INTERSECTIONAL
JUSTICE
CONFERENCE
& 1z
MARCH 25–27, 2016 • WHIDBEY ISLAND, WA, US a program of
hosted by
with strategic support from
ABOUT THE INTERSECTIONAL JUSTICE CONFERENCE Welcome Welcome to the inaugaral conference of the Interspecies & Intersectional Justice(IIJ) program. We seek to look through the lens of non-human rights at a range of social justice and environmental issues and to identify ways in which we can better collaborate between and among movements. We are committed to anti-oppression learning, practice, and action.
The Roots of Intersectional Theory Intersectionality is a term originating with Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1980s and popularized by Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, and bell hooks, among other scholars and feminists. It describes a phenomenon wherein intersecting oppressions, such as sexism and racism, have a complex and compounding impact on the lives of those affected. An intersectional perspective analyzes the root causes of systemic injustice and seeks holistic solutions which honor the dignity of all people.
About the Interspecies & Intersectional Justice Project
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This project was launched in 2015 to examine the impact of speciesism and systemic oppression on humans, other animals, and the planet. We advocate for animal rights, human rights, a just society, and a healthy planet. Our leadership team includes Marnie Jackson-Jones, program founder and coordinator, and facilitators Francis Janes, Aubrie Keegan, Christopher-Sebastian McJetters, Steve Rothboeck, Lindsey Soffes, and Lee Ann Thill.
Learn more at www.whidbeyinstitute.org/intersectional-justice.
About the Whidbey Institute The Whidbey Institute is our home for this work. IIJ program founder Marnie Jackson-Jones is a full time employee of the Whidbey Institute. The Whidbey Institute’s mission is to empower, connect, and inspire individuals and organizations through programs that foster personal development, nurture community connections, and address social and environmental challenges. We envision a thriving, engaged network of people empowered to create a vital, sustainable, and collaborative culture—one which recognizes and nurtures both the human community and the natural world as integral parts of a whole. The Whidbey Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; donations to the IIJ and to the Whidbey Institute are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. Learn more at www.whidbeyinstitute.org.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE • FRIDAY AFTERNOON, 3/25 plan ahead for your arrival—you may encounter ferry traffic.
Arrivals, appetizers, & introductions
3–3:45 pm
hosted by Marnie, Aubrie, Lee Ann, and Christopher-Sebastian, in Thomas Berry Hall (TBH)
3:30
Children depart for Wildlife Camp gather at the bell
Welcome and opening remarks
3:45—4:15
hosted by Marnie and Christopher-Sebastian; poetry by Megan Hollingsworth
brief transition
4:30—5:30
5:30—6:30
pattrice jones, What Can Mad Cows & Queer Ducks Teach Us About Intersectionality? Dinner
vegan fare prepared with love by Chef Christyn Johnson
5:30
Children return from Wildlife Camp
meet parents in TBH entry
6:30—7:30
Aph Ko, Afrofuturism and Black Veganism: Towards a New Citizenship 30 min break
8—9 pm
Zarna Joshi, Colonization and Animals
rest well. if you are lodging offsite, please plan to carpool to and from the venue!
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE • SATURDAY MORNING, 3/26
Breakfast
7:45—8:45
Art Workshop
7—8 am
tea and coffee available by 6:30
with Lee Ann in TBH
7:45—8:45
Trail Walk
with Robert gather at bell
brief transition
A. Breeze Harper
9—10
Uprooting White Fragility: Intersectional Anti-Racism within the Ethical Foodscape
9
Children depart for camp from bell
30 minute break. refreshments served at 10.
10:30—12
“A” workshop presentations (main stage)
a series of brief introductions to topics being covered at 2:45 pm
1. Dawn Moncrief, Global Hunger and the Vegan Advantage: Consumption vs. population 2. Shaila Tenorio & Marnie Jackson-Jones, Beloved: Finding common ground with non-human animals 4. lauren Ornelas, Food Justice: Farm worker rights, human rights abuses, and food access issues
12—1 pm
Lunch
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE • SATURDAY AFTERNOON, 3/26 “B” workshop presentations (main stage)
1—2:30 pm
a series of brief introductions to topics being covered at 4:15 pm
1. Brenda Sanders, Intersectionality in Community-Based Movements 2. Pax Ahimsa Gethen, Welcoming Gender Diversity 3. Lisa George, Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Ethnocentrism in Vegan and AR Movements: Microagression, macro-
transgressions, and moving beyond the mediated narrative
4. Gerardo Tristan & Rocio Cavazos, The Non White Elephant in the Room: The Lack of POC Presence in the Modern AR Movement, and How to Fix It LOCATIONS KEY: TBH=Thomas Berry Hall. SANC=Sanctuary. FH=Farmhouse Living Room. DR=Main Dining Room.
2:45—4
“A” concurrent workshops (choose one) TBH with Dawn
1. Global Hunger
4:15–5:30
SANC with Shaila & Marnie
DR with Lauren
2. Beloved:
4. Food Justice
Common Ground
brief transition
“B” concurrent workshops (choose one)
TBH with Brenda
Community Movements
SANC with Pax
Gender Diversity
FH with Lisa
Ethnocentrism & Islamophobia
DR with Gerardo & Rocio
Elephant in The Room
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE • SATURDAY EVENING, 3/26
5
Children return from camp
5:30—6:30
Dinner
6:30—7:30
Brian Henning, Toward 2050: The Projected Costs and Possible Alternatives to Industrial Livestock
30 minute break.
8—9 pm
Sharing our stories: conversation and art
hosted by Lee Ann and Marnie; introductory poem by Megan
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE • SUNDAY MORNING, 3/27
7—8 am
Breakfast
tea and coffee available by 6:30
choose one:
7:45—8:45
Art Workshop with Lee Ann in TBH
7:45—8:45
Trail Walk
with Robert gather at bell
brief transition
9—10
Carol Adams,The Sexual Politics of Meat
9—12
Kids’ Art Workshop in dining room
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE • SUNDAY, 3/27, CONTINUED 30 minute break; refreshments served at 10
10:30—12
Will Tuttle, The Liberating Power of Non-Violence
Lunch
Welcoming the children
12—1 pm 1—1:30
introductory poem by Megan Hollingsworth; presentation of artwork by Wildlife Camp participants
1:30—2:30
Closing circle
hosted by the full staff, facilitation, and volunteer team with poetry by Megan Hollingsworth
post-conference interlude, garden tour optional
2:30—3:30
Westgarden tour hosted by Abigail
PUBLIC POST-CONFERENCE PRESENTATION • SUNDAY, 3/27
3:30—5 pm
Howard Lyman, Nature Does Not Negotiate: Large-Scale Animal Agriculture as a Leading Driver of Climate Change
SPEAKERS Carol Adams Carol J. Adams is an American writer, feminist, and animal
rights advocate. She is the author of several books, including The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (1990) and The Pornography of Meat (2004), focusing in particular on what she argues are the links between the oppression of women and that of non-human animals. She has published around 100 articles or entries in journals, books, magazines, and encyclopedias on vegetarianism, animal rights, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. She was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2011.
Rocío Cavazos Rocío is Finance Director of FaunAccion. Rocío was born
in Monterrey, Mexico and has lived in New York City for 18 years.Throughout her childhood, her daily interaction with animals of various species that were rescued and adopted by her family developed in her a profound appreciation for them, and led her to respect and value all species with whom we share our planet. She is vegan and supports many organizations in the animal rights movement. Her professional focus is in the field of social and environmental investments with the mission of improving the living conditions of low-income communities in developing countries.
Lisa George Lisa is an antiauthoritarian activist and sociologist whose areas
of specialization include the Sociology of Education, Race and Ethnicity, and Social Inequality. She writes, teaches, and speaks about foodshed issues, sports, community engagement, activism, and social change. “One of the only ways to overcome the profit and consumption driven norm that’s so prevalent and destructive in our society is: to share our stories, food, fears, hopes, daily struggles and triumphs with the people around us. It’s through our day-to-day interactions that we build familiarity and transformational common understanding . . . ”
Pax Ahimsa Gethen Pax is a queer black trans activist, blogger, and
photographer. Assigned female at birth, Pax legally and medically transitioned to male in the year 2014 at the age of 43, but identifies as agender and uses gender-neutral pronouns (they/them/their). Pax writes about gender and social justice issues, with a particular focus on cissexism (oppression of transgender and nonbinary people) and speciesism (oppression of non-human animals). They photograph primarily performing arts and other events and live in San Francisco with their partner Ziggy. They both enjoy vegan cooking and music making; Pax sings and plays piano and electric bass.
A. Breeze Harper Breeze is a diversity strategist and analyst with Crit-
ical Diversity Solutions and the founder of the Sistah Vegan Project. She has a PhD in Social Science with emphasis on leveraging diversity challenges for social impact. She created and edited the ground-breaking anthology, Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak On Food, Identity, Health, and Society. Her most recently published book, Scars: A Black Lesbian Experience in Rural White New England (Sense Publishers 2014) interrogates how systems of oppression and power impact the life of the only Black teenager living in an all white and working class rural New England town.
SPEAKERS Brian Henning Brian, Professor of Philosophy and Env. Studies at Gonza-
ga, authored Standing in Livestock’s Long Shadow. His most recent book, Riders in the Storm: Ethics in an Age of Climate Change, assesses the challenges of climate change through an interdisciplinary study, examining the basic scientific, political, economic, and moral dimensions through philosophical ethics. “If human culture continues on its present course and allows ten to one hundred species to go extinct every day, not only do we lose the beauty achieved by the individuals that perish, but, by weakening the harmony of the whole, we diminish the depth of intensity possible for every individual within that system.”
Marnie Jackson-Jones Marnie is the founder of Interspecies &
Intersectional Justice and coordinator of the 2016 Intersectional Justice Conference at the Whidbey Institute. She has been a vegetarian since age 8 and vegan since age 14 because of her friendships with, and empathy for, non-human animals. Her workshop, with Shaila Tenorio, will focus on stories of encounters with non-human animals— what they teach us about ourselves, our world, and the animals with whom we share our lives. Marnie is a non-profit communications manager, writer, and photographer who lives on Whidbey with her three daughters and 12 non-human family members.
pattrice jones Pattrice, a cofounder of VINE Sanctuary,
works within an ecofeminist understanding of the interconnection of all life and the intersection of all forms of oppression. VINE welcomes and works to facilitate alliances among animal, environmental, and social justice activists. Pattrice is an inspiring ecofeminist educator, writer, speaker, and activist, speaking and writing on subjects such as the intersections of racism, sexism, speciesism, homophobia, and the exploitation of the environment. She is the author of Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies (Lantern, 2007).
Zarna Joshi Zarna is a Seattle-area writer and a climate activist with People
and Planet, Backbone Campaign, Women of Color Speak Out, ShellNo Action Council, Rising Tide Seattle, and Earthship Seattle. She was a keynote speaker at the Whidbey Institute’s 2015 Salish Sea Bioneers Conference. She is a writer, public speaker, and storyteller and has published books about Hindu spirituality, self-examination, and cross-cultural understanding. “Rather than just talk about dismantling the system, we also have to talk about building the future.” Zarna was a keynote speaker at the Whidbey Institute’s 2015 Salish Sea Bioneers Conference.
Aph Ko Aph is a blogger, performer, vegan, and indie digital media producer;
creator of the comedy web-series “Black Feminist Blogger”; and PR Consultant for the documentary film “Always in Season” which explores the legacy of lynching in communities grappling with how best to move forward. Aph is on the editorial board for the F Bomb and writes about intersectionality, black feminism, and veganism on her website Aphroism. Aph received the Anti-Racist Vegan Change-Maker of the Year award during the 2015 Sistah Vegan Conference, “The Vegan Praxis of Black Lives Matter: Challenging Neoliberal Whiteness While Building Anti-Racist Solidarity Among Vegans of Color and Allies.”
SPEAKERS Dawn Moncrief Dawn is the founding director of A Well-Fed World (a veg-
an hunger relief and animal protection organization). She has been a social justice advocate for more than 20 years. She has two master’s degrees from The George Washington University: one in International Relations, the other in Women’s Studies, both focusing on economic development. Her work highlights the ways in which high levels of meat consumption in the U.S. and globally exacerbate global hunger, especially for women and children. She also draws attention to the negative consequences of animal agriculture on climate change and the deceptiveness of “humane” marketing.
lauren Ornelas lauren is the founder/director of Food Empowerment
Project (F.E.P.), a vegan food justice nonprofit seeking to create a more just world by helping consumers recognize the power of their food choices. F.E.P. works in solidarity with farm workers, advocates for chocolate not sourced from the worst forms of child labor, and focuses on access to healthy foods in communities of color and low-income communities. While lauren was the director of Viva!USA, she investigated factory farms and ran consumer campaigns. She served as campaign director with the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
Brenda Sanders Brenda is the Community Engagement Specialist for A Well-
Fed World and Executive Director of Better Health, Better Life (BHBL). She is also a founding member of the PEP Foods Collective and Co-Director of Open the Cages Alliance (OTCA). Through BHBL, Brenda runs the Eating for Life program, teaching people in low-income communities how to live a healthier, more holistic lifestyle. With OTCA, she co-organizes the Vegan Living Program. As a Zero Waste Community Organizer with Energy Justice Network, Brenda fights environmental racism by working to shut down polluters that negatively impact low-income communities of color. Brenda also co-created Vegan SoulFest.
Shaila Yovan Tenorio Shaila is a self-taught artist and advocate for
animals and wilderness. Shaila sees the Creator’s love come through the wild places on our planet, and through the animals that share the Earth with us. Her art invites the viewer to a deepening understanding of animalse. Shaila’s relationship with Coyote, an American Mustang, has led her into an inquiry into how the displacement of the mustang in the American west parallels her own childhood experience as the child of immigrants. Her workshop will invite participants to share their own stories of transformative relationships with non-human animals.
Gerardo Tristan Gerardo is the director and founder of FaunAcción,
an organization dedicated to empowering a Mexican activist community working on interconnected issues of social justice and animal liberation across Mexico. He has been campaigning, speaking, and writing at the local, national, and international levels on issues of speciesism, animal rights, and veganism since 1993. He is currently active in in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives with a canine-human family including his husband—the writer, literary critic, scholar, and jazz musician Dr. Craig Womack—and their canine rescue babies, Wotko, Steven, Thelonious and Eldon.
SPEAKERS Will Tuttle Will wrote The World Peace Diet, which has been published in over 15 languages; is a recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award and the Empty Cages Prize; edited Circles of Compassion, a book on the intersectionality of social justice issues; and has created several wellness and advocacy training programs. Will’s Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, focused on educating intuition and altruism in adults, and he has taught college courses in creativity, humanities, mythology, religion, and philosophy. A former Zen monk and a Dharma Master in the Korean Zen tradition, as well as a 35-year vegan, he is devoted to cultural healing and awakening.
VOLUNTEERS & STAFF Thomas Arthur
Kimi Hoover
Resident Caretaking
Parking Attendance
Charles Conatzer
Michael Hoover
Videography
Parking Attendance
Grace Ford
Abigail Lazarowski
Volunteer Coordination
Garden Tour
Dylan Forest
Dan Mahle
Staging
Audio/Visual Technology
Joan Forest
Robert Mellinger
Shuttle Driving
Trail Tours
Holly Girouard
Vanessa Molano
Childcare
Videography
Max Girouard
Megan Murphy
Welcoming
Welcoming & Childcare
Oliver Girouard
Michelle Young
Childcare Assistance
Photography
ARTISTS & EDUCATORS Kelsi Franzen, Wildlife Mini Camp Mentor Kelsi is an experienced educator, naturalist mentor and fourth generation Whidbey Island native who holds a deeply embedded passion for this place. Her greatest passion is to inspire students to connect with nature and their communities through acts of stewardship. She considers herself a creator with an adventurous spirit.
Megan Hollingsworth, Visiting Poet Megan is a mother and founder/creative director at ex·tinc·tion wit·ness, a collaborative art project that honors chronic disenfranchised grief and celebrates regenerative collaborations inspired by unnecessary, devastating loss. ex·tinc·tion wit·ness produces short poetic films and electronic posts exploring how other beings shape human story.
Lisa Kois, Wildlife Mini Camp Mentor Lisa is a founder of the Calyx School, the 347 acre classroom at South Whidbey State Park. She is an advocate for children and nature, and is passionate about connecting children with their earth home. She considers herself a student of the natural world, and loves learning with and from children, including her daughter.
Children’s Art Mentor Bio pending
Shaila Tenorio, Visiting Artist Shaila is a self-taught artist whose expression is inspired by wilderness places, travel, and animals she has known. She writes that some of God’s most powerful channels of love come through the wild places of our planet and the animals that share it with us. She’ll be displaying a selection of original artwork created for the conference.
Lee Ann Thill, Adults’ Art Mentor Lee Ann is an artist and therapist who will be offering art workshops Saturday and Sunday morning. She has been providing art psychotherapy to people of all ages for more than 15 years and is committed to making creative expression accessible and fulfilling to everyone.
FACILITATORS Marnie Jackson-Jones Marnie has been the Whidbey Institute’s
communications manager since July 2013. She’s a writer, photographer, and animal rights advocate. She founded the Interspecies & Intersectional Justice program in 2015. When she’s not at the Whidbey Institute, you can find her doing vegan advocacy, playing outside with her daughters, mules, rats, goat, cat, and dogs, or waxing poetic about her four-legged family members. Her best friend is a rescued dairy cow.
Francis Janes Francis manages the Social Justice (JUST) Program for the
International Living Future Institute and is a current board member of iLEAP. Francis has served on the boards of Pigs Peace Sanctuary, the Whidbey Institute, ToastMasters, and EarthSave International. He volunteers for organizations such as the YMCA, Washington CASH, NHabitat for Humanity, and Food Lifeline. Francis is also passionate about helping people understand the importance of transitioning to a plant-based diet.
Aubrie Keegan Aubrie Rose Keegan brings their holistic and hands-on
approach through a lifetime of work, education and love of nonhuman animals and uses it as a driving force for their activism. They are engaged in the animal rescue and liberation movements, but will still take the time to educate the public about various social and environmental issues. Aubrie served as a chairperson for the Whidbey Island Rescue Fund, and is the founder and director of Vegans of Whidbey Island.
Christopher-Sebastian McJetters Longtime vegan and
social justice advocate Christopher-Sebastian McJetters divides his time between London and New York City. A copyeditor by profession, Sebastian is a staff writer at Vegan Publishers, part-time lecturer on speciesism at Columbia University, and social media manager of Peace Advocacy Network. His intentions focus on examining the complex relationships between animal violence, environmental racism, and classism.
Steve Rothboeck Steve retired as a Planner with NAS Whidbey Island.
He is a member of The Climate Reality Project and has given 50 presentations in the community on climate change and the Sixth Great Extinction episode. He has an MS degree in Resource Geography, and a BS degree in Earth Science, both from Oregon State University. No cause arouses more passion in him than the need to eliminate the abuse of farm animals.
Lindsey Soffes Lindsey is an animal rescuer, certified animal cruelty
investigator, and abolitionist vegan who works in operations at a no-kill animal shelter based outside of Seattle. She holds a J.D. from William & Mary School of Law and a Graduate Certificate in Animal Policy and Advocacy from Humane Society University; is a previous board member of the Animal Hospice, End-of-Life, and Palliative Care Project (AHELP); and currently sits on the board of the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project.
Lee Ann Thill Lee Ann is an art therapist and licensed counselor with a pri-
vate practice in Philadelphia. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Expressive Therapies at Lesley U. Her research and practice interests include developing a model of art therapy practice rooted in critical animal theory, graphic and narrative themes that emerge in the visual expression of people who are vegan, and the use of arts-based expression to promote empathy and advance intersectional justice.
KEY SPONSORS A Well-Fed World A hunger relief and animal protection organization chipping away at two of the world’s most immense, unnecessary and unconscionable forms of suffering—the suffering of people hungry from lack of food, and the suffering of animals used and abused for food. They have a positive, practical, and action-led approach that produces immediate assistance for those in need and structural change for lasting results. In addition to their direct programs, they raise funds, partner with, and promote innovative, highly effective projects that strengthen plant-based feeding & farming programs, farm animal care & rescue efforts, and vegan advocacy & community building. We thank A Well-Fed World for their substantial strategic as well as financial support.
Vegan Outreach A nonprofit organization working to end violence towards animals. Vegan Outreach seeks a future when sentient animals are no longer exploited as commodities. VO focuses on exposing the suffering of farmed animals through the widespread distribution of their booklets promoting plant-based eating. VO was founded in 1993 to move society away from eating animals and their products.
SUPPORTING SPONSORS
CONTRIBUTING SPONSORS
OTHER SPONSORS
conference videography made possible through the generosity of Photon Factory and A Well-Fed World
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Our speakers and facilitators work with a wide variety of animal rights, social justice, and environmental organizations. A few are listed below: Funcrunch Critical Diversity Solutions About Dr. A. Breeze Harper Sistah Vegan VINE Sanctuary Backbone Campaign Women of Color Speak Out Aphro-Ism Black Vegans Rock A Well-Fed World Food Empowerment Project Better Health, Better Life Open the Cages Alliance Energy Justice Network Faun Accion The Advocacy of Veganism Society The Whidbey Institute ex·tinc·tion wit·ness Vegan Outreach Northwest Animal Rights Network VegFund Int’l. Living Future’s JUST Program Pigs Peace Sanctuary Moonstone Farm Sanctuary EarthSave International Vegans of Whidbey Island Vegan Publishers Climate Reality Project Peace Advocacy Network The 300 Pound Vegan Earthling Liberation Kollective
funcrunch.org/blog criticaldiversitysolutions.com abreezeharper.com sistahvegan.com vine.bravebirds.org backbonecampaign.org facebook.com/wocspeakout aphro-ism.com blackvegansrock.com awfw.org foodispower.org bhblnow.com openthecages.org energyjustice.net faunaccion.com abolitionistvegansociety.org whidbeyinstitute.org extinctionwitness.org veganoutreach.org narn.org vegfund.org living-future.org/just pigspeace.org moonstonefarmsanctuary.blogspot.com earthsave.org facebook.com/vegansofwhidbeyisland veganpublishers.com climaterealityproject.org peaceadvocacynetwork.org the300poundvegan.com humanrightsareanimalrights.com
whidbeyinstitute.org/intersectional-justice facebook.com/interspecies-intersectional-justice Marnie Jones, program coordinator: 360.341.3403,
[email protected]
