Supporting Activists on the Frontlines Here and Abroad
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Friday, Jul. 17 12:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Friday, Jul. 17 1:15 PM (Eastern)
Tear gas from the inner cities to Palestine; the “Happy” dance from Ukraine to Taiwan; LGBT rights from Uganda to Utah. Movements around the world are connecting organically and helping each other, proving how ever-connected are our fights for social justice. We’re organically learning from each other’s local efforts while creating global reach. But we haven’t quite figured out how to do this in more intentional ways that will help us reduce duplication of effort and enable us to evolve collective action for the 21st century. On this panel meet activists from around the world who have successfully built lasting community while reaching global masses. And, in the process, they’ve connected their local efforts to much larger, global fights. Each story starts to reveal a system of learning that both mobilizes more people while authentically supporting the courageous activists on the frontlines of change.
Moderator
Erin Mazursky
Erin brings over a decade of experience in movement-building, digital technology and advocacy to her work, having worked with social and political movements around the world, including in Turkey, India, and Albania.
Before starting Rhize, Erin worked at Purpose, a social enterprise that incubates and launches global social movements. Prior to this, Erin worked for President Obama’s 2008 election campaign and went on to serve as the Youth Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she helped author the first global policy on youth development and made youth a central part of the Agency’s broader development efforts. Erin began her career as a youth advocate as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of STAND, a leading organization in the anti-genocide advocacy movement that became one of the largest student organizations in the country, with over 800 high school and college chapters nationwide.
Panelists
Trinh Nguyen
Trinh is an organizer for Viet Tan, a grassroots organization that’s part of the democracy movement in Vietnam. As part of Viet Tanʼs Internet Freedom Program, she works to increase Vietnamese netizens’ access to anti-censorship, digital security, and circumvention tools. She is also a coach for Rhize (rhize.org), a startup working to build capacity for global peaceful movements and civil resistances. She has a decade of training and campaign experience in reproductive justice, anti gender-based violence, and nonviolent strategies.
Nora Rahimian
Nora Rahimian is a code-switcher and community-builder with over 10 years of experience using the arts as tools for peacebuilding and social justice. In 2014, she co-founded #CultureFix, a global collaborative network of artists and change makers who use arts and culture to create social change in communities around the world. She also manages Hip Co Artist of the Year and Anti-Rape Ambassador for Liberia, Takun J. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @norarahimian.