in 1977, George came straight to UW Madison to get a degree in Nuclear Engineering. Inspired by the energy crisis in the 1980s, he received a Master’s in Energy and Environmental Management at the School of Environmental Studies, UW Madison. In the last 20 years of his working career, he ran his consulting company, Global Energy Options. In 2012, he shut down his business to join the movement to get big money out of politics. He is now a part of a new Reform Movement that looks at other political system reforms. He cherishes working with many Wisconsin patriots to reclaim our democracy.
Contact:
Email: georgepenn51@gmail.com
Phone: 608-244-6436
Website: WIUTA.org
Mark Pfost
BIO:
Pfost enlisted in the U.S. Army right after high school. He did his hitch, and then drove truck for a few years before enlisting again, this time in the U.S. Navy. He retired from the Navy in 1996 and then earned BS degrees in geography and wildlife ecology at Madison and a MS degree in biology while in Nebraska. He worked for the US Fish & Wildlife Service on the Upper Miss Refuge in Illinois, the Rainwater Basins Wetland Management District in Nebraska, and for his last twelve years as a Partners for Fish & Wildlife biologist in Wisconsin. Nine months after retiring he “unretired” to help a conservation NGO restore wetland habitats on Wisconsin DNR properties and still hasn’t retired all the way yet. He has been with Veterans for All Voters (originally Veterans for Political Innovation) since its inception.
Contact:
Email: mark.pfost@gmail.com
Beverly Speer
BIO:
Beverly is the Operations & Policy Director with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. She has worked with the organization in different capacities since August 2003. She received an M.P.A. in Public Administration with an emphasis in land resources management from the UW-Madison, La Follette School of Public Affairs, and a B.A. in Political Science from DePauw University in Indiana. Beverly worked for the nonpartisan political organization, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, as lead staff administrator for 6 years. She chaired the Dane County Solid Waste and Recycling Commission for many years and was one of two citizen members of the 2011 Dane County Redistricting Subcommittee.
Room
#422
Whose Free Press Is It Anyway?
Never in our history has the free press reached such a critical point. We need to maintain this freedom if we wish to continue this democracy for future generations. Sean Bode will discuss the latest trends in news reporting which includes the FCC, legacy and social media, and the long-term effects of the changes already made and those down the road.
Presenter
Sean Brian Bode
BIO:
Sean began his activism during his youth in Charles City, Iowa. He became a permanent Wisconsinite when he moved to Madison and now resides in Mazomanie, the birthplace of WGN. He's a former Toastmasters member, an award-winning speaker, screenwriter and filmmaker. He keeps an active eye on the changes in media and how news is presented.
Contact:
Email: seanbode0618@gmail.com
Room #423
This break out session examines the manosphere - a loose, interconnected network of online communities united by the belief that men are oppressed in modern society. It explores what the manosphere is, including its different subgroups, where it came from, and its connection to misogyny and violence against women. It also discusses how the rise of the manosphere and extreme misogyny correspond to increasing democratic decline not only in the US but across the world.
Presenter
Mariel Barnes
BIO:
Dr. Mariel J. Barnes is an Assistant Professor at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines the interaction between social and housing policies, and everyday violence against women as well as the increasing contemporary backlash against women, feminism and gender equality. Dr. Barnes is a member of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative at UW-Madison and also runs the Gender, Violence and Policy Lab on campus.
Contact:
Email: mariel.barnes@wisc.edu
Web: genderpolicylab.com
