Session Type(s): Plenary
Starts: Thursday, Jun. 7 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Jun. 7 9:00 PM (Eastern)
We’ll kick off Netroots Nation with an opening keynote from New York’s Attorney General and the man the American Prospect calls The Man Banks Fear Most, Eric Schneiderman. Other speakers will include: Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, NEA’s Lily Eskelsen, and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. The evening is MC’d by Baratunde Thurston.
Storified by Netroots Nation · Thu, Jun 07 2012 21:35:03
Baratunde is a politically-active, technology-loving comedian from the future. He co-founded the black political blog, Jack & Jill Politics and served as Director of Digital for The Onion. His book, How To Be Black, is a New York Times Best Seller and was published by Harper in February 2012. He is the founder of Cultivated Wit, a company that uses the power of comedy to make the world better and more understandable.
Other sessions: Test Screen Your Video, Laughing Liberally, "How To Be Black" - A reading/signing/blackening with Baratunde Thurston
Lily Eskelsen García is president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union. Lily began her career in education as a school lunch lady and now leads a professional association of three million educators — she is the first Latina and first former Teacher of the Year to lead the NEA.
Other sessions: Bully: From Movie to Movement
Bill McKibben, a well known environmental author and activist, is the founder of 350.org, an international climate change campaign. 350.org is named for the safe level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million. In 2011, McKibben helped lead the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline. The author of 13 best-selling books, McKibben been called “the world’s best green journalist” by Time Magazine and “the nation’s leading environmentalist” by the Boston Globe. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta and Rolling Stone.
Other sessions: Handcuffs, Conventional Wisdom and Dirty Oil: Activism’s Big Win Against the Keystone XL Pipeline
Cecile Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and social and economic justice, and a co-founder of Supermajority — a new organization fighting for gender equity. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Make Trouble. As President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund for 12 years, Richards worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care and to build a healthier and safer world for women and young people. After starting her career as a labor organizer, working with women earning the minimum wage, she went on to start her own grassroots organizations, and later served as Deputy Chief of Staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2011 and 2012, she was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Richards is a frequent speaker and commentator on politics and progressive issues. She and her husband, Kirk Adams, have three children and live in New York City.
Eric T. Schneiderman was elected the 65th Attorney General of New York State in 2010. As the State’s highest ranking law enforcement officer, Schneiderman has worked on areas including public integrity, economic justice, social justice and environmental protection. As Attorney General, Schneiderman has stood up to powerful interests on behalf of everyday New Yorkers. He has fought for a comprehensive investigation of misconduct in the mortgage market, and for a fair settlement for homeowners that holds banks accountable for their role in the foreclosure crisis, provides meaningful relief to homeowners and investors, and allows a full airing out of the facts to ensure that abuses of this scale never happen again. Before becoming A.G., Schneiderman served in the state Senate where led the effort to reform the draconian Rockefeller drug laws and enacted the toughest law in the nation to root out fraud against taxpayers.
Angel Taveras is Mayor of Providence. Taveras went from Head Start to Harvard and is making tough choices to position Providence for a progressive, prosperous future.