SRJC hosts conference on social justice

SRJC conference urges students to “Get Woke, Stay Woke.”|

Santa Rosa Junior College and North Bay Organizing Project will host the We the Future Social Justice Conference on April 28. The event is free and open to the public. The day-long conference aims to raise consciousness and inspire action, reflected in its inaugural theme, “Get Woke, Stay Woke.”

The conference is timely given a heightened sense of urgency and interest in community engagement.

“We’re living in an era where folks need to acquire the tools for personal agency,” stated Dr. Matthew Long, dean of student services at SRJC Petaluma. “We want to empower our students and community with the knowledge and skills necessary to make a real impact in their world. This conference is a good first step in that process.”

Karym Sanchez, youth organizer with NBOP, opines that, “during this time of political darkness, my hope is with the young people who are paying attention to the world around them and are actively working to create the world they want to live in.”

For those feeling the call toward political action, the conference offers an opportunity to build solidarity among activists of color, working-class folks, interfaith allies, feminists, members of the LGBTQI community, immigrants, the undocumented, labor organizers and environmentalists whose diverse work is united by a desire to build a more just, humane world.

According to Dr. Amanda Morrison, a conference organizer who also coordinates SRJC Petaluma’s Intercultural Center and chairs NBOP’s Education Justice Task Force, “we’re particularly interested in inspiring people to think beyond rigid us-them binaries and ethnic nationalisms in favor of intersectional approaches. Intersectionality means you acknowledge the complicated ways all the parts of ourselves and our systems overlap, in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality and religion. It requires expansive forms of coalition building.”

In an effort to make the conference youth- and student-friendly, the day will conclude with a performance by Oakland rapper Daniel “Big Dan” Mora of the critically acclaimed conscious hip-hop crew BRWN BFLO. Mora, in addition to having recorded with underground rap sensations Dead Prez, Chingo Bling and Los Rakas and conjnto-norteño group Los Novillos del Norte, is also a noted inspirational speaker with Homeboy Goes to Harvard Productions.

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